Not comprehensible

License refusal catches FC Dornbirn off guard

The license decision came as a shock to Dornbirn.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

The decision of the protest committee of the Austrian Bundesliga not to grant FC Dornbirn a license for the upcoming second division season, even in the second instance, hit the Red Shirts hard - and surprisingly. Now there is only one last chance left to obtain a match license. And that is expensive.

"We really didn't expect this," said Dornbirn CFO Andreas Genser yesterday after reading the rejection notice from the Bundesliga protest committee. This means that the Rothosen are still without a match license for the new season in League Two. "I can't understand it. We have submitted everything. Credit checks, double-secured contracts. But obviously the league still doubts it," Genser shakes his head.

One very last chance
Now there is only one option left to get the license after all - going to the permanent neutral court of arbitration. But this is not easy. The club has one week. The costs amount to 10,000 euros. Money you don't have in your petty cash. "And then we have to be able to prove to them that we didn't make any mistakes in our application. However, we are no longer allowed to submit new documents. Only 'improve' existing ones," says Genser. "It's madness for us. We've worked so hard over the past weeks and months. And now everything is different again."

Dornbirn's head of finance Andreas Genser.

(Bild: FC Dornbirn)

Sporting heights
At the beginning of the spring, it still looked as if the Rothosen would not be able to make it on a sporting level. But now that the team has achieved incredible things in the past few rounds, the chance is alive again. It would be tragic if it were to be ruined due to a lack of licensing.