Soccer Innsbruck

The Innsbruck football club , or FI for short , was an Austrian football club from the provincial capital Innsbruck in Tyrol and is considered the oldest football club in western Austria.

history

prehistory

Football was established in Innsbruck as early as 1902 by Arthur Ringler from Munich - a former player and founding member of FC Bayern Munich . He found a connection to the Innsbruck gymnastics club and intensively promoted football. Finally he succeeded in gaining other comrades-in-arms and, with the support of the landlord from "Tivoli", using a meadow on the grounds of what would later become the Sillsport facility for their purposes. In March 1903 a meeting was held in the "Gray Bear", at which the possibility of creating a football team in the Innsbrucker Turnverein (ITV), was discussed. The conditions of the Innsbrucker Turnverein were accepted and in the same month the football team of the Innsbrucker Turnverein was founded.

The city magistrate granted permission to use the exhibition space at the exhibition center in Saggen. On June 1, 1903, the first public soccer competition took place in Innsbruck. As part of the 3rd Tyrolean Gauturnfest, the Innsbrucker Turnverein and Meraner TV faced each other. The game ended with a 5-1 win for Innsbruck. With this first game, football in Innsbruck received a powerful boost. However, the games were still limited to internal encounters. Grammar school, secondary school, commercial academy and trade school played for supremacy.

For the first international game, the second FC Bayern Munich set came to Innsbruck on June 26, 1904. The game took place on the occasion of the 1st foundation festival of the ITV football team at the Klosterkasernenhof. The Innsbruck gymnastics club achieved an honorable 1: 1 draw.

Foundation of the Innsbruck football club

But there were more and more internal differences in the Innsbruck gymnastics club. On the one hand the financial burden was high, on the other hand there were concerns on the part of the gymnastics council in terms of nationality. Arthur Ringler struggled to relieve tension in the Innsbruck gymnastics club. Most of the active players in the football team of the Innsbrucker Turnverein felt that their freedom of movement and development was strongly inhibited by the Turnrat. Board member Anton Tschon therefore called for a meeting on April 3, 1905 to discuss the establishment of an independent football club. Just a week later the founding meeting took place in the "Gasthof Bierwastl". 18 people in attendance immediately agreed to join as active players. On May 22nd, 1905, the kk - Lieutenancy for Tyrol and Vorarlberg took note of the association's statutes. This marked the establishment of the “Innsbruck Football Association”.

On June 25, 1905, the second international match between the Innsbrucker Turnverein and MTV München 1879 took place. The Munich team won with a clear 9: 2. It was the last game of the football team of the Innsbrucker Turnverein, which was badly weakened due to the migration of many players to "football Innsbruck". The increasingly blatant contrasts between gymnastics and sport led to the dissolution of the ITV football team . But it was the great merit of the Innsbruck gymnastics club to have created a basis for football in Innsbruck.

The team from MTV Munich , the team that defeated the Innsbruck gymnastics club 9-2, was invited to the opening game of "Fußball Innsbruck" . The game on October 22, 1905 ended with a 5-0 victory for the guests.

The years 1906 to 1908 were coined by Lieutenant Philipp Nauß. The goalkeeper in the first official international football match against Hungary in 1902 was transferred to Innsbruck after the Austro-Hungarian army disapproved of his sporting activities in Vienna. As an enthusiastic footballer, he also joined the “Innsbruck Football Association” in Innsbruck. Nauß's sporting activities in Innsbruck also meant that he was transferred to Herzegovina. His successor as captain was Emil Mitter from Bohemia, who was above all an excellent organizer. The first football championship in Tyrol and Vorarlberg was thanks to his initiative.

On September 29, 1909, the following call was made in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten :

" To promote football in Tyrol and Vorarlberg," Fußball Innsbruck "and FC Lustenau have decided to host a championship in Tyrol and Vorarlberg. "

On October 24, 1909, after a Tyrolean preliminary round against the B-team of “Fußball Innsbruck” and the Realschule, the final match between “Fußball Innsbruck” and FC Lustenau, which the Innsbruck team won 3-2. This was the first joint championship for the “Innsbruck Football Association”.

Split into the Tiroler Sportclub (TSC)

At the general assembly on December 22, 1909, Emil Mitter took over the position of the 1st board member. Anton Tschon resigned because he wanted to devote all his energy to skiing. At this meeting, at the request of Emil Mitter, it was discussed whether to transform itself into a general sports club together with the Innsbruck ice skating club.

