Wolfsberger AC
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| Full name | Wolfsberger Athletik Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | GAM FC | ||
| Founded | 1931 | ||
| Ground | Lavanttal-Arena, Wolfsberg | ||
| Capacity | 7,300 | ||
| Chairman | Dietmar Riegler | ||
| Manager | Dietmar Kühbauer | ||
| League | Austrian Football Bundesliga | ||
| 2012–13 | 5th | ||
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Wolfsberger AC are an Austrian association football club from Wolfsberg, Carinthia. The club competed twenty seasons on the second level of the Austrian football pyramid. Between the 2007–08 and 2011–12 seasons, Wolfsberger AC entered a cooperation with SK St. Andrä, competing under the name WAC/St. Andrä during that period.
After having played the majority of its existence in lower leagues, the club finished its 2011–12 season as champions of the 2011–12 Austrian Football First League and thus will enter the Austrian Bundesliga for the first time in its history. At the end of the season they were 5th.
History
Wolfsberger AC was founded by Adolf Ptazcowsky, Karl Weber, Hermann Maierhofer, Franz Hafner und Michael Schlacher in 1931. After spending the first thirty-seven years of its existence on lower tiers of the Austrian league pyramid, the club eventually achieved promotion to the Austrian Regional League, which was on the second tier of the pyramid at that time, in 1968. WAC stayed at this level, with one exception during the 1977–78 season, for the next seventeen years, establishing themselves as a middle table side.
At the end of the 1984–85 season, Wolfsberger AC eventually dropped back to the third level. The club returned for two further second-level appearances during the 1988–89 and 1990–91 seasons, but was immediately relegated each time. In 1994, the club was a founding member of the reactivated Regional League as the third tier of the pyramid. After being in the promotion race for the first few years in the new league, strength of the club gradually declined and eventually led to relegation at the end of the 2001–02 season.
In 2007, WAC and local neighbours SK St. Andrä decided to enter a cooperation. While both clubs remained as separate entities, they closely worked together at almost all aspects: "Central areas of both clubs like administration, management, economy, marketing, gastronomy, as well as the athletic section as the core (both the senior and junior teams) will be centrally administered from the newly created offices of WAC|ST.ANDRÄ at Wolfsberg."[citation needed] Since SK St. Andrä were playing at the Regional League, the corporation began at this level, from which it was promoted to the First League in 2010. At the end of the 2011–12 season, the cooperation secured promotion to the Bundesliga with one round of matches to go. Soon afterwards, the cooperation was dissolved; Wolfsberger AC will thus compete as an independent club on the highest level of Austrian football for the first time in their history.
After their first year in the highest class they came in 5th. After the season manager Nenad Bjelica left the club and became manager of FK Austria Wien, the champion of the 2012/13 season. Slobodan Grubor replaced him but after weak performances in the new season he was replaced by Dietmar Kühbauer.
Current squad
As of 17 January 2014. Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Staff and board members
Sports
- Trainer:
Dietmar Kühbauer - Co-Trainer: Hannes Jochum
- Co-Trainer: Manfred Nastl
- Goalkeeper coach: Adolf Preschern
- Amateur-Team Trainer :
Carlos Chaile - Kit manager: Anton Rossmann
Medical
- Masseur: Kurt Pobaschnig
- Conditions coach: Mag. Walter Reichel
Management
- President: Dietmar Riegler
- Vice President: Christian Puff
- Chairman: Jürgen Schratter
- Vice Chairman: Max Raninger
- Financial Director: Waltraud Riegler
- Representative: Horst Nössler
- Secretary : Ortwin Laggner & Helmut Schein
- Deputy Secretary : Imelda Raninger & Gerhard Weichselbaum
- Treasurer: Walter Mitterbacher & Peter Fössl
- Deputy Treasurer: Norbert Kopp
Managers
- Peter Hrstic (July 1, 2007 – Oct 26, 2008)
- Hans-Peter Buchleitner (Oct 27, 2008 – May 9, 2010)
Nenad Bjelica (May 10, 2010 – June 17, 2013)- Slobodan Grubor (June 17, 2013 – September 1, 2013)
- Dietmar Kühbauer (September 2, 2013–)
External links
- Official website (German)
- Transfermarkt profile