New game community: Soccer Catfish wants to aim high

2023-05-30 05:04:00

A new football chapter will be opened in Wels from the coming season: regional league club WSC/Hertha and Upper Austria league club FC Wels are working together – and not just in the youth field as originally planned. These are the key data of the new gaming community:

The fighting teams: In the regional league, WSC Hertha/FC Wels will start in the future, while in the Upper Austrian league the club name is exactly the opposite. In this way, both clubs can retain their identity and remain legally and economically separate. However, due to the syndicate form, it is easier to swap players between clubs. Harun Sulimani will act as the new sporting director for both teams. While his brother Emin extends his contract as coach of the third division, a new coach still has to be found for the Upper Austrian division. The goals remain unchanged: The existence in the regional league should soon come to an end, the Bundesliga was declared as a goal. The majority of the current team should be able to do this, which is having a great season in third place with 59 points.

The off spring: The youth departments will remain separate up to the U13 level – after that the joint football academy will begin. To explain: The Academy system was recently revised by the ÖFB. There will be a large license – for those academies that already hold championships in the ÖFB youth – and soon there will also be a small license. Anyone who receives this will run an “ÖFB-Nachwuchszentrum”, NWZ for short, and take part in the “Jugendregionalliga”. What is the difference? The requirements for an Academy license are significantly higher than those for a NWZ license. While running an academy currently requires an annual budget of around one million euros, a NWZ can be expected to cost between 250,000 and 300,000 euros per year. “With an academy, we want to prevent talented young players from moving to other clubs in Linz, Ried or Salzburg,” says WSC/Hertha chairman Roland Golger. A test run will start in autumn, and the club wants to be part of the new system for good in the 2024/2025 season. “We have already prepared the budget for the coming season so that we are ideally prepared,” says Golger.