“We have achieved something historic again,” cheered Agan Fejzic, chairman of Austria’s futsal champions FC Diamant Linz. Even though his team missed out on promotion to the next elite round by finishing third in the main round of the Champions League in Catania, Italy, the blue-whites can be proud of themselves.
On the national holiday of all days, the Upper Austrians achieved another milestone in the red-white-red futsal history with a 5-2 win against the Luxembourg representative Differdange: It was the highest victory to date for a club from Austria in the premier class. Donau-Linz attacker Edwin Skrgic was the man of the game with two goals. Fejzic: “It’s the most that a team from Austria has achieved internationally so far. The Champions League trip was really cool.” In the hall of the host club, at the Italian champions Meta Catania, the Linzers immersed themselves in another world. “Meta Catania was certainly the biggest opponent we have played against in our club’s history. They regularly fill the hall with 5,000 visitors and have a budget of almost a million euros. Those are different dimensions,” says Fejzic. For comparison: Linz’s budget is almost 20 times smaller.
“Our team has potential”
The difference was also noticeable on the floor: against the Italians there was a 2:7 defeat in front of Austria’s national futsal coach Patrik Barbic. For Fejzic, the result is secondary: “We can take so much from these games.”
The first duel against the Lithuanian club Kauno Zalgiris was also lost 0:5. With the experience we have gained, the next step in development should now be successful: “We started nervously against the Lithuanians and made a few mistakes of our own. But we saw that our team has potential. If we take the next step, we can win something against them too. We demolished the Luxembourgers, even though they also have a much bigger budget than us. But we are an amateur club that is on the rise.” Compared to the Football Champions League, the big sums weren’t at stake anyway: but by qualifying for the main round, the travel costs were at least halfway covered.
Yesterday morning, the diamond footballers took the flight home from the Sicilian port city – once they got home, there was hardly any time to catch their breath: the Linz team landed in Vienna at 11 a.m., and at 5 p.m. they were in the 1st ÖFB Futsal League against Pharaohs FSC again in the hall and finally celebrated a 3-2 win. Upper Austria’s model club has long had its sights set on its next goals. Fejzic: “We want to become champions again and continue to grow.”
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