FC Gutersloh 2000

FC Gutersloh 2000 is a German association football club based in Gutersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

The club was formed in 1978 out of the merger of the football sides of Sport Vereinigung Arminia Gutersloh and Deutsche Jugendkraft Gutersloh in the hopes that the new club would be more successful than its un-storied predecessors. The union was a bit of a surprise because of some ill-will that had existed between the clubs going back to Arminia's refusal to share their stadium facility with DJK, and so make it possible for them to play in the Regionalliga in the late 1960s.

Both sides had bounced back and forth between the second and third division through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. After their merger they settled down as a mid-table Amateur Oberliga Westfalen (III) club, with a couple of poor seasons leading to relegation to Verbandsliga Westfalen (IV), but always followed by immediate promotion. The club managed to play their way into the 2. Bundesliga in 1996, on the strength of a Regionalliga West/Sudwest title, for a three-year stay, but in 1999 were crushed by their 7 million DM debt. The club was dissolved by a court and all its results for the season annulled.

The club was re-organized in 2000 and took up play in the Oberliga Westfalen (IV). In January 2010, it was announced that plans were in the works for a merger with SC Wiedenbruck 2000, but the proposal failed. On 27 October 2013, the Gutersloh side suffered a record defeat losing 5:8 to SpVgg Erkenschwick: the 13 goals scored matched the total of a 1985–86 match that saw DJK Hellweg Lutgendortmund down Sportfreunde Siegen 7:6. In 2014, the club was overshadowed by rumours of around its precarious financial situation and the prospect voluntary withdrawal from play. New merger talks took place with SC Wiedenbruck and SC Verl, but these ended when the club avoided bankruptcy in October 2014 under new management.

Since 2012 the club p