ÖFB team boss Rangnick: “I couldn’t believe my eyes”

After the “Merkur Arena” in Graz and the “Raiffeisen Arena” in Linz, the next football pitch is in the headlines: ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick was amazed when he and sports director Peter Schöttel visited the training pitches around Ernst-Happel on Monday stadium – and not in a positive way: “To be honest, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” admits the 65-year-old and then finds clear words. “In June they were in top condition, and now golf course-like lawns have turned into meadows. Apparently no one cared that the senior national team had an important game.”

During the 2023 calendar year, the national team was mostly stationed in the tranquil town of Windischgarsten in Upper Austria. Only in June did they train between the guest game in Belgium and the home game against Sweden in Vienna. This time, the entire training week should have taken place in Vienna around the direct duel with Belgium for group victory in the European Championship qualification. It is still uncertain whether it will remain that way after the lawn fiasco. In any case, Rangnick is already looking for alternatives.

According to Rangnick, at least the training grounds at Austria Vienna would be out of the question: “I was told that the training grounds at Austria were so bad that the French women’s national team even stopped training completely.” This is logically not an option for the ÖFB team. “I would like it, but that our four players in question will all be fit is just as unlikely as that these pitches will be in good condition again within a week,” he says Team boss made a comparison to the personnel concerns about the injured David Alaba, Marcel Sabitzer, Michael Gregoritsch and Stefan Posch. Rangnick actually only sees one alternative at the moment: “That is that we train in the stadium. I was there too, the stadium turf looks great.”