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Football in Cologne

Cologne — Germany's fourth-largest city with just over a million residents on the Rhine, with a recorded history that stretches back to Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium — keeps its football identity at 1. FC Köln, founded in 1948 from the merger of Kölner BC 01 and SpVgg Sülz 07. The club play at the 50,000-capacity RheinEnergieStadion in the Müngersdorf district west of the centre, and were one of the sixteen founding members of the Bundesliga at its 1963 inaugural season. Köln's most successful era came in the 1970s under Hennes Weisweiler, including the 1977–78 league and DFB-Pokal double — the club's only Bundesliga title — and the famously raucous Karneval atmosphere remains the loudest in the league. Beyond football, the LANXESS Arena (20,000) hosts the bulk of Germany's biggest indoor concert tours and the annual Cologne marathon draws around 25,000 runners through the cathedral district. Cologne Carnival in February is among the largest street festivals in Europe. Köln Hauptbahnhof — beside the cathedral — connects to RheinEnergieStadion via S-Bahn and tram in about fifteen minutes.

Köln (Cologne) — Germany's fourth-largest city with a population of around 1.1 million on the Rhine — is home to 1. FC Köln, founded in 1948 and one of the founding members of the Bundesliga in 1963. The club's red-and-white billy goat mascot Hennes (Hennes IX is the current incumbent) is led around the pitch before every home match and is one of the oldest live-animal mascots in European football.

1. FC Köln play at the RheinEnergieStadion in the western Müngersdorf district — capacity 50,000, rebuilt in 2004 and one of the twelve venues for the 2006 World Cup. The four floodlit pylons at each corner are a Cologne skyline landmark visible from across the western city. The ground is reached by U-Bahn U1 to RheinEnergieStadion station (10 minutes from Köln Hauptbahnhof) or by S-Bahn S12 / S19 to Müngersdorf Technologiepark.

The Rheinisches Derby against Borussia Mönchengladbach is the season's defining match for FC Köln supporters and one of the older rivalries in German football, dating to the 1960s. Köln's matchday culture is Carnival-rooted — the club's home games on the weekend before Rosenmontag (Carnival Monday in February) are played in fancy dress by tens of thousands of supporters and have become one of the most photographed fixtures in the Bundesliga calendar. The club anthem Mer stonn zo dir, FC Kölle by the local Höhner band is sung before every match.

Köln itself runs the largest Carnival celebration in Germany (the week before Lent in February-March), Köln Pride in early July, and the Lanxess Arena — Germany's largest indoor arena at 20,000 capacity — hosts year-round arena tours, ice hockey (Kölner Haie) and handball. The annual Gamescom video games trade show in late August draws around 350,000 visitors to the Koelnmesse, making it one of the city's busiest event weeks.