Out, over final whistle. The chapter Stripping and professional football is closed and has been decided since Monday lunchtime.
At the training ground there was a meeting between the players and those responsible for the sport with representatives of the players’ association younion. After three hours it was clear: the remaining players were resigning from their contracts, as was the sporting management such as the sports director Alexander Grünwald.
Already on Saturday it had Players’ union VdF The players were advised to leave, while younion wanted to wait, but ultimately followed suit.
VdF chairman Gernot Baumgartner: “Unfortunately, that was foreseeable. We had already mentioned in the summer that nine players had outstanding salaries from the previous season.” The granting of the license to Stripfing was surprising at the time.
Where there are no more players, there are no matches. Stripping must take effect immediately Set game operationthe club wants to make it official on Tuesday. Grünwald: “Despite the adverse circumstances, we tried everything in the sporting area.” Most recently, three months’ salary was outstanding in the current season.
The decision of those responsible was passed on to the Bundesliga.
Stripfing had in the year 2023 only after a successful one Complaint received approval for the 2nd league before the Permanent Neutral Arbitration Court of the Bundesliga. The Lower Austrian club had previously been denied a license for the 2023/’24 season in the first two instances due to infrastructural deficiencies – although Stripfing had already secured the championship title in the Regionalliga East ahead of schedule.
The club initially played its home games on the FAC-Platz in Vienna-Floridsdorf because their own stadium did not yet meet the requirements.
However, the arbitration court assessed the documents submitted by SV Stripfing differently than the Bundesliga’s internal authorities: it recognized that the club had enough youth teams – both its own and in syndicates. The infrastructural requirements were ultimately viewed as having been met.
A year later, the Stripfingern also had licensing problems: in 2024, approval was initially refused again, but was then granted in the second instance after going to the protest committee, after moving the club’s headquarters to Deutsch-Wagram and naming Austria’s Generali Arena as the home stadium for the 2nd league.
The Lower Austrians still play there today. Because even two years after promotion from the regional league, nothing at the club’s home ground had still been made suitable for the Bundesliga.