page_title: VfB Stuttgart
section_title: Post-championship seasons 2008–12
hierarchical_section_title: VfB Stuttgart / History / 2007 to present: roller coaster rides / Post-championship seasons 2008–12
caption_attribution_description: Mercedes-Benz-Arena, Stuttgart; VfB Stuttgart - Borussia Dortmund 1:1; 29. Oktober 2011
context_page_description: Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart, is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club is best known for its football team which is currently part of Germany's first division Bundesliga. VfB Stuttgart is one of Germany's most successful clubs. The club has won the national championship five times, most recently in 2006–07; the DFB-Pokal three times; and the UEFA Intertoto Cup a record three times.
  The football team plays its home games at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, in the Neckarpark which is located near the Cannstatter Wasen where the city's fall beer festival takes place. Second team side VfB Stuttgart II currently plays in the Regionalliga Südwest, which is the second highest division allowed for a reserve team. The club's junior teams have won the national U19 championships a record ten times and the Under 17 Bundesliga six times.
  A membership-based club with over 64,000 members, VfB is the largest sports club in Baden-Württemberg and the fifth-largest in Germany. It has departments for fistball, hockey, track and field, table-tennis and football referees, all of which compete only at the amateur level.
context_section_description: The 2008–09 season, like the one before it, got off to a bad start. After matchday 14 in November, VfB was only 11th in the table and as a result, Armin Veh was sacked and replaced by Markus Babbel. After exiting the German Cup after a 1–5 thrashing from Bayern Munich in January, prospects improved considerably and the team ended third in the table, with second place just being missed after a loss to Bayern on the last matchday. That meant the chance of making the Champions League again.
  Internationally, VfB mastered the group stages of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, but lost to Cup defenders Zenit Saint Petersburg in the round of the last 32 in February.
  Stuttgart went into the 2009–10 season with Mario Gómez leaving for Bayern Munich, just as Pavel Pogrebnyak arrived from Zenit Saint Petersburg and Alexander Hleb returning on loan from Barcelona.
  On the European level, Stuttgart started the season with a huge success by qualifying for the group stage of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League. Stuttgart entered that competition for the third time in six years (after 2003 and 2007) by defeating Romanian side Politehnica Timișoara in the Champions League play-off round on 18 and 26 August 2009. VfB were then drawn into Group G against Spanish side Sevilla, Scottish champions Rangers, against whom they had also been drawn against in their previous two Champions League Group stage appearances, and Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni. With two wins (one each against Rangers and Unirea), three draws (one each against all opponents) and a loss (to Sevilla) they managed second spot in the group, thus qualifying for the round of the last 16, where they had to face title holders Barcelona in late winter. After a superb home game against Barça which Stuttgart, however, did not manage to win (1–1), they were eliminated in a 4–0 rout at Camp Nou.
  In the 2009–10 DFB-Pokal, they did not proceed further than the last 16 either, losing to second-tier side SpVgg Greuther Fürth. That defeat came in the course of a disappointing first half of the 2009–10 Bundesliga. As a consequence of slipping to 16th spot in December, young coach Markus Babbel was fired after matchday 15 and replaced by the more experienced Swiss Christian Gross. Under his tenure, VfB improved their situation domestically as well as internationally before the winter break. During that break, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Jan Šimák and Ludovic Magnin left the club; Cristian Molinaro was loaned out from Juventus. In the later half of the season, the team – as in the 2008–09 season – had a fantastic, almost unbroken, winning streak. As the best team of that second (return) round of the Bundesliga, the Swabians under Gross climbed into the upper half of the table and, after a sensational rally, eventually managed to secure European football for the following season by qualifying for the Europa League.
  The 2010–11 season was a mediocre one—after again spending the first half of the season almost always in the relegation zone (17th and 18th spot), with Christian Gross being fired and interim coach Jens Keller taking over for the rest of the first leg, Bruno Labbadia was hired as new coach in January and managed to save VfB from relegation. Eventually, the team finished 12th after a decent second-half performance. In July 2011, Erwin Staudt did not participate again in the election of the president and Gerd E. Mäuser was elected as president.
  In the following 2011–12 season, they managed to constantly climb up the table; this was especially thanks to a long unbeaten streak in the spring. Subsequently, VfB qualified for the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. Key players during that season were Martin Harnik, who scored 17 goals, as well as winger Gōtoku Sakai and forward Vedad Ibišević, who both came to Stuttgart in January 2012.
  With effect from 3 June 2013, Gerd E. Mäuser announced his resignation as president of VfB Stuttgart. On 2 July 2013, the supervisory board of the club named Bernd Wahler as the candidate for the presidential elections. On 22 July 2013, Wahler was elected by 97.4% of the votes cast.
  
caption: Stuttgart against Borussia Dortmund in 2011.
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