What OÖN readers have known for weeks was also officially confirmed today: Second division football club FC Juniors OÖ will voluntarily enter the regional league in the summer.
A few weeks ago there was still a lot of excitement when OÖN reported that FC Juniors would no longer voluntarily play in the second division next season due to licensing. Nothing has changed about that, there is just a slightly more elegant solution: instead of not having applied for the license at all, the application will only now be withdrawn promptly and regardless of the results.
“This decision was not easy for us, but due to the changes in the application subsidy for clubs in the 2nd division, this step was necessary from a sporting and economic point of view,” explains Franz Mayer, President of FC Juniors OÖ.
From the 2022/23 season, the application subsidy for teams in the 2nd division will be reduced if a club registers more than three cooperation players from Bundesliga clubs – in the case of FC Juniors Upper Austria from cooperation partner LASK – in the respective half-season. Each additional cooperation player would result in a further 20 percent deduction from the competition subsidy for the club. If there were eight or more registered cooperation players, the club would no longer be entitled to the competition subsidy, which amounts to 3.4 million euros annually across the league.
“Our club is currently in the best of health, both financially and structurally, and we are working hard to find a good solution in the interests of FC Juniors Upper Austria and our employees and players. For this reason, we have already started talks with LASK, who are planning to set up their own amateur team from next season, about forming a game community in the regional league,” says Franz Mayer.
Further LASK cooperation logical
Under the name FC Juniors/LASK Amateure they will probably compete in the regional league in the coming season. “The amateur team of a Bundesliga team is an ideal platform for introducing promising talents to professional football,” says Ralf Muhr, Technical Director of the Black and Whites from July 1. The successful model of an amateur team should therefore also be used by the people of Linz in the future .
“We are concerned with a uniform training path and a LASK DNA that runs through from youth players to professionals,” explains Muhr. Especially the achievements of the partner academy AKA LASK Juniors Upper Austria in the recent past make him positive. “Many players were recently able to show up in the ÖFB youth leagues and with our own amateur team we can offer young players at LASK a real springboard.”
In addition, according to the “Homegrown Player Rule” According to UEFA, there must be at least eight players in the 25-man squad of a European Cup starter who have been trained in their own league. Four other players between the ages of 15 and 21 must have been under contract with the club for at least three seasons. “This UEFA rule is also easier to fulfill with an amateur team than with a cooperation club,” said Muhr.
In concrete terms, LASK will either have its own amateur team in the 2022/23 season or enter into a syndicate with a regional league middle club. “We have received positive signals from the Upper Austrian Football Association and from our previous cooperation club FC Juniors OÖ and will find the best solution in the interests of the Upper Austrian talents and LASK,” explains LASK President Siegmund Gruber.
However, the regional league should not remain the home of the LASK amateurs in the long run. “We will have the ambition, if possible, to seize the sporting opportunity to move up to the second division with our amateurs,” says Ralf Muhr.
Source: Nachrichten
