The club was one of the founding members of the
Nordkreis-Liga in 1909, when football started to become more organised in Southern Germany. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, this league came to a halt but a championship for the region was still held, which
FSV won in 1917. After the war, the club became part of the
Kreisliga Nordmain, which it managed to win in 1922–23, qualifying for the
Southern German championship, where it finished last out of five teams. The pinnacle of the team's achievement was a losing appearance in the 1925 national final, 0–1 to
1. FC Nürnberg, and the capture of a German amateur title in 1972 in a 2–1 victory over
TSV Marl-Hüls. The club contested the final of the 1938 Tschammerpokal, predecessor of today's
DFB-Pokal, but was beaten 1–3 by
Rapid Vienna. The club played in the
Bezirksliga Main, then the
Bezirksliga Main-Hessen throughout the 1920s and 1930s. After capturing the championship of the VSFV (Verband Süddeutscher Fussball Vereine or Federation of South German Football Clubs) in 1933, FSV went on to play in the
Gauliga Südwest, one of sixteen top-flight divisions formed that same year in the re-organization of German football in the
Third Reich. They consistently earned mid-table results there with the club's best finish being second place in 1939. In 1941 the Gauliga Hessen was split into the Gauliga Westmark and the Gauliga Hessen-Nassau with FSV playing in the latter division. The team finished a close second to
Kickers Offenbach in 1943 and in 1944 merged briefly with SG Eintracht Frankfurt to play as the wartime side KSG (Kriegspielgemeinschaft) Frankfurt. The following season the Gauliga collapsed with the advance of Allied armies into Germany as World War II drew to a close. After the war occupying Allied authorities ordered the dissolution of all organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. FSV was re-established as
SG Bornheim but had taken on their old identity again by late 1945. The team resumed play in the first division
Oberliga Süd where they played undistinguished, middling football until relegated at the end of the 1961–62 season. The
Bundesliga, Germany's first top-flight professional league, was formed in 1963.
FSV joined the
Regionalliga Süd and remained a regular tier II side from the early 1960s through to the early 1970s when they slipped to the third tier. The club returned to the second tier in 1975 a year after the formation of the 2. Bundesliga, playing in the
2. Bundesliga Süd. In 1981 the northern and southern divisions of this league were combined and as a perennial lower table side FSV was delivered to the third division
Oberliga Hessen (III). The club made a single season cameo appearance in the combined league in 1982–83 before once again falling back. They played in the Regionalliga Süd (III) in 2007–08 after seven seasons in the Amateur Oberliga Hessen (IV). Winning the championship of the Regionalliga Süd (III), for the 2008–09 season the club was promoted to the
2. Bundesliga, where it played for eight seasons with moderate success before relegation to the
3. Liga at the end of the 2015–16 season. ==Reserve team==