FC Wacker Innsbruck (2002)

This article is about the current football club. For the defunct club, see FC Wacker Innsbruck.

FC Wacker Innsbruck

Full name	Fußballclub Wacker Innsbruck
Founded	21 June 2002 (2002-06-21)
Ground	Tivoli-Neu, Innsbruck
Ground Capacity	17,400
Chairman	Josef Gunsch
Manager	Klaus Schmidt
League	Erste Liga
2013–14	10th (relegated from Bundesliga)
Home colours Away colours

FC Wacker Innsbruck is an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck. The club was formed in June 2002 as FC Wacker Tirol, and plays their home games at Tivoli-Neu. The club regard themselves as the spiritual continuation of the team FC Tirol Innsbruck, which went bankrupt in 2002 as well as the original FC Wacker Innsbruck which had been founded in 1913. In honour of this heritage, FC Wacker Tirol was renamed FC Wacker Innsbruck in 2007. However, legally it is a distinct and separate club, and is not entitled to claim the honours won by its predecessors.

The ascent of Wacker Tirol into the Bundesliga took only two years from formation, with promotion to the top division achieved in 2004. This was possible because the club made an alliance with 3rd league club Wattens and thus avoided starting in the bottom league. After finishing first in Regionalliga West (2002–03), Wacker advanced to Red Zac Erste Liga, and only a season later (2003–04) was promoted to Bundesliga.

FC Wacker Tirol finished 6th out of 10 in their first Bundesliga season (2004/05) and 7th in their second (2005/06). In 2006–07 the Tyroleans avoided relegation only because Grazer AK went into administration and was docked 28 points as a result. One year the club, now named FC Wacker Innsbruck, finished last and was relegated to the Austrian Football First League (second tier).

After finishing runner-up in the 2008–09 season, FC Wacker Innsbruck won promotion back to the Austrian Bundesliga in 2010 in a tight run. About 5000 Tyrolean supporters had travelled to the final away game on 28 May 2010 in Pasching against Red Bull Juniors, which FC Wacker Innsbruck won 2–0.

As in 2004–05, FC Wacker Innsbruck finished their first Bundesliga season (2010/11) again 6th and then 7th in 2011–12 when they had been close to the Europa League spots for much of the season. After a disastrous start into the 2012–13 season (ten losses in eleven matches) it seemed unlikely that the club could avoid relegation. In a dramatic season finale against relegation which involved four teams, FC Wacker Innsbruck on 26 May 2013 managed to turn a 0–2 against Wolfsberger AC into a 3–2 victory within 10 minutes and, thanks to this miracle of Wolfsberg stayed in the league. With one year delay FC Wacker Innsbruck finishing last in 2013/14, 8 points behind FC Admira Wacker Mödling which even had been docked 5 points due to financial problems.

In 2014/15 Wacker Innsbruck played in the First League but failed to gain promotion. Consequently, FC Wacker Innsbruck start the 2015/16 season on the First League.

Current squad

As of 11 July, 2015.

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Pascal Grünwald 3 DF Dominik Popp 4 DF Christian Deutschmann 5 DF Michael Lercher 7 MF Alexander Hauser 8 MF Andreas Hölzl 9 FW Thomas Pichlmann 10 MF Jürgen Säumel 11 FW Thomas Hirschhofer 13 DF Kevin Nitzlnader 14 MF Michael Augustin 15 MF Armin Hamzic

No. Position Player 16 MF Christoph Freitag 17 DF Daniel Rosenbichler 18 MF Florian Jamnig 19 MF Danijel Mićić 20 MF Rene Renner 21 FW Alexander Gründler 22 FW Samuel Krismer 23 MF Rami Tekir 25 GK Lukas Wedl 26 MF Simon Pirkl 27 GK Julian Weiskopf 28 DF Sebastian Siller

Staff

• Manager: Klaus Schmidt
• Assistance coach: Christian Stoff
• Conditioning coach: Andreas Schrott
• Goalkeeper coach: Fuad Djulic

Seasons

Season	League	Place	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Notes
2002–03	Fußball-Regionalliga (III)	1	26	2	2	101	17	80	Alliance with WSG Wattens
2003–04	Erste Liga (II)	1	22	6	8	65	44	72
2004–05	Bundesliga (I)	6	11	11	14	48	48	44
2005–06	Bundesliga	7	10	12	14	44	55	42
2006–07	Bundesliga	9	8	10	18	40	64	34	avoided relegation only because of bankrupt GAK
2007–08	Bundesliga	10	6	11	19	32	63	29
2008–09	Erste Liga (II)	2	18	8	7	65	44	62
2009–10	Erste Liga	1	21	6	6	67	26	69
2010–11	Bundesliga (I)	6	13	11	12	43	42	50
2011–12	Bundesliga	7	10	15	11	36	45	45
2012–13	Bundesliga	8	11	3	22	41	75	36
2013–14	Bundesliga	10	5	14	17	42	70	29
Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation.

Managers

Further information: FC Wacker Innsbruck § Managers

Further information: FC Swarovski Tirol § Manager history

Further information: FC Tirol Innsbruck § Manager history

• Michael Streiter (July 1, 2002 – June 30, 2003)
• Helmut Kraft (June 1, 2003 – Nov 9, 2004)
• Stanislav Cherchesov (Nov 10, 2004 – May 31, 2006)
• František Straka (June 1, 2006 – April 19, 2007)
• Klaus Vogler (interim) (April 20, 2007 – June 30, 2007)
• Lars Søndergaard (July 1, 2007 – Oct 22, 2007)
• Helmut Kraft (Oct 22, 2007 – April 30, 2008)
• Walter Kogler (June 1, 2008 – Oct 10, 2012)
• Werner Löberbauer (interim) (Oct 10, 2012 – Oct 16, 2012)
• Roland Kirchler (Oct 16, 2012 – Dec 16, 2013)
• Florian Klausner (interim) (Dec 16, 2013 – Dec 18, 2013)
• Michael Streiter (Dec 27, 2013 – Oct 22, 2014)
• Florian Klausner (interim) (Oct 22, 2014 – Nov 25, 2014)
• Klaus Schmidt (Nov 25, 2014 – now)

External links

• (German) Official website