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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