CA Spora Luxembourg

History

Spora was founded in 1923 as an amalgam of Racing Club Luxembourg and Sporting Club Luxembourg, two of the leading lights of early Luxembourgish football. For the first seventeen years of existence, Spora would battle with FA Red Boys Differdange for ultimate ascendancy in Luxembourgish football. Although Red Boys won more trophies in this period, Spora picked up almost every piece of silverware that Red Boys didn't, with seven league titles and three Luxembourg Cups in just fifteen years.

During the German occupation of Luxembourg, the club played in the Gauliga Moselland under the name of Moselland Luxemburg.

After the Second World War, Spora continued to win titles (albeit less frequently than before). To its pre-war haul, the club added four more championships and won the Luxembourg Cup another five times. In 1956, Spora recorded one of the most celebrated European club results in Luxembourgish history, as it beat the West German champions, Borussia Dortmund.

In 2005, Spora merged with two other clubs from Luxembourg City, CS Alliance 01 and Union Luxembourg, to form Spora's modern incarnation, Racing FC Union Luxembourg.

Colours

The club colours were blue and yellow, in various combinations; for example, blue with a yellow hoop in the 1950s, and blue and yellow stripes in the 1990s.

Honours

• National Division
  • Winners (11): 1924–25, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1937–38, 1948–49, 1955–56, 1960–61, 1988–89
  • Runners-up (10): 1923–24, 1925–26, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1944–45, 1951–52, 1958–59, 1966–67, 1987–88
• Luxembourg Cup
  • Winners (8): 1927–28, 1931–32, 1939–40, 1949–50, 1956–57, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1979–80
  • Runners-up (8): 1924–25, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1933–34, 1944–45, 1962–63, 1986–87

As Racing Club Luxembourg

• National Division
  • Winners (1): 1909–10
• Luxembourg Cup
  • Winners (1): 1921–22

As Sporting Club Luxembourg

• National Division
  • Winners (2): 1910–11, 1918–19
  • Runners-up (3): 1911–12, 1913–14, 1915–16

European competitions

Spora qualified for UEFA European competition eleven times, winning twice. In 1956–57, the team surprisingly won the second leg of their tie against West German champions Borussia Dortmund 2–1, having lost the first leg 4–3 in Germany. Between the years of 1967-68 and 2021–22, when the away goals rule was used, Spora would have gone through. However, in 1956, a playoff match was used, and Spora were dispatched 7–0. Spora's second victory was in the 1964–65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, when it won its second leg against FC Basel 1–0, but went out nonetheless, having lost the first leg 2–0.

Matches

Managers

• Austria Josef Frühwirth (1938)
• Austria Willi Macho (1955–57)
• Hungary András Béres (1960–62)
• Luxembourg Carlo Weis (1987–88)
• Poland Wieslaw Chadakowski (1989–90)
• Germany Heinz Eimer (1991–92)
• Luxembourg Jean Fiedler (1992–93)
• France François Zdun (1993–97)
• Albania Florim Alijaj (2001–02)
• Germany Heinz Eimer (2002–04)
• France Jean Sabbatucci (2004)
• France Alain Happe (2004–05)
• Belgium Bernard Wégria (2005)

References

de:RFC Union Luxemburg#Spora Luxemburg

References

1. "Luxembourg – List of Foundation Dates".
2. "Spora Luxembourg".
3. "Where's my country?".
4. "Der C.A. Spora Luxembourg und seine Sternstunden".
5. "1991-92 CA Spora Luxembourg Home Kit".