Austria: Sold out play-off match in 3rd division!

Austria: Sold out play-off match in 3rd division!

The Austrian 3rd division (Regionalliga) are divided up in 3 leagues, West, Mitte and Ost.

Austria Salzburg won their league (West) and had to play two matches against FAC who won the Ost league. While LASK Linz from Mitte league, played two matches against Parndorf from 2nd division.

First play-off match between Austria Salzburg and FAC ended 2-2.

Match report from second play-off match (FAC won 3-0):

After the games on Monday LASK and Austria Salzburg had advantage cause both had home game in the last play-off match.

The match against FAC Team für Wien was sold out in few hours, especially for the fan section it was impossible to get tickets for non-members of the fanclub. Normally the game should be shown on official Austrian TV station in conference with LASK, but LASK wanted to play later (TV said match should start 6pm, which would be difficult for workers attending), so ORF canceled the broadcast and instead show a record of France vs Italy in European Championship 2000.  That´s high quality TV in Austria where you have to pay every month for it But Austria Salzburg managed to bring with their main partner a livestream and public viewing for their fans.

Day before the match Curva Viola prepared a display. The main part was planned to unfold from the roof. But on matchday authorities prohibited this display due to safety reasons. The same happened in the cup game against Mattersburg last summer. At that time Curva Viola ignored it and the club ended up with few thousand Euro in fine.

Due to the importance of the match against FAC, the display was improvised and not unfolded from the roof as planned (Curva Viola didn't want trouble ahead of this match).

The banner was unfolded as normal over the crowd, so it was difficult to the all the details when they couldn't lift it up by the roof.The text means "Accomplish the promotion - become legends!". The main banner in middle show a mountain with supporters and players climbing on it.

The stadium was totally sold out and very crowded and the support was excellent. Until FAC scored the first goal 100% of the fans were singing and clapping.

Everybody was hopeful to win this important match. IN the 20th minute first shock came when FAC scored 1-0. Austria didn't surrender and fought for the equation. In the beginning of 2nd half all hopes were destroyed. 3-0 to FAC after 60 minutes. Everything was over, many fans stopped singing because of the shock. You saw guys sitting on the ground and tears could be seen.

Nobody would be surprised now if the fans stormed the pitch and started a riot, but instead Austria Salzburg supporters started to sing their club anthem and "You'll never walk alone". After the game no whistles against their own players or the opponent but applause for both teams for the good show. On the pitch the chairman of Austria Salzburg broke down in tears and was consoled by supporters. That´s football with heart! It doesn´t matter what league you are playing, it´s more important to be there with heart, loyality and honour. Maybe next year this effort will be rewarded. Guests at the home side: Udine, Aarau (with Lunatics), Saarbrücken (with Fraternité Violette).

Fans decorated the city with flags and paint before this match:

Match:

Chairman of Austria Salzburg:

Video:

LASK Linz – Parndorf

With 1-0 in the first play-off and 1-1 in the second play off, fans of LASK could celebrate promotion to Austrian 2nd division!

During the winter "Friends of LASK" took control over the club after long protests against the president. Against Parndorf in the play-off you could finally see spirit and optimism among the LASK fans. During the whole season with protests only a couple of fans attended their matches, often less than 100 fans in the stand.

But for this play-off match with new leadership, all supporters was motivated. More than 10 000 fans attended this match in the Linzer Stadium.

Kick-off was at 19:08 (LASK were founded in 1908). Good atmosphere during the whole match!

Follow us on our Ultras-Tifo Fanpage and get latest news/photos/ Videos.