Mitters goal was to create a large club in which all sports should be represented. He called a meeting on May 10, 1910. Representatives of the following sports were present: football, track and field and heavy athletics, tennis, land and ice hockey, skiing, bobsleigh, ice skating and cycling. Preparations for a founding meeting were then made. The planned club should be called the Tiroler Sportklub (TSK) . The "Innsbruck Football" should join as the first section. This had already been decided in an extraordinary general assembly on February 17, 1910.

When the Proponent Committee met on June 17, 1910 in the "Breinößl", a controversy arose, as it did at a meeting on April 26, 1910. Many members of "Fußball Innsbruck" resisted joining the Tyrolean sports club and thus the dissolution of the independent football club. Mitter did not find sufficient support from the other clubs present either, and so he first founded a second football club, the Tiroler Sport-Club (TSC) , and turned away from “Fußball Innsbruck”. Since some of the members of “Fußball Innsbruck” - who supported Mitter - migrated to the Tyrolean Sports Club, tensions arose between the “Fußball Innsbruck” and the Tyrolean Sports Club.

The monopoly of the “Innsbruck Football Association” was broken by the Tyrolean Sports Club. Initially, a guerrilla war began between the two clubs, but it damaged both clubs. Eventually they reconciled in the interests of football. A panel of referees was also established. A friendly game was agreed for August 13, 1910, which the “Innsbruck Football Association” won 5-3. Since September 1st, both clubs have been members of the Alpine Football Association based in Graz, and thus also of the Austrian Football Association (ÖFV). Another example of collaboration was the organization of games. The first set of FC Bayern Munich defeated "Fußball Innsbruck" 7-1 on October 9, then the Tyrolean Sport Club 5-1.

In 1911 the "Innsbruck Football" was not very successful. The defeat on April 23 against the Tiroler Sport-Club 2: 3 was particularly painful. The revenge was achieved 3-0 on June 10th. On July 2, a Viennese team made a guest appearance in Innsbruck for the first time with the Wiener Sport-Club , which competed against a combined city selection (Innsbruck football and Tyrolean Sport Club) and won 7-0.

As a result, it happened again and again that active members of the Tyrolean Sports Club participated in the "Innsbruck Football" without being entitled to do so. Due to problems at the Tiroler Sport-Club, the players gradually returned to their home club. The Tyrolean Sport Club refused to give permission. When the players continued to compete for “Fußball Innsbruck”, the complaint was filed with the ÖFV. “Football Innsbruck” defended itself by officially deregistering from the Tiroler Sport-Club.

At the general assembly on February 14, 1912, the club management was commissioned to present to the Austrian Football Association for the subsequent award of the championship title of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The successes against the Tiroler Sport-Club, FC Lustenau, SC Meran and various Bavarian teams should justify the request. For understandable reasons, the ÖFV was unable to accept this request.

In addition to active sporting activities, 1913 also saw the appearance of numerous independent young teams. One problem for the club management was to incorporate the more than 70 active players into the sports business. Numerous internal games were scheduled to allow all members to play. Wilten, the inner city, Hötting and Pradl competed against each other. This satisfied the members' enthusiasm for playing, but the expenses also increased, as most of these games were played without admission. The earnings of the first team were not so high that the operation could be denied by 5 to 8 teams.

In 1914, football had become more and more popular in Innsbruck. The young teams like Kriketer , Punktum , Premiere , Olympia and FC Rapid only had a very unstable basis. On the last two days of June 1914, the youth of FC Bayern Munich made a guest appearance in Innsbruck. Two games against the young team of “Fußball Innsbruck” ended with 2: 2 and 3: 3. During the first game, the news of the attack in Sarajevo arrived. With the outbreak of the First World War , the “Innsbruck Football Association” gradually ceased its activities. In mid-July 1914, the “Innsbruck Football Association” had 104 active members, all of whom had to join.

Renaming to Sportverein Innsbruck (SVI)

After the end of the war, gaming operations were resumed. On February 28, 1919, a general assembly was held at which the name change - after an athletics section had been decided - to Sportverein Innsbruck (SVI). The path that Emil Mitter set out in 1910 has now been taken nine years late.