There were long rounds of talks that the City Councilor for Sports, Philipp Gruber, had with the Wiener Neustädter clubs. While the corona pandemic presented the clubs with an uncertain future, a model for cooperation was being worked on in the town hall. The result is called “4Football” – a play on words from the German translation “for Football” and the four Wiener Neustädter clubs.
“I am very happy that we were able to reach an agreement on the most important things. This is about a bundling of forces and a significant improvement in quality, ”explains Gruber. Together with Mayor Klaus Schneeberger, the City Councilor for Sports speaks of a “historic step towards the professionalization of youth football in Wiener Neustadt”.
Schneeberger and Gruber continue: “After many unfortunately unsuccessful attempts to bring the clubs under one roof, we have finally succeeded, for which we would like to thank the club officials very much.” Wiener Neustädter clubs for generations. “We’re really looking forward to seeing the first teams in the syndicate celebrate their baptism of fire in the championship.”
Start with three teams
It starts with two years – the U17 and the U15, in the latter two teams are named. “This ensures that each player can receive individual support and that they have a correspondingly large amount of playing time. Everyone can find their place here, “says Gruber, emphasizing an immediate advantage for the children and young people involved.”
In the long term, this project aims to establish Wiener Neustadt as a football city. “With the sports secondary school, the sports high school Zehnergasse and the FH with a focus on sports, we also have many offers outside of the clubs, where we want to use various synergies,” Gruber continues.
Rainer Spenger from WNSC, Heinz Kaindl from Admira, Thomas Hollenthoner from Haidbrunn-Wacker and Rudolf Beier from Club 83 comment on the collaboration: “We have come together in the interests of the future of Wiener Neustädter football and we want completely new paths with ‘4Football’ contest from which everyone ultimately benefits.
The children, because they train more professionally and can regularly compete with the best, the individual clubs, because this gives them opportunities in youth work that would otherwise never have existed and the sports city of Wiener Neustadt, because a new figurehead can emerge does not have academy status, but will be very close in terms of content and structure. “
The quartet of functionaries continues: “The defined goal of this unique project is to offer every young female footballer adequate training.”
“Absolute top man” for the project
Gruber emphasizes that the decisive pillars of this project are the clubs themselves: “You can’t manage and create a story like that. That has to come from the clubs themselves and also be borne by them. And that’s clearly the case here. ”At the head of the project as a sports coordinator is a well-known name in regional football: Jürgen Burgemeister, prospective UEFA A license coach, as a player, coach and sports director with experience in the regional league fitted. “It is always said that the best belong in the next generation – with Jürgen Burge-meister we have been able to win an absolute top man for this task,” says Gruber happily.
Burgemeister is moving from the WNSC coaching bench to the “4Football” command bridge, and informed the team on Tuesday evening that he has accepted a new challenge. “Of course there is also a crying eye because I would have loved to have remained a coach at SC in the Regionalliga. But this project is extremely attractive, which is why I decided to go with it, ”says Burgemeister. Immediately after his acceptance, Burgemeister began to get involved in his new job.
“In any case, I want to be very close and not just stand up three or four trainers and say ‘go ahead, do it!’ My aim is to get to know every player in the three teams after two months. ”The direction of the march is clear:“ We want to create academy-like conditions here and create added value for Wiener Neustädter football. It will be important that the players and their parents see that everyone will benefit from it. ”Burgemeister wants to bring his signature to bear, especially in the tactical area. The departures to surrounding clubs should be smaller. “We want the players to stay here in Wiener Neustadt again and not drive 20 or 30 minutes by car somewhere else – because then they can see that they are working well here,” said Burgemeister.
Further details are still to be clarified – three different working groups (sport, finance, infrastructure), sent by the four respective clubs, work out the details. The location issues must also be clarified. “Where I can reassure the parents and players – it won’t be the case that we change the training location every week,” says Burgemeister.
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