BV Borussia Dortmund is a German football club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia and one of the most successful clubs in German football. In addition to six German football championships and two DFB Pokal victories, Dortmund won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1966 (becoming the first German team to win a European title) and the UEFA Champions League in 1997.

Fortune smiled on them in 1993 with a run to the UEFA Cup final, which they lost 1–6 on aggregate to Juventus. In spite of this result, Borussia walked away with DM25 million under the prize money pool system in place at the time for German sides participating in the Cup. Cash flush, Dortmund was able to sign players who later brought them a string of honours through the rest of the 1990s. They won Bundesliga championships in 1995 and 1996 – with Matthias Sammer from the '96 side being named European Footballer of the Year.

In a memorable 1997 UEFA Champions League Final in Munich Dortmund faced a Juventus team featuring Zinedine Zidane. Karl-Heinz Riedle put Dortmund ahead finishing from Paul Lambert's cross. Riedle then made it 2 with a bullet header from a corner kick. In the second half Alessandro Del Piero pulled one back for Juve. Then 20 year old substitute and local boy Lars Ricken latched on to a through pass by Andreas Möller. Only sixteen seconds after coming on to the pitch Ricken chipped Angelo Peruzzi in the Juventus goal from over 20 yards with his first touch of the ball. With Zidane unable to make an impression against Lambert's marking Borussia lifted the trophy 3–1.

Borussia then went on to beat Brazilian club Cruzeiro 2–0 in the 1997 Intercontinental Cup Final.

t the turn of the millennium, Borussia Dortmund became the first – and so far the only – publicly traded club on the German stock market. Two years later they won their third Bundesliga title. The club had a remarkable run at the end of the season to overtake Bayer Leverkusen, securing the title on the final day. In the same season Borussia lost the final of the 2002 UEFA Cup to Dutch side Feyenoord.

Dortmund's fortunes have steadily declined since then. Poor financial management led to a heavy debt load and the sale of their Westfalenstadion ground. The situation was compounded by failure to advance in the 2003 Champions League when the team was eliminated on penalties in the qualifying rounds by Club Brugge. Borussia was again driven to the brink of bankruptcy in 2005, the original €11 value of its shares having plummeted by over 80% on the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Frankfurt Stock Exchange). The response to the crisis included a 20% pay cut to all players.

The team still plays at the leased Westfalenstadion, named after its home state of Westphalia. To raise capital, the stadium was renamed Signal Iduna Park, after a local insurance company, in 2006 under a sponsorship agreement that runs until 2011. The stadium is currently the largest football stadium in Germany with a capacity of 81,264 spectators, and hosted several matches in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including a semi-final. Borussia Dortmund enjoys the highest average attendance of any football club in Europe, at more than 80,000 per match (2004).

Current notables on the team roster include Alexander Frei, Sebastian Kehl, Roman Weidenfeller, Dedê, Nuri Sahin. The team suffered a miserable start to the 2005–06 season, but rallied to finish seventh. The club failed to gain a place in the UEFA Cup via the Fair Play draw. The club's management recently indicated that the club again showed a profit, however this was largely related to the sale of David Odonkor to Real Betis and Tomas Rosicky to Arsenal.

In the 2006–07 season, the club unexpectedly faced serious relegation trouble for the first time in years. The team went through three coaches and appointed Thomas Doll on 13 March 2007 after dropping to just one point above the relegation zone. Christoph Metzelder also left Borussia Dortmund on a free transfer.

In the 2007–08 season, the club has lost to many of the smaller clubs in the Bundesliga. This season was one of the worst in 20 years. Nevertheless they reached the DFB Pokal final against Bayern Munich where they lost 2–1 in extra time. The final appearance qualified Dortmund for the UEFA cup because Bayern already qualified for the Champions league.

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FC Bayern Munich (German: FC Bayern München) is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful club in German football, having won 21 German titles and 14 cups.

The club was founded in 1900 by eleven football players led by Franz John.Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1963. In the middle of the 1970s, the club had its period of greatest success, when the famous team led by Franz Beckenbauer won the European Cup three times in row (1974–76). In recent years they have been by far the most successful team in German football, winning seven of the last ten championships. The club's last international title was the Intercontinental Cup in 2001.

Since the beginning of the 2005–06 season, Munich plays its home games in the Allianz Arena. Previously the team had played for 33 years in the Olympic Stadium. The team colours are red and white, and the team crest shows the colours of Bavaria.
Bayern is a membership-based club and with more than 147,000 members. There are also more than 2,400 officially-registered fan clubs with about 177,000 members.[5] The club has other departments for chess, handball, basketball, gymnastics, bowling, table tennis, referees, and senior football with more than 1,100 active members from 1998–2004 Bayern were coached by Ottmar Hitzfeld.

In Hitzfeld's first season, Bayern won the Bundesliga and came close to winning the Champions League, losing 2–1 to Manchester United in injury time after leading for most of the match. The 1999–2000 season resulted in Bayern winning their third league and cup double. A third consecutive Bundesliga title followed in 2001, won in a finish on the final day of the league season. Days later, Bayern won the Champions League for the fourth time after a 25 year gap, defeating Valencia CF on penalties. The 2001–02 season began with a win in the International Cup, but ended trophyless otherwise. A season later Bayern won their fourth double, leading the league by a record margin.reign ended in 2004, with Bayern underperforming, including a cup defeat by second division Alemannia Aachen.

Felix Magath took over and led Bayern to two consecutive Doubles. Prior to the start of the 2005–06 season, Bayern moved from the Olympic Stadium to the new Allianz Arena, which the club shares with TSV 1860. On the field their performance in 2006–07 was erratic. Trailing in the league and having lost to Alemannia Aachen in the cup yet again, coach Magath was sacked shortly after the winter break.

Former Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld returned to Munich in January 2007, but Bayern finished the 2006–07 season fourth, thus failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade. Additional losses in the DFB Cup and the League Cup left the club with no honours for the season. For the 2007–08 season, Bayern Munich made drastic squad changes to help retool and rebuild. They signed a total of eight new players and sold, released or loaned out nine of their existing players. Luca Toni from ACF Fiorentina, Miroslav Klose from Werder Bremen and record signing Franck Ribery from Olympique Marseille headlined the signings. The new additions paid off, as the Reds went on to win the 2008 DFB-Pokal and the Bundesliga, being on top of the standings on every single week of play.

On January 11, 2008 it was announced that Jürgen Klinsmann would succeed Ottmar Hitzfeld as Manager on July 1, 2008. He signed a two year contract. During the first half of the 2008–09 Bundesliga season, Bayern got off to a rocky start, winning just two games until day six. Eventually Bayern finished the first round second to 1899 Hoffenheim. In the DFB-Pokal Bayern is amongst the last 8, playing their next game at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. In the Champions League Bayern is also amongst the last 16, after winning Group F in front of Olympique Lyonnais, ACF Fiorentina and Steaua Bucharest. They have faced Sporting Lisbon in the Round of 16 beating them 0–5 away from home and now seemed destined for the quater-finals of the Champions League.

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