SK Sturm Graz

austrian professional football clubhouse

football golf club
Sportklub Sturm Graz is an austrian association football club, based in Graz, Styria, playing in the austrian Football Bundesliga. The clubhouse was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and blank.

Reading: SK Sturm Graz

In its history, Sturm Graz has won the austrian football championship three times, in 1998, 1999 and 2011, and participated several times in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Their biggest rivals are Graz neighbours Grazer AK .

history [edit ]

diachronic graph of Sturm Graz league performance

foundation [edit ]

SK Sturm Graz was founded in 1909 as a workers team, as opposed to its neighbours Grazer AK, founded in 1902. between 1921 and 1949, the team enjoyed considerable achiever in winning the regional Styrian championship 11 times. [ citation needed ] The Anschluss in 1938 made Austria separate of the german Third Reich and austrian clubs became part of german football rival. Sturm played in the open round off of the 1940 Tschammerpokal, harbinger to the contemporary DFB-Pokal. They then qualified to play in the Gauliga Ostmark, one of Germany ‘s top-flight regional leagues, in 1941. The team withdrew region room through the 1941–42 season and was relegated after an 11th-place consequence in the watch campaign. [ 1 ] In 1949, Sturm entered the austrian national league as the first non- Vienna -based team .

1981 : First achiever [edit ]

The first great achiever came under director Otto Barić, when the cabaret finished runner-up in the league in the 1980–81 season. In 1983–84, the club battled through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, beaten only by Nottingham Forest through a penalty in extra-time. [ 2 ]

1992 : begin of a new era [edit ]

In December 1992, Hannes Kartnig was installed as president of the united states, naming his close supporter Heinz Schilcher as new director. At the prison term, Sturm was languishing under enormous debts. Sturm qualified for the newly formed Zehnerliga, and Kartnig and Schilcher decided the best course of action would be to abstain from big-name signings, opting rather for a new get down using new players from the club ‘s youth apparatus. In 1993, Milan Đuričić became director .
In 1994, the Bosnian Ivica Osim took control of the up-to-now abortive Sturm ; this proved to be a crucial turning-point in the club ‘s history. Osim succeeded in producing an effective and herculean team using the young and inexperienced players at his disposal, strengthened with a few know leading players. The team ‘s beginning success was as runner-up in the league in 1995. One year subsequently, they won their first base entitle, beating Admira Wacker in the cup final, but wobbling in the league to finish runner-up even again. In 1998, Sturm won its beginning austrian Bundesliga title, pulling away from the field early on and winning the entitle with seven games in hired hand. Sturm set two records during this season ; they remained unbeaten in their first 12 matches, and then for another 19 matches later in the season. At the end of the season, they amassed 81 points, an austrian record full, winning the championship with 19 points ahead of Rapid Wien. This season besides saw the development of the “ magic trick triangle ” of Mario Haas, Hannes Reinmayr and Ivica Vastić. The class 1999 saw Sturm Graz retain the title, securing the double as they did so ( league, cup and super cup ), in accession to appearing in the reservation for the UEFA Champions League. here, however, a scoreless draw with Spartak Moscow proved to be the team ‘s only success. The 1999–2000 season saw Sturm in the Champions League for a second time, finishing third gear in its group. FC Tirol wrested the domestic title from Sturm ‘s grip, but the runner-up touch achieved was sufficient for a one-third slip into the come temper ‘s Champions League. sensationally, Sturm Graz won its Champions League Group D ( against Galatasaray, Rangers and Monaco ), reaching the second base circle for the first base time. The league campaign was less successful – a fourth-place stopping point, the worst under Osim. After the Champions League exploits, several key players out of the 12 who late left were not appropriately replaced. Worse still, this hasty team renovation devoured about all the net income made from the European campaign. entirely a minor fraction of the money was invested in young person development to establish an academy. Despite this, the newly assembled team again finished in moment station in the league, but failed at the qualification vault for the Champions League. This, together with increasing criticism from the club president of the united states, precipitated the departure of Osim after eight years at the helm. [ citation needed ]

