Football Bundesliga club FK Austria Wien presented the internationally operating company Insignia as a new investor on Thursday. In connection with this partnership, a joint marketing company was established. FK Austria Wien AG thus remains 100 percent owned by the association, whose purple color and logo remain unchanged. Club board member Markus Kraetschmer spoke of a “milestone in club history” after the deal was fixed.
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The favorites are currently struggling with massive financial problems. The latest annual report showed liabilities of 78 million euros. In the 2019/20 season alone, the “Veilchen” posted a loss of 18.8 million euros. With the help of the Insignia Group, which is known for luxurious lifestyle products, “an economic basis and the framework conditions” are now to be created “to return to the European stage,” emphasized Kraetschmer. Insignia Vice President Luka Sur, who was born in Vienna and therefore spoke of a “return home”, even named participation in the Champions League as a long-term goal.
Exact numbers and details of the investment were not given. However, there is an “internal timeline” for returning to the top athletes at home, whereby, according to Kraetschmer, “the focus is definitely on the 2021/22 season”. “We absolutely agree with our partner that we are now in a year of transition,” said Austria President Frank Hensel, referring to the current Bundesliga table with Austria in eighth place. “We would like to take the championship group with us and also the European Cup place, but we want to be successful next season.”
Hensel spoke of a “pleasant day for Austria and its fan base” in times of the corona crisis, “the greatest challenge since the Second World War, which is life-threatening for many clubs around the world”. In Austria, ghost games are expected at least until the beginning of the next season. That is why this “strategic partnership” with Insignia is so important.
The sporty architect of the successful future should stay the same. “Peter Stöger is the sporting boss of this club and he will remain so,” affirmed Hensel, who is confident that the ex-international and former Cologne and Dortmund coach will continue to work for the Favoritner. Stöger's current contract expires at the end of the season.
Sur noted that in 25 years Insignia had also become a recognized football consultancy, with good contacts to Chelsea, AS Roma and Borussia Dortmund being mentioned. In addition, the 26-year-old Brit made people sit up and take notice with the following statement: “We believe in Austria's potential to become one of the best and most important brands in football.” For him there is “no better city in Europe than Vienna” and there “no better team than Austria”.
Kraetschmer recalled the past 16 months in which the club had been looking for ways to find a way out of the financial hardships. “Many partners” would have offered themselves because the “infrastructure with stadium, training facilities and academy” would make the association at the distribution circle in Vienna-Favoriten particularly attractive. But “tenth place in the UEFA five-year ranking” would also have drawn the attention of international investors to Austria.
In his more than 23 years at the club, Kraetschmer also experienced the Austria era under Frank Stronach and his Magna group. At the time, the Austro-Canadian billionaire also made people sit up and take notice with grandiose announcements, but ultimately left the violet fans disappointed. “This experience was very important,” said the club's board of directors when asked about it on Thursday. But the partnership with Insignia is “not comparable with the Magna management at the time”.
Therefore, Kraetschmer is now confident that things will go better for Vienna Austria this time. “This club has won the most titles in Austria, if you put everything together (24 times champions, 27 times cup winners, note). We know about our responsibility for this club,” emphasized the 49-year-old.
Therefore, the Young Violets playing in the 2nd division should continue to be an important building block for success. “We definitely want to continue on this path,” assured Hensel and praised the work of the academy's own academy, which had “performed extremely well as a link between the junior and professional departments”. “Six (academy players, note) are playing in the fighting team today,” recalled the Austria President. And according to Kraetschmer, participation in the Austrian pot is still included in the license application for 2021/22.
