Please never stop

This is how bad Carinthia would be without Riegler & Karajica!

In this column, Claudio Trevisan, head of sport at the "Kärntner Krone", takes a look at the local soccer scene - and has a request for Klagenfurt shareholder Zeljko Karajica and WAC patron Dietmar Riegler.

(Bild: GEPA)

Where does Carinthia currently stand in soccer? The two Bundesliga clubs cover everything. Because young talent is lagging behind, the girls have little perspective, the referees are lacking and the infrastructure is a construction site - an analysis: 

If you look at the Bundesliga, Carinthian soccer fans can rejoice: with WAC and Austria Klagenfurt, there are two top clubs at the top. One has been in the European Cup for twelve years, the other in the championship group for the third time since promotion. All top, right?

Well, it's not like that. Because everything below that is currently lagging far behind in our federal state. But first things first. .

Has a few construction sites: The newly elected KFV boss Martin Mutz.

(Bild: Kuess)

The next generation
A look at the U14 national championship reveals a sobering picture for our selection teams: last place for the girls with three points and 6:12 goals. Last among the boys with zero points and 2:13 goals.

If you look at the academy teams, it's not much better: WAC is last in the U18s and Klagenfurt is third from last. Wolfsberg bring up the rear in the U16s, with Austria (with more games than their closest rivals) in eighth place. In the U15s, Klagenfurt are last without a win and the "Wolves" are ninth. But that's not all: in the coming season, the violet academy will also have to be relegated to the 2nd division. . .

Women's soccer
Things look bleak there too. We haven't had a club in the 1st women's league since 2014 - it used to be SK Kärnten, who were usually in the top 3. In the end it was Carinthians Soccer Women. Today, with Carinthians Spittal, there is only one second division club left, which is ranked 6th in the 12-team league. For comparison: only Carinthia and Burgenland do not have a first division team! After all, with Katharina Naschenweng (Bayern), Chiara D'Angelo (Hoffenheim), Michela Croatto (Leipzig) & Kristin Krammer  (Nuremberg), they have four Germany legends. But if you want to earn something, you have to get out of Carinthia.

Referees
 Manfred Krassnitzer refereed his last Bundesliga match in 2016. Since then, Carinthia has been at low tide. With Emil Ristoskov from Klagenfurt, there is exactly one second division referee - that's it. There are only 165 referees in total in Carinthia and East Tyrol. This means that there is a huge shortage of young referees - of course, when there are hardly any role models like Alfred Wieser (once a FIFA referee) left.

The infrastructure
Austrias youth, amateur and women's teams play and train in Glanegg, Feldkirchen or Brückl. And the WAC academy teams travel to St. Veit - not ideal conditions. In addition, there are only 14 large artificial pitches in Carinthia and two in East Tyrol - divided between 173 registered clubs. In comparison: Salzburg has 23 artificial pitches for 118 clubs.

Regionalliga & 2. Liga
 Since the 2015/16 season, Carinthia has never had more than three clubs in the 3rd division. The last time there were even six was in 2008/09. Today, ASK and WAC Amateuren are just two clubs at risk of relegation. While the Upper Austrians and Styrians dominate in the "middle" with seven clubs each, hardly anyone here wants to move up from the Carinthian league. And there is no representative in the 2.... league anyway (and only in Tyrol and Burgenland).

"Please never lose the desire. . ."
Hence the message to WAC patron Didi Riegler and Austria shareholder Zeljko Karajica: "Please never lose interest in soccer, otherwise things will look bleak in Carinthia." . .