First Vienna FC
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Full name | First Vienna Football Club 1894 | ||
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Nickname(s) | Vienna | ||
Founded | 22 August 1894 | ||
Ground | Hohe Warte Stadium | ||
Capacity | 5,500 | ||
Manager | Alexander Zellhofer | ||
League | Austrian 2. Liga | ||
2022-23 | Austrian 2. Liga, 7th of 16 | ||
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First Vienna FC is an Austrian football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there. It is familiarly known to Austrians by the English name Vienna.
History
In the early 1890s English and Austrian gardeners working for
In 1897, the chairman of the Cricketers donated the Challenge Cup establishing a competition open to all football clubs in what was then Austria-Hungary, drawing teams from Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. Cricket won the first cup competition in 1897, but First Vienna followed with consecutive cup titles in 1899 and 1900. The club also made a losing appearance in the 1907 final of the Wiener Cup which emerged when the Challenge Cup competition fell into disarray between 1903 and 1905. In the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Vienna performed poorly and by 1915 had fallen out of first division play and did not return to the top flight until after the war in 1919.
Glory years
The club gradually returned to form and consistently finished in the top half of the league table through the 20s winning Austrian Cup titles in 1929 and 1930 before finally claiming the national championship in 1931. That same year the team also won the Mitropa Cup, one of Europe's first international club competitions. The cup title was unique in the history of the competition as they swept their opposition, winning all six of their matches. Vienna captured a second national title in 1933 with a third Austrian Cup following in 1937.
The team was involved in a failed attempt in the 1924–25 season to play Austria's first night game on a field lit by torches and flares, and playing with a ball covered in lime to make it more visible. They later successfully played the country's first match under floodlights on 3 November 1956.
WWII and play in the Gauliga
After Austria was united with Germany in the
Postwar play
Occupied by Allied forces after the end of the war, Austria was once again independent of Germany and a separate league structure was re-established. In league play in the 1946 season Vienna earned only a fifth-place finish but did go on to capture the Liberation Cup donated by the Soviets.
Through the late 40s and on into the early 50s the club's performance was uneven as they generally earned only mid-table results. However, led by club legend Karl Koller, in 1955 Vienna enjoyed an excellent season that ended with the club's sixth national championship title as they finished ahead of Wiener Sport-Club since they had the better goal quotient. Goal difference was not yet implemented. A 1:0 was better than a 10:1 win, the higher the quotient the better, although the ideal one being zero (forced goals divided by allowed goals). 20:1= 20, 20:2=10, so the higher quotient, the better with the exception of zero. Example: when Vienna won the championship in the 1954–1955 season they ended up with 64:26 goals = 2.461 quotient. Wiener Sport-Club finished with 75: 40 goals, achieving a quotient of only 1.875 but on equal points (39).
Fall from the top flight
Vienna remained competitive through the balance of the decade, consistently finishing in the top three, but the club faded through the 60s until they were finally relegated in 1968 for the first time since their return to the top flight after World War I. They re-appeared in the first division after a single season absence, but no longer seriously challenged for the title. With the establishment of the ten-team Zehnerliga, Austria's new premier division, in 1974–75, Vienna again found itself playing second division football until earning promotion in 1976. However, they continued to struggle as a lower division side and were again sent down in 1980.
The expansion of the first division from ten to sixteen teams in 1982 allowed Vienna back into the senior competition, but their inconsistent play continued. Another league re-organization established the twelve-team Austrian Bundesliga in 1985 and Vienna made its first appearance there in the following season. A highlight of this time was a strong championship round performance in 1988 that led to a fourth-place finish that earned the club a
However, the team could not recover itself in regular league play, and while they came close to a return to the Bundesliga several times, they continued a slide that in 2000 landed them in the third division
In the 2009/10 season, Vienna finished eleventh in the second tier of Austrian football. A potential relegation playoff against Regionalliga West champions
The 2013/14 season was a disaster for Vienna, finishing last with a 13 point deducted due to various licensing violations. At the end of the season, Vienna and Tatar announced an amicable separation. The club's license for the 2014/15 season in professional football was also denied. From the 2014/15 season, Vienna had to play in the third tier Regionalliga Ost again.
Due to the insolvency of the main sponsor Care-Energy, Vienna was declared bankrupt in 2017. While bankruptcy was averted, a championship title in the Regionalliga Ost in the same year was withheld. Promotion was denied and it got worse, with Vienna being transferred to the fifth division by court order. In the following season.
Lower leagues
In the 2018/19 season, Vienna played in the 2. Landesliga Wien, the fifth tier of the Austrian league system. In their first season, Vienna finished top with 78 points from 30 games and were promoted to the fourth division, the Wiener Stadtliga. They remained unbeaten in the league in the 2019/20 season after 17 games. The league was abandoned due to the Covid-19 outbreak, meaning the club stayed in the Wiener Stadtliga for the 2020/21 season. However, at the end of season 2020-2021 Vienna was promoted once again to the third tier Regionalliga Ost.
Club of Pioneers
In 2018 First Vienna FC, became a member of the exclusive Club of Pioneers, as the oldest football club of Austria.
Stadium
The club's home venue is the Hohe Warte Stadium built in 1921 and having a current capacity of 5,500 spectators.
First Vienna FC in Europe
Season | Competition | Round | Country | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
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1988–89
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UEFA Cup
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1 | Ikast FS
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1–0 | 2–1 | 2–2 | |
2 | TPS Turku | 2–1 | 0-1 | 2–2 | |||
1989–90
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UEFA Cup
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1 | Valletta F.C. | 3–0 | 4-1 | 7–1 | |
2 | Olympiacos Piraeus | 2–2 | 1–1 | 3–3 |
Current squad
- As of 11 January 2024[1]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Club staff
- Manager: Alexander Zellhofer
- Assistant Manager: Martin Lang
- Assistant Manager: Jiri Lenko
- Goalkeeping Coach: Patrick Kostner
Notable former players
- Mario Kempes, (1986–1987) World Cup Winner and former Argentinian International
- Alfred Drabits, (1988–1991) Former Austrian International
- Zeljko Radovic, (1994–1997) Former Austrian International
- Gary Noël, (2015–2016) Former Mauritius International
- Turgay Bahadır (2015–2016) Former Turkish International
- Markus Katzer, (2015–2020) Former Austrian International
- Mensur Kurtisi, (2016–2021) Former Macedonian International
- Ümit Korkmaz, (2019–2020) Former Austrian International
- Andreas Lukse, (2021–2023) Former Austrian International
Honours
- 1955
- Austrian Cup (3): 1929, 1930, 1937
- Austrian 2. Landesliga: Champions 2019
- Austrian Regionalliga: Champions 2022
- Challenge Cup (2): 1899, 1900
- 1943
- 1931
- Liberation Cup (1): 1946
- Tournoi de l'Exposition Coloniale (Paris-Vincennes) (1): 1931[2]
- Tournoi du Nouvel An du Red Star (1): 1924 (shared)[3]
- Tournoi de Nöel de Paris : Runners-up 1935[4]
References
External links
- Official website (in German)
- Historical Austrian league results
- Historical German league results (in German)
- Soccerway profile
- First Vienna FC Results Current results of First Vienna FC matches