What Blau-Weiß Linz can learn from its ladies

On Saturday there will be a real premiere in the Hofmann-Personal Stadium: First, the men of FC Blau-Weiß Linz will play the Bundesliga game against Altach at 5 p.m., followed by the women’s team SPG Blau-Weiß Linz at 7:30 p.m /Union Kleinmünchen with the upper house duel against SPG Altach/Vorderland. Two Bundesliga games in the same arena back-to-back – that has never happened before in Upper Austria.

“We want to be a club that lives up to its responsibility. With the double event, we are also putting women’s football on the stage it deserves,” says Blau-Weiß managing director Christoph Peschek about the double games.

This will also set a record number of spectators in Austrian women’s football. This is currently held by city rivals LASK: On February 19th, the women of the Black and Whites inaugurated the new Raiffeisen Arena during a test run against Geretsberg in front of 3,500 fans. A value that could fall tomorrow: “There are still 700 tickets for the home games against Altach. We assume that we will be sold out again,” says Peschek proudly. Blue and White captain Katharina Meßthaler can hardly wait: “The anticipation is huge, we’ve never been able to experience a setting like this before.”

The men can also learn a lot from their team: In the previous season, the blue and white women confidently managed to stay in the league in their first season in the women’s Bundesliga. Meßthaler reveals the secret of success: “In the first season you are always in danger of relegation. But we stayed calm and knew who our direct competitors were and who we had to score points against. We scored the most points against these teams and occasionally scored one Draw against the big boys.” Gerald Scheiblehner, coach of the blue and white Bundesliga footballers, listened intently and said with a smile: “I pay close attention to what she says.” With their tips and the feeling of the first Bundesliga win away in Tyrol (4:2) behind them, his team wants to improve against Altach at home: “We were coldly shown our deficits in the first rounds. A second win in a row will be a big challenge , but we want to confirm the good game against Wattens.”

Blue and White founds a club of legends

Aside from the home game double, there is another novelty: the club from the steel city announced the introduction of a legend club. Club icon Ferdinand Milanovich is to be won over as coordinator for this initiative.