SV Straelen

Sportverein 19 Straelen e.V., commonly known as simply SV 19 Straelen or SV Straelen, is a German association football club from Straelen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was established in 1919 and today has nearly 2,400 members with departments for athletics, badminton, basketball, gymnastics, handball, karate, swimming, and volleyball.

History

Long an unheralded local side, Sportverein Straelen first won promotion to the fourth tier Oberliga Nordrhein in 1996. The team finished just inside the relegation zone the following season, but avoided being sent down when the second team side of KFC Uerdingen, which had finished ahead of SV, folded due to the loss of the club's sponsor. After their retrieve, Straelen had a three-year stay at the Oberliga level that ended with a 17th-place finish in 2001. During this period the team earned an appearance in the opening round of the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) following a 1999 regional cup win.

SV returned to the Oberliga Nordrhein (IV) in 2006 on the strength of a Verbandsliga Niederrhein (V) title. In 2007–08, the club clearly missed the qualifying criteria for the new Oberliga Nordrhein-Westfalen, coming last in the league. In an odd twist, while the first team was relegated to the Verbandsliga, the reserve team achieved promotion from the Landesliga at the same time. For this reason, the club fields both teams in the same league in the 2008–09 season, a novelty at this level of play.

The club was promoted to the Regionalliga West after winning the Oberliga Niederrhein in 2017–18, but was relegated the following season.