The team are three-time national champions, winning the 1962 German football championship, as well as the Bundesliga twice, first in its inaugural season of 1963–64 and then again in 1977–78.

Characteristic for the dialect spoken around Cologne, this is pronounced "EF-tsay", in contrast to the Standard German pronunciation of the abbreviation where the second syllable is emphasized ([ʔɛf ˈtseː]).

[6][7] Kölner BC was formed on 6 June 1901 by a group of young men who were unhappy as part of the gymnastics club FC Borussia Köln and were more interested in football.

BC participated in the Zehnerliga West in the years before World War I and took the Westdeutsche championship in 1912 and advanced to the preliminary rounds of the national finals.

Spielvereinigung 1907 Köln-Sülz was established in 1907 as Sülzer Sportverein and on 1 January 1919 merged with Fußball Club 1908 Hertha Sülz to form SpVgg.

They went on to play as a top flight club in the Gauliga Mittelrhein, one of sixteen premier level divisions established in 1933 in the reorganization of German football under the Third Reich.

Die Geißböcke won their second divisional championship in 1960, and appeared in the national final against Hamburger SV, where they lost 2–3.

As German champions, Köln entered the 1964–65 European Cup, where it met England's Liverpool at the quarter-final stage.

At the start of the 1970s, Köln reached three DFB-Pokal finals in four seasons, losing all three; to Kickers Offenbach in 1970, Bayern Munich in 1971 and Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1973.

The team also achieved another second place Bundesliga finish in 1973, before reaching another DFB-Pokal final in 1977, beating Hertha BSC over two legs to win the trophy for the second time.

Two second place Bundesliga finishes, in 1988–89 and 1989–90, and another DFB-Pokal final loss in 1991, marked the end of a glorious[tone] thirty-year period for FC Köln.

After a poor run of form in the 2010–11 season, recording only one win from its opening nine Bundesliga fixtures, Köln replaced coach Zvonimir Soldo with Frank Schaefer.

Schaefer, who was originally in charge of the under-23 team of Köln, decided after the season that he would rather spend more time with his family than be a coach in the Bundesliga.

After earning just eight points in the first 13 matches of the second half of the season, Schaefer was reappointed as the club's interim manager, assisted by former Köln player Dirk Lottner.

[12] In April 2012, the club members elected a new board of directors, Werner Spinner as president, Markus Ritterbach for marketing, and Toni Schumacher for sport.

[15] In summer 2013, Peter Stöger and Manfred Schmid were hired as coaching team, and Jörg Schmadtke as general manager.

[vague][18] This downtrend led to the resignation of Jörg Schmadtke[19] and Stöger's dismissal in December 2017; he was replaced by Stefan Ruthenbeck, who was appointed as caretaker manager.

Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Markus Anfang was appointed manager with a mandate to achieve an immediate return to the top flight.

[22] Just a week later, with André Pawlak having taken over as Anfang's successor, the team achieved promotion with a 0–4 victory over Greuther Fürth.

[23] On 13 May 2019, the club announced that Jahn Regensburg manager Achim Beierlorzer would assume its vacant head coaching position from the upcoming season.

[25] Sporting director Armin Veh, who weeks earlier had announced that he would not extend his contract with the club, was also dismissed from his position.

[26] On 18 November, former HSV manager Markus Gisdol was appointed to the club's head coaching position, while Horst Heldt was made sporting director.

[30] On 11 May, it was reported that SC Paderborn manager Steffen Baumgart would succeed Funkel as head coach at the beginning of the 2021–22 season.

[32] On 1 April 2022, the club appointed Christian Keller as its new managing director, a position that had been vacant since the dismissal of Heldt in May 2021.

[33] In March 2023, during the second half of the 2022–23 campaign, Köln were put under[tone] a two-window transfer embargo by FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber, having been found guilty of inducing a breach of contract without just cause while signing Jaka Čuber Potočnik from Olimpija Ljubljana in January 2022.

[34][35] Köln appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, which affirmed the embargo imposed by FIFA.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.