Arminia Bielefeld 1970 - 71 Retro Football Shirt

The 1970s was a decade like no other in Arminia Bielefeld's history with the club experiencing dramatic and vastly contrasting fortunes from one season to the next.

Promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time arrived in 1970 only for the club to be implicated soon after in the Bundesliga wide match-fixing scandal of 1971. Bielefeld's punishment was forcible relegation at the end of the following season. A second promotion looked certain in 1977 until a play-off collapse to Munich 1860 cost them their opportunity. That Bundesliga return did finally arrive 12 months later.

A 4-0 away win at Bayern Munich was the undoubted highlight of the club's latest Bundesliga campaign, but there were too few other wins to avert another relegation. The decade ended with Bielefeld involved in yet another promotion campaign during the 1979-80 season, mirroring where the club had been exactly ten years earlier.