“Long-term solution”: Union Esternberg and Union St. Roman form joint team

The current lower house season is still underway, but the coming season is already casting its shadow in Sauwald: Union Esternberg (West regional league) and Union St. Roman (Northwest 1st division) will start the championship as a joint team from the 2024/25 season. A model that is no longer new in the district and also in Upper Austria is also intended to ensure the sustainable success of both clubs in Sauwald. Since the 2022/23 season, there will no longer be a reserve competition in the regional leagues – as has already been reported several times. The clubs have the choice of fielding either an U18 team or a 1b team in the 2nd division. In practice, the latter is often the more popular option, but it presents some clubs with organizational and personnel challenges. “‘That’s why we’ve been thinking about founding a playing community for a long time. Operating a second team is very costly in the long run for several reasons,” says Franz Mauthner, chairman of Union Esternberg.

With Union St. Roman, they have now found a “strong” partner with whom they want to start a successful collaboration “on an equal footing,” says Mauthner. “The two right clubs are coming together at the right time,” says Konrad Grömmer, sporting director in St. Roman. The current second-placed team in the 1st class northwest has also recently had to deal with personnel problems in the second team. These are now to be resolved with cross-club, joint work with the “Sauwaldveilchen.”

“Win-win situation”

The basic plan of the clubs is that the regional league team will continue to train and play in Esternberg and will compete in the championship as “SPG Esternberg/St. Roman”. The second Esternberg team will “move” to St. Roman, where the “SPG St. Roman/Esternberg 1b” will play for points with a first team and a reserve team. The officials are hoping that the cooperation will create a “win-win situation”: On the one hand, talents who are sooner or later considered for the Esternberg regional league team will find a suitable platform for further development in St. Roman. On the other hand, the “Rominger” squad will be broader in terms of personnel and quality.

However, the cooperation is initially only focused on the adult sector, Grömmer and Mauthner emphasize. Both clubs will remain independent, with their own board, their own statutes and their own juniors. “This is a long-term solution that should help both clubs to remain competitive in the adult sector in the future,” says Grömmer. The two Sauwald clubs are currently broadly positioned and are also on the right track in terms of sport. “To ensure that this continues in the coming years, we agreed with St. Roman that this step is right and necessary right now,” explains Esternberg chairman Mauthner.

Ambitious goals

The new team has set itself ambitious sporting goals. In the current season, the “Sauwaldveilchen” are currently in tenth place in the Landesliga West. After a weak first half of the season (eight points and second to last in the table) and a strong spring that followed (23 points, eleven games in a row unbeaten), they recently secured their place in the league. “In the coming season, the Landesliga team should establish itself in the middle of the table and definitely have nothing to do with relegation,” says Mauthner.

According to Grömmer, the team in the first division needs to build on the excellent current season. St. Roman is currently still in the race for promotion to the district league. They are only one point behind table leader Diersbach. “We will see where the journey takes us. In the district league the goal would of course be to stay in the league, and in the first division the top five,” says the “Rominger” sports director.