Not surprisingly, the stated goal of President Friedhelm Runge and coach Rudi Gores was promotion to the 2.Liga. On paper, WSV seemed to have a decent team, and although most pundits figured Saarbruecken to be the odds on favorite, Wuppertal was considered a contender. Strong goals, considering the team had barely avoided bankruptcy the year before.
Things looked promising after about 8 games, despite a ridiculous loss at Elversberg. The squad had just won 3 in a row, and despite a subsequent loss at Trier, they weren't too far behind. The collapse then happened in December. A postponed home game to Siegen was lost 0-6, and they were crushed 0-5 in Verl. From this point on, the team never recovered, and the outraged fans wanted to file lawsuits charging "refusal to play." Coach Gores got his ass fired, but new coach Roman Geschlecht was unable to bring any decent results. From the winterbreak on, things continued up and down, basically a .500 team that sucked even when they were winning.
Towards the end of the season, WSV really began to fall apart. Dirk de Wit, Christoph Dengel and Wolfgang Wiesner, who had been among the best players all season, were suspended. They apparently had demanded that they be paid, which doesn't sound unreasonable, but given the 3 ring circus that is WSV, it's traitorious action. The squad limped home with the usual crap performances, before getting the shocker: the club was forcibly relegated by the Western Soccer Federation for non-payment of dues owed to some pension fund or such. All the clubs had been warned well ahead of time of the deadline, but apparently the club figured that didn't apply to them.
With this announcement, the players abandoned the sinking ship like rats. Soon, WSV was left with only 4 players under contract. Although the club tried legal hocus-pocus, the fans pretty much resigned to seeing a drop to the 4th division Oberliga.
