The 
History of Eifelpower

Here you are going to learn something about the history of the VFL Borussia-Mönchengladbach fanclub which is the third oldest, active fan club in the Gladbach scene.

First, a little geography:

The community of the Maifeld and its capital Polch are located in the Eastern Eifel, a low mountain range in southwestern Germany between Koblenz and the legendary Nürburgring.
So, we are 140 km away from the holy Bökelberg, the mountain where the Gladbach stadion is located.

 

 And that is how it all began:
After the youth team of the football club VfB Polch had managed to play its second national league match on the Bökelberg and got finally infected with the Borussia virus, the idea to found a fan club was born. This, however, was delayed a little. 

On 1 October 1980 this idea was eventually realized. Three Borussia fans met at Johnny’s house (at that time he was still called Thomas since he hadn’t yet discovered his friend Johnny Walker after which he was named later on) and founded the

 Youth Fanclub Polch Maifeld

 
The name „Youth Fanclub“ was due to the fact that its members were at the tender age of 13 and 14. After a while „youth“ was crossed out (guess why???) and the name „Eifelpower“ was added. The final name is

Polch–Maifeld
Eifelpower 1980

Over the first two years our main activities were meeting at „Johnny’s Borussia room“ (who gradually made the acquaintance of his above-mentioned friend) and dedicating our time to wild table-football orgies while listening to the national league matches on the radio. 

Once in a while we managed to convince one of our fathers to drive us to a Borussia match. From 1983 onwards, as more and more older members have joined us, we’ve become a proper fan club.

We procured club souvenirs such as jerseys and badges. The Eifelpower Borussen have hardly missed any occasion to support their players at matches in Germany and abroad ever since.  

Foto: The Kop in Liverpool

 
In 1986 the fanclub football team, which has taken part in numerous tournaments and friendship matches against other fan clubs and amateur teams,  was born.

The showcase in our club pub „Zum Stern“ in Polch, which is fully packed with our cups, provides proof to our successes.
Among our greatest sporting triumphs are the winning of the German Championship of the Borussia fan club in 1988 and achieving second place in 1993. Moreover we won the Supporter Cup (a cup for the Borussia fan clubs) in 1996 and achieved second place in 1997. 

-By the way: We are always happy to receive invitations to tournaments-

 In 1987 we first issued our fanclub newspaper „Eifelpower Aktuell“. Despite the good acclaim we got for it, we only managed to issue it twice before Jonny, our editor,  decided to knock about some alcoholic places all over Europe, together with his „best friend“ (see above). This newspaper was shortly reanimated in 1990 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the club.  We might rouse ourselves to issue another anniversary magazine at our 20th anniversary (if we manage to carry on till then).

 The number of members usually differs between 6 and 25 people. In the last few years our club has crossed the borders of the Maifeld and the Eifel so that we count 60 members at present (in Dec.2002). 

Apart from the members from Polch and Maifeld, the Lahnsteiners – Lahnstein is a little town near Koblenz, where the river Lahn flows into the Rhine - are the second-biggest group in our Eifelpower club. We also have outlets in Koblenz and other towns in its surroundings, such as Weißenthurm, Mayen, Kottenheim, Brohl, Sinzig, Bad Hönningen and Herschwiesen in the Hunsrück. 

Apart from the oldies who have been with us since the very first years after our foundation, there have been more and more young Borussia fans joining our club recently, so that the average age is somewhere between 17 and 45 years. 

That’s why we don’t have to worry about running out of off-springs, and we hope that our fanclub song 
"Ist das Loch auch klein"("Even if the hole is tiny ...") will be heard in the fan scene for a long time!!!

This translation was sponsored by A-B-C World Wide Translations