The Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e.V. Dortmund is not just the second biggest club in Germany by now, instead it is the fourth biggest club in the world! 145 712 members are part of the Black Yellow family.

Only FC Bayern Munich (284 000), Benfica Lisbon (157 000) and FC Barcelona (153 500) have more members worldwide than Borussia Dortmund. BVB CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke commented in a jovial mood at the member's assembly one week ago: "Barca and Benfica better get real - it is just a matter of years until we overtake them."

The BVB development of members is certainly fast paced. No other club worldwide has such a strong rate of growth. 14 years ago there were only 14 000 BVB members. The president back then, Dr. Gerd Niebaum, brought the "Action 40 000" to life: "Borussia Dortmund wants to continue to grow as the German Champions. We are aiming for a membership figure that will reflect the national importance of our club."

Then after eight years this goal was actually achieved! Borussia Dortmund confirmed their 40 000th member with the 54 year old Michalis Titakis in November 2010. The developments on the pitch then made sure that this number increased significantly. Two years later ist was 70 000 and on the 1.March 2014 the milestone of 100 000 BVB members was achieved. Just a few weeks ago BVB became the number two behind Bayern Munich and they surpassed Schalke 04 (143 000).

But these figures are just figures for Hans-Joachim Watzke: "when you look at the combination of great success, great tradition and an incomparable solidarity, then this is the greatest club in the world..." Boris Rupert