Wolfsberger AC

Wolfsberger AC
Full name Riegler & Zechmeister Pellets Wolfsberger Athletik Club
Nickname(s) GAM FC
Founded 1931 (1931)
Ground Lavanttal-Arena, Wolfsberg
Ground Capacity 7,300
Chairman Dietmar Riegler
Manager Heimo Pfeifenberger
League Austrian Football Bundesliga
2015–16 6th

Wolfsberger AC are an Austrian association football club from Wolfsberg, Carinthia. The club competed twenty seasons on the second level of the Austrian football pyramid. Between the 2007–08 and 2011–12 seasons, Wolfsberger AC entered a cooperation with SK St. Andrä, competing under the name WAC/St. Andrä during that period. The team is currently called RZ Pellets WAC for sponsorship reasons.

After having played the majority of its existence in the lower leagues, Wolfsberger AC finished their 2011–12 season as champions of the 2011–12 Austrian Football First League and earned promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga for the first time in the club's history. At the end of the season they finished 5th.

History

Wolfsberger AC was founded by Adolf Ptazcowsky, Karl Weber, Hermann Maierhofer, Franz Hafner und Michael Schlacher in 1931. They are not in any way affiliated with the Bundesliga team VfL Wolfsburg. After spending the first thirty-seven years of its existence on lower tiers of the Austrian league pyramid, the club eventually achieved promotion to the Austrian Regional League, which was on the second tier of the pyramid at that time, in 1968. WAC stayed at this level, with one exception during the 1977–78 season, for the next seventeen years, establishing themselves as a middle table side.

At the end of the 1984–85 season, Wolfsberger AC eventually dropped back to the third level. The club returned for two further second-level appearances during the 1988–89 and 1990–91 seasons, but was immediately relegated each time. In 1994, the club was a founding member of the reactivated Regional League as the third tier of the pyramid. After being in the promotion race for the first few years in the new league, strength of the club gradually declined and eventually led to relegation at the end of the 2001–02 season.

In 2007, WAC and local neighbours SK St. Andrä decided to enter a cooperation. While both clubs remained as separate entities, they closely worked together at almost all aspects: "Central areas of both clubs like administration, management, economy, marketing, gastronomy, as well as the athletic section as the core (both the senior and junior teams) will be centrally administered from the newly created offices of WAC|ST.ANDRÄ at Wolfsberg." Since SK St. Andrä were playing at the Regional League, the corporation began at this level, from which it was promoted to the First League in 2010. At the end of the 2011–12 season, the cooperation secured promotion to the Bundesliga with one round of matches to go. Soon afterwards, the cooperation was dissolved; Wolfsberger AC will thus compete as an independent club on the highest level of Austrian football for the first time in their history.

After their first year in the highest class they came in 5th. After the season manager Nenad Bjelica left the club and became manager of FK Austria Wien, the champion of the 2012/13 season. Slobodan Grubor replaced him but after weak performances in the new season he was replaced by Dietmar Kühbauer.

Honours

European record

Season Competition Round Opponent Home Away Aggregate
2015–16 UEFA Europa League 2Q Belarus Shakhtyor Soligorsk 2–0 1–0 3–0
3Q Germany Borussia Dortmund 0–1 0–5 0–6

Current squad

As of 22 July 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 Austria GK Christian Dobnik
4 Philippines DF Stephan Palla
5 Austria FW Marcel Holzer
6 Burkina Faso FW Zakaria Sanogo
7 Austria DF Dario Baldauf
8 Austria FW Mihret Topčagić
9 Sweden FW Philip Hellquist
10 Austria MF Daniel Offenbacher
11 Spain MF Jacobo Ynclán
14 Austria FW Philipp Prosenik
15 Serbia DF Nemanja Rnić
16 Austria MF Boris Hüttenbrenner
17 Slovenia FW Tadej Trdina
18 Austria DF Michael Berger
No. Position Player
20 Austria MF Christoph Rabitsch
21 Austria DF Christian Klem
22 Austria MF Benjamin Rosenberger
23 Austria MF Peter Tschernegg
24 Austria MF Christopher Wernitznig
25 Austria DF Joachim Standfest
26 Austria DF Michael Sollbauer
27 Austria DF Daniel Drescher
28 Austria MF Thomas Zündel
29 Austria MF Gerald Nutz
30 Austria GK Rene Robitsch
31 Austria GK Alexander Kofler
35 Austria GK Raphael Sallinger

Managers

References

  1. m.b.H., STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft. "WAC setzt Trainer Kühbauer vor die Tür". Retrieved 2016-09-04.

External links

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