LINZ. After a quarter of the season in the Regionalliga Mitte, nobody would have expected this table leader: The LASK amateurs are still laughing from the top of the table after the 2-1 win over Deutschlandsberg. And that despite the fact that a complete cut was made in the summer. Away from the team that, according to official Bundesliga figures, caused personnel expenses of 1.96 million euros in the 2020/21 season with numerous legionnaires. The retreat to the regional league was deliberately chosen to make the cut possible. With Yanis Eisschill (16), Armin Haider (17), Luka Wimhofer (18), Moritz Würdinger (21) and Patrick Plojer (21), five homegrown players were in the starting XI, and four others were on the bench. “The return to the second division is of course the goal in the medium term,” says LASK technical director Ralf Muhr. This year there is no plan for promotion. However, if the Black and Whites stay at the top of the table until the end of the season, it would cause relegation turbulence in the second division.
Relegation would be likely
Because in the second league, a maximum of three amateur teams from Bundesliga clubs are allowed to play. These are currently the Sturm Graz Amateurs, the Young Violets of Austria and the Rapid Amateurs. If none of the teams is in a relegation zone at the end of the season, the worst club from this trio – theoretically also third in the table – has to play a relegation against the LASK amateurs. This would currently be obsolete because the Rapid Amateurs are in a relegation zone. But it gets even more complicated: If LASK wins such a relegation, the third from last in the second division (currently Dornbirn) can be happy because there is a free place in the second division and you are therefore not relegated. The second in the regional league (currently WSC/Hertha Wels), on the other hand, would have to hope for a relegation defeat by LASK. Because then the second of the Regionalliga Mitte should take the free place.
Source: Nachrichten
