On 1 January 1905 276 clubs were members of the DFB, by the end of the year that figure had risen to 433. Only 105 of those had a fenced ground and were therefore be able to charge admission fees.

The majority of clubs were not organized at all and just played random games, while some others were members of local associations not affiliated to the DFB or any of their regional associations.

re 1. FSV Mainz 05 there are errors as well, but they don`t want to correct them (like several others) - 1. FC Hassia 1905 Mainz was founded in 1905 as a football club, two years later FC Hermannia 1907 Mainz was formed (so both were football clubs), both merged in the summer of 1912 to form 1. Mainzer FC Hassia-Hermannia but changed the name to 1. Mainzer FV 1905 in October of the same year.

There was a FC 1904 Mainz appearing in the DFB club register for 1904, 1905 and 1907 - FC Viktoria 1905 Mainz (in the register for 1907-1910) which got expelled in 1911 and some more in later years. The oldest club was FC 1903 Mombach (listed 1907 - 1914 in the pre-WW I register). Nearly the whole of today`s southwest (states of Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland) with the exception of the Koblenz area, which was part of the West, belonged to the South (Verband Süddeutscher Fußball-Vereine - name change to Süddeutscher Fußball-Verband in 1914).

In those days clubs were not accepted (if they applied for membership of course) straight away, but usually after a few years in existance (depending on the regional F.A.). 1. FC Hassia 1905 Mainz appeared
in the club register from 1907 - 1912 and FC Hermannia 1907 Mainz from 1908 - 1912. Countless clubs never joined any of the regional F.A. as they didn`t like their strict rules and high membership fees.

When the german ports were under a blockade in WW I and the grain supply from the Ukraine was cut off, most football pitches which where mainly owned by the local council where turned into patato fields and this did continue after the war as food was in short supply and quite a few people were starving. Consequently countless mergers took place up and down the country as clubs had lost the playing pitch. So another merger took also place in Mainz, SV 1908 Mainz merged with 1. Mainzer FV 1905 to form 1. FSV Mainz 05. During the Nazi years another round of mergers were forced on clubs as smaller towns and villages were only allowed to have one football club, bigger cities one for each Borough. On 18 October 1. FSV Mainz 05 merged with Reichsbahn SV Mainz to Reichsbahn SV Mainz 05. After WW II the club reformed in late 1945 as 1. FSV Mainz 05.

And, quite a few clubs existed in Germany before 1905, few have survived for whatever reason, but some are still around. B(erliner)FC Germania 1888 the oldest german club, Hamburger FC 1888 (renamed in Hamburger SV 1888 in 1914), B(erliner)FC Viktoria 89, B(eliner)FC Stern 1889 (now Stern Britz 1889), B(erliner)FC Vowärts 1890 (later SpVgg. Blau Weiss 90 after merging with BFC Union 1892 - reformed as SV Blau Weiss Berlin after going bancrupt ), B(erliner) FC Alemannia 90 (now Alemannia-Wacker), Altonaer FC 1893 and SC Victoria 1895 in Hamburg, Eintracht Braunschweig 1895, FC Oldenburg 1897 (now VfB 1897 Oldenburg), FC Hannover 96 (foundet as a rugby club merger with BV Hannovera 1898 to form SV Hannover 96), Werder Bremen 1899, FC Osnabrück 1899 one of the merger clubs to form VfL Osnabrück, Wittener FC 1892 the oldest club in the West, Dortmunder SC 1895 (foundet as Dortmunder FC 1895), Karlsruher FV 1891, Phönix 1894 Karlsruhe (after several mergers now Karlsruher SC), 1. FC Hanau 1893, FC Germania 1894 Frankfurt (now VfL Germania), Eintracht 1899 Frankfurt (merger FC Kickers 1899 and FC Victoria 1899), FSV 1899 Frankfurt, 1. Casseler BV Sport 1894, FV Hassia 1892 oder 1893 Kassel + FC Union 1893 Kassel = Kasseler FV 1895 later Kurhessen and Hessen Kassel, Stuttgarter Kickers 1899, VfR Mannheim 1896 (merger FG 1896 and VfB Union 1897), 1. FC Pforzheim 1896, Freiburger FC 1897, VfR Heilbronn 1896 (FG 1896), MTV 1879 München (football from 1897), 1860 München (football from 1899), FC Bavaria 1899 München, Rostocker FC 1895 just to name a few pre-1905 clubs. All these are football clubs (incl. the two gymnast clubs from München forming a so called Sports or Play dept.. Rugby goes back even further, with probably the first club being founded in Frankfurt in 1876.

The qualifying for January’s African cup was similar, with 15 teams qualifying from 12 groups!

What can be said is that African Football is becoming more stable with only one of the 47 teams withdrawing from the groups for CAN 2008. Perhaps there is more demand than in the past for group games for the smaller teams.