Germany's most successful women's football club, 1. FFC Frankfurt, is set to be taken over by Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt in a bid to restore itself to former glory, the two clubs announced Thursday.

Once the dominant force in German women's football, four-time Women's Champions League winners and seven-time German champions FFC finished only fifth in the women's Bundesliga last season.

In recent years, they and other independent women's clubs such as Turbine Potsdam have lost ground on rivals backed by major men's clubs such as VfL Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich

In a joint statement on Thursday, FFC and last season's Europa League semi-finalists Eintracht stated their intention to merge, following 18 months of discussions between the two sides.

If it goes ahead, the planned takeover could see FFC compete as Eintracht Frankfurt Women from the 2020/21 season.

"We are extraordinarily happy that Eintracht Frankfurt have decided to try and go with us under one roof," said FFC general manager Siegfried Dietrich.

In a recent interview with newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, Eintracht board member Axel Hellmann said that women's football suited the club, "both for sporting and sociopolitical reasons".

"As the biggest and economically strongest club in the region, we have a duty towards sport in Frankfurt, and we want to keep women's football at the top level," said Hellmann on Thursday.