FC Dornbirn before relegation: bankruptcy ensures outrage!

FC Dornbirn before relegation: bankruptcy ensures outrage!

Dornbirn, Österreich - The sporting future of FC Dornbirn is on the brink. After the club left the Admiral 2nd league to the Regionalliga West in 2023, the fourth highest division threatens to relegate to the Vorarlberg elite league. This reports laola1 and describes the precarious situation that results from financial problems.

Not only suffers the sporting performance, but the club also has massive financial liabilities of around 849,400 euros. A renovation process was opened at the Feldkirch Regional Court and has now been completed. Due to this bankruptcy, the Regionalliga-West Commission decided that Dornbirn would have to descend because the bankruptcy proceedings were still pending during the current season. This decision is based on paragraph 4 of the regional league regulations.

reactions and protest

chairman Gerhard Ölz is outraged by the decision and plans to take protest. "We did everything to maintain the license and to rehabilitate ourselves," he said, while the reminders of the association were accompanied by anonymous clues. It is regrettable that the commission only worked after receipt of an anonymous notice, although the renovation process was already known four weeks before the championship started.

FC Dornbirn has already taken the first measures in the past time to get out of the crisis. According to Sportsbusiness , employment relationships were ended and the association switched to an amateur operation. In addition, a separation of the first team was carried out by the young team to reduce the financial burden.

The way to the Regionalliga West

The club plans to compete in the Regionalliga West despite the financial difficulties. The regional court will decide on the renovation plan on September 26, while creditors have time until September 12, 2024.

In order to escape from the debt trap, the renovation plan provides for the creditors to offer the creditors a quota of 30 percent of their demands within eight months. Already 210,000 euros have been deposited in trust in order to underpin this agreement. The causes of bankruptcy are diverse and range from financial restrictions during Covid 19 pandemic to interest rate increases and the loss of sponsors.

A new interim board was elected at the end of June with 14 members under the direction of Gerhard Kölz to manage the association's sporting and economic business. The former board member Hubert Domig will process the renovation process, while in the next few months it will be sought intensively for new sponsors to get the club back on course.

The situation of FC Dornbirn is an example of the pitfalls of football, especially in today's world, in which financial pressure and high expectations come together. It is also interesting how other professional clubs can achieve a possible competitive advantage through bankruptcies, such as