SpVgg Greuther Furth II

The SpVgg Greuther Furth II is the reserve team of the German association football club SpVgg Greuther Furth from the city of Furth, Bavaria.

Since 2008, it plays in the tier four Regionalliga Sud. The team plays as an under-23 side as the rules on using under-23 players in the first and second teams are less strict.

History

The side originated as the reserve team of the SpVgg Furth, a club that merged with TSV Vestenbergsgreuth in 1996 to form the current SpVgg Greuther Furth. The side was known as SpVgg Furth Amateure or SpVgg Furth II, depending whether the first team was playing in professional football or not at the time.

Under the name of SpVgg Furth Amateure the side achieved promotion to the third division Amateurliga Bayern North in 1958 after a championship in the northern division of the 2nd Amateurliga Mittelfranken. The team lasted for only two seasons at this level, coming 12th in 1959 and last in the following year and being relegated back down.

The amateur team of SpVgg Furth was not a founding member of the Landesliga Bayern-Nord in 1963, unlike the second team of traditional rival 1. FC Nurnberg, and did not appear in the higher reaches of Bavarian football in the years to come.

With the decline of the senior team in the 1980s, which suffered at first relegation from the 2. Bundesliga in 1983, followed by another drop, from the Bayernliga to the Landesliga in 1987, the fortunes of the reserve side declined, too. When the senior team recovered, returning to the Bayernliga in 1991 and becoming a founding member of the new Regionalliga Sud in 1994, the reserve team improved, too. In 1994, the side earned promotion to the tier-five Bezirksoberliga Mittelfranken, having finished runners-up in the Bezirksliga Mittelfranken-Nord.

While in the Bezirksoberliga, the team changed its name to SpVgg Greuther Furth Amateure in 1996, after the merger and promotion of the senior team. It played as a top-level side in this league until 1999–2000, when a league ti