Only two women's clubs

“Very sad how our handball is dying out in Upper Austria”

Women's handball in Upper Austria is in decline, there are only two clubs left

(Bild: Richard Tikautz)

While the men's league starts this weekend after the HLA and Challenge League in Upper Austria, there are only two women's clubs left in the entire state. Officials are sounding the alarm, but have high hopes for hype at the upcoming European Championship in a few weeks' time.

The smallest recognized soccer league in the world with two teams is on the British Isles of Scilly! There, the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers compete for the title 18 times a season, and there are also two cup competitions. The women's handball league will be similarly monotonous this year.

Two teams - four duels
 This season, only the two-man team from second division club Traun and the FutureGirls Upper Austria have entered the competition. Instead of 18 duels, however, there will only be four (!) matches in the battle for the championship title. This has been decided internally, with all of the duels not taking place until the spring. Which is extremely indicative of the decline of women's handball in Upper Austria!

"Makes no sense!"
After all, there are only two clubs left that can field female teams. Not least because the women's team of men's champions HC Linz, which was founded two years ago, also stopped playing in the summer. "The problem was that some of the players focused on their families. So it doesn't make sense to put together a team at the moment," says Linz manager Uwe Schneider, who hopes to be able to put together a strong team in five years' time thanks to talent development and the hype surrounding this year's European Handball Championship in Austria. 

Traun coach Nathalie Bäck has a more worrying view: "It's sad that handball will die out in Upper Austria if we don't change anything!". They want to keep women's handball alive with joint campaigns and advertising at schools!