Why LASK fans are not necessarily happy about the international matches in their own stadium

Austria’s national team is returning to Linz: as part of the European Championship qualifiers, the Rangnick team will face Azerbaijan in the new Raiffeisen Arena on Friday and Estonia on Monday. However, not all fans can get something positive out of the country match in Upper Austria’s provincial capital: The “Landstrassler”, the fan collective of LASK, see the ÖFB appearance on the Froschberg critically and comment on it as follows: “Since the announcement of the international games in The fan scene in Linz is primarily concerned with dealing with non-club fan clubs in the fan stands of our stadium. Therefore, this text should not be a general appeal against international matches in Linz, after all we are aware that the construction of the stadium was partly funded by the public sector and it must therefore be in the interest of the association, city and club to use the stadium accordingly. So how the majority of the fan scene thinks about international matches in their own stadium is something that we have to put aside for the time being. However, it is important for us to emphasize that we reject fans of other clubs in our stands.”

To this end, contact was made with the LASK and the ÖFB in order to bring about a similar solution to that at Wiener Austria. In FAVORITE, the ÖFB fan clubs are not housed in the Austria curve. “However, these talks did not bring a positive result for us. Now we are faced with the situation that – sometimes active – fans from all over Austria will be in the stands with us. We understand that this is the case for the majority of LASK fans probably plays a subordinate role, but we would like to explain our point of view: First and foremost, we are concerned with the ideal factor “home grandstand”.Whereas in recent years we were more of a migratory bird than a pet, we are proud to finally have our own grandstand “To fill our grandstand with life over the next few months and years, to be able to design it according to our ideas – also on the inside with our pictures and paintings. To only see our own scraps and our flags on our grandstand. Each and every time be able to orientate ourselves to the picks that have been picking since the first game. In other words: having a home all to ourselves, in which we feel comfortable and which we don’t all pa ar months or have to clean up after the international matches, which will definitely be the case.

“Reject fans of other clubs”

Which is why the hard core fans of the black and white clearly speak out against fans of other clubs in the home stand: “We therefore reject any fans of other clubs and their paraphernalia in our stands. The team fan clubs must therefore be aware that we do not want to see their paraphernalia in our stands. The same applies to “lederhosen and party patriotism”. Even at the home game against FC Red Bull Salzburg, the “Landstrassler” made their displeasure known with a banner (“We don’t feel like lederhosen and party patriotism in our block!”). Both are examples of the typical national team fan, which is an extremely problematic phenomenon from the point of view of the LASK fan clubs.

The fan collective is aware that this will offend many. Nevertheless, a “respectful behavior” is required in the grandstand of the Linzer.