2002 to 2009 : consolidation [edit ]

Sturm Graz, 2010 cup winners Franco Foda and Gilbert Gress ( seven defeats in nine games ) both enjoyed short and bootless stints as coach, before former sweeper Michael Petrović took see in fall 2003. He presided over a gradual introduction of young endowment, securing the team ‘s place in the clear flight in both 2004 and 2005, finishing in one-seventh side. Since 2005, Sturm has been facing fiscal problems and, on 1 September 2006, a request of bankruptcy was filed by the tax authorities. Because of the fiscal situation, Sturm was forced to use young players who were soon sold to reconsole the club. besides in 2006, passenger car Michael Petrović left the golf club and was replaced by Franco Foda .

2009 to show day : New successes [edit ]

Former logo After a fourth-place finish in 2009, the Blackies qualified for the group degree of the UEFA Europe League in 2009–10. Their opponents were Galatasaray, Panathinaikos and Dinamo București. In 2010, the Blackies won the ÖFB-Cup in Klagenfurt in presence of 25,000 of its own fans against Wiener Neustadt. That was the highest number of fans always travelling to a match in a different state of matter.

stadium [edit ]

The traditional home of the team for many years was the Gruabn, which held over 12,000 people – about entirely standing – and which was characterised by its narrow toy discipline and the proximity of the fans to the players. From 1997 to 2005, Gruabn was used merely as a train ground and for youth and amateur matches. In 2005, the ground was sold to the city of Graz to relieve the club ‘s fiscal difficulties. The year 1997 saw the baseball club ‘s move to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium, shared between Sturm and its local rivals, Grazer AK. From February 2006, the stadium was called UPC-Arena. In July 2016, Merkur Insurance won the Sponsoring rights for the stadium. The stadium is now called the Merkur Arena .

Fans and the Graz Derby [edit ]

A study published in 2008 by the german market inquiry institute Sport + Markt showed that Sturm have around 360,000 fans across Austria, which is only second to the number of Rapid Wien supporters. [ 3 ] In Europe, there are estimated to be 410,000 fans, which ranks them as the 117th-most support golf club. [ 4 ] There are several mastermind fan groups – the biggest and most long-familiar are Jewels Sturm and the Brigata Graz, which were both founded in 1994, and Grazer Sturmflut, founded two years by and by in 1996. Sturm fans have a identical strong friendship with fans of german 2. Bundesliga club Karlsruhe. They have besides contacts with fans of Werder Bremen and fans from Pisa and Carrara in the italian league. More recently, they have besides had contacts with a group of Maribor ultras. Sturm have a adult competition with crosstown rivals Grazer AK, with whom they compete the Graz Derby. In 1974, there was big opposition from both sets of fans against a proposed amalgamation to become “ FC Graz. ” Since 1920, excluding the friendly matches ( specially before the first official Styrian Cup in 1920 ), 197 matches have been played between the two, of which there were 185 encounters in the league ( 130 at the professional level and 55 at amateur level in the Styrian League ) ; an extra five encounters in the austrian Cup ; one match in the austrian Supercup ; two meetings in the Tschammerpokal and four games in the Styrian Cup. The very first Derby took station in 1911, the last was dated 17 May 2007. thus far, Sturm have won more bowler hat matches than Grazer AK. other rivalries are with the two Vienna clubs ( Austria Wien and Rapid Wien ) due to the history of competition for trophies between the three clubs, and as with most ultras the fans have a firm dislike of Red Bull Salzburg, dysphoric with the acquisition of Austria Salzburg by Austrian department of energy drink company Red Bull .

Honours [edit ]

Winners (3): 1996, 1998, 1999
Runners-up (2): 1997, 2002

european records [edit ]

Q= Qualifying
P= Preliminary
PO = Play-off

Players [edit ]

current squad [edit ]

As of 31 August 2021

note : Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality .

Out on loan [edit ]

note : Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality .

retire numbers [edit ]

notice : Flags indicate home team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality .