http://www.uefa.com/footballcentral/news/Kind=4/newsId=72798.html This is a nice read. I looks like two teams from tiny towns are in the top league. I doubt that has ever happened before.
My favorite passage from the article: Quaint beginnings "Formed in 1922 by brothers Matthias, Johann and Edi Sieber, in their early years Mattersburg had no home stadium and had to remove their goalposts at the end of every game as the only place they could find to play was the local cattle market." Thanks, Rob.
For our local league some 20+ years ago, we had to remove the goal posts from school property after every weekend so the children wouldn't hurt themselves on it during the week.
Mattersburg is a phenomena in Austrian soccer. The town has only got 6300 inhabitants, but they've got about 15.000 people in their stadium every game... In the Austrian Cup they played against GAK and had 18.000 (!!!) in the house...
That is truly amazing. I heard they draw from all over the Burgenland... And to think that champion Austria Wien can only draw a meager 6,000 to their games (in a city of 1.5m).
"We might be forced to sign some experienced players ....but we will not sell our soul now that we play in the bundesliga. " We,ve all heard that before , but best of luck you beautiful Burgenlanders.......Prost!!!
Wow that is a great article. I missed it the first time around. I don't know how positive it is to have Pasching in the Premier division, as they draw very poorly. But Mattersburg should be a breath of fresh air with their rabid fan support.
When you take Mattersburg out of that, too much small villages are bad for Austrian soccer. We need some clubs from Linz and Innsbruck on the first level. Also St. Pölten should have one team again. Mattersburg is okay like that, but Pasching, Ried and others aren't good I'd say...