Image: Hörmandinger (press photo Scharinger / Daniel Scharinger)
With Ernsthofen, Haidershofen-Behamberg, Palting-Seeham, St. Pantaleon-Erla and ASK and SC St. Valentin, there are currently six clubs that voluntarily take part in the championships of the Upper Austrian Football Association, but are based in another federal state.
From next season, however, there could be a club with Askö Gosau from the 1st class south that comes from Upper Austria, plays in Upper Austria, but plays its home games in Salzburg. The curious reason: The lease of the Gosau sports field expires in the summer – and will not be extended by the lessor, as they are making demands on the community that have not been met to date. If no solution is found in the next few weeks, the game will be played in Rußbach, seven kilometers away in the state of Salzburg, starting in the summer. A special irony: With good (artificial) snow conditions, you could also ski there. Both villages are part of the ski area Dachstein-West.
“It’s a political issue. We footballers are used as a means of pressure so that the lessor gets his concerns through to the community. It’s a difficult situation for us now because we don’t know where we’ll be at home next season,” explains the Gosau section manager Markus Egger.
The lower house club is prepared, but Egger warns of drastic consequences: “We all hope for a joint solution in the interests of sport. If this is not yet possible, we can imagine it in Rußbach for six months or even a year. Should If no agreement is in sight between the lessor and the municipality of Gosau by then at the latest, I will not rule out the cessation of the game.”
alternative site approved
The desire to be able to switch to Rußbach if the worst comes to the worst has already been approved by the football association.
The landowner, who also owns the sports field, would like to build a supermarket with apartments above. Markus Schmaranzer, mayor of the municipality of Gosau, wants to protect his local suppliers from a large corporation. “We in the municipal council do not want to agree to the project. We owe it to our small and beautiful community and its residents.” Naturally, Schmaranzer also wants the game to be played in Gosau in the fall. “We’re currently in the middle of negotiations to find a solution with the lessor that works for everyone involved. But we won’t give in completely either. If a season is played in Russbach for the time being, then we’ll have to accept it Better an end with horror than horror without end,” says Schmaranzer.
In which league Askö Gosau may play in exile in Salzburg is also not yet certain: After the 1:2 at SV Ebensee, the team of player-coach Roland Bärnthaler is only four points ahead of the relegation place in the 1st class south.
Source: Nachrichten
