Amateur football: the decline in officials is a cause for concern

As ÖFB General Secretary Thomas Hollerer told the APA, the association recently recorded increasing numbers of players among players. However, the downward trend among honorary officials is a source of concern. In the 2021/22 season, Austria’s largest sports association registered around 200,000 players who took part in the championship at least once. This corresponds to an increase of 30,000 people compared to the previous season. “It is very gratifying that there is an upward trend again after Corona. When it comes to new registrations for young people, we are even better than before the pandemic,” explained Hollerer.

The situation at official level is less rosy. “That will now be the big challenge. We are noticing a decline in this area, which we want to counteract,” said Hollerer, emphasizing: “Officials are a very underestimated factor in sport and in Football. They keep the entire system running, largely on a voluntary basis. Football cannot function without volunteers.”

The negative development in this area is mainly due to Corona. “One can say for all of sport, but especially for football, that these important stakeholders have noticed during the pandemic that it is pleasant to spend more time with the family and not to cut even more of the scarce free time.”

But there are also other reasons for the decline, such as an increasingly complicated administration. “The demands on officials are very high, so things like applications for energy cost compensation should be simplified,” demanded Hollerer, but also pointed out the “good one-two between the federal government and football” in this context. “Without the support of the federal government, football would never have survived the pandemic.”

Generation change as a reason?

The decline in officials is also due to a certain generation change, explained Hollerer. “Young people can no longer do so much with officialdom these days. These are social developments, and all of these developments have been accelerated by the pandemic.”

The ÖFB general secretary described the decreasing number of clubs as “feedback to the issue of officials”. “But that’s also due to demographics.” Nevertheless, Hollerer emphasized that despite certain problem areas in amateur football, a positive trend can be observed in principle. The final figures for the 2022/23 season will only be available in a month, “but the trend is upwards, we are satisfied with the development”.

The amateur soccer field moves around half a million people on a weekend in Austria, and according to Hollerer’s taste there could be even more. “It will be crucial to react to the changed social behavior and to improve our offers to attract people. If we can do that, amateur football in Austria will have a good future,” predicted the Viennese.