100,000 Borussia members! 💚

Borussia celebrates hitting the 100,000 member mark, becoming the fifth Bundesliga side and the seventh football team in Germany to reach this mark.

“The development of the past years and decades in this regard is enormous and we’re really pleased about that,” said Borussia’s chief executive Stephan Schippers. “When I came to Borussia in 1999, the club only had 4,500 members. At the time, 100,000 was an unimaginable figure. But even back 25 years ago, we had the goal of significantly increasing the number of members. We knew that Borussia is a family-friendly members club and that should be reflected in the membership figures.

To celebrate this milestone and to say thank you to all members for their support, there will be numerous events over the coming weeks. For example, the home games against VfB Stuttgart (Sunday, 14th January 2024, 17:30 CET) and FC Augsburg (Sunday, 21st January 2024, 17:30 CET) will be dedicated to the members. You can now also now pre-order products from an exclusive members collection online and there’ll be more exclusive offers in store for Borussia members in January. “We are very grateful to each and every member for their loyalty and support,” said managing director for sport Roland Virkus. “And we’re delighted to welcome every additional fan who makes an even clearer commitment to the club by becoming a member.”

VfL’s managing director for sport and communications Markus Aretz reiterated just how much it meant for a club to have so many members. “We’ve always said that our job is to motivate the many Gladbach fans across Germany to become members. It’s impressive that a huge amount of Gladbach supporters have become members when things have been tough, like when we were relegated from the Bundesliga in 1999, as a way of saying ‘Now more than ever’.” Since then, the number of members has continued to grow. It was even given an extra boost when Gladbach were relegated in 2011, as well as when the club returned to European football. In 2016, the number of members hit 75,000. Seven years later and the club has passed an even bigger milestone.

Many of Gladbach’s 100,000 members always have their membership card o them like a form of ID. “A lot of fans think it’s important to have something physical that proves that they’re a part of the Gladbach family,” said Aretz. There are many reasons to become a member – from being invited to the annual general assembly, to participating in member surveys, to having the FohlenEcho magazine delivered to your doorstep. This also includes discounts in the FohlenShop and FohlenWelt, one time free admission to FohlenWelt, the opportunity to reserve tickets, free entry for women’s and youth team games as well as the opportunity to participate in events such as FohlenClub – Der Talk. However, the most important reason is the love for Borussia and the cohesion between fellow Foals.

Background information

Borussia’s 100,000 members come from 46 different countries. Aside from Germany, most members are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. The average member is 38.74 years old and has been part of the club for 9.76 years. 2,141 members have the silver badge of honour for 25 years of membership, whilst 38 members are in possession of the golden badge of honour for 50 years of membership.