125 years ago: first official football game in Austria
November 15, 1894 is a historic day for Austria. On this day 125 years ago, the first official football game took place in Austria. right in the middle, then and now: The First Vienna Football Club 1894.
Something truly epochal happened in Austria 125 years ago. The First Vienna Football Club 1894 challenged the Vienna Cricket Club. It was the first official soccer match between two registered clubs on Austrian soil. The encounter is considered as the birth of football in Austria.
One day before the game between Vienna and Gerasdorf and at the same time one day before Austria's international game against North Macedonia, Austria’s oldest football club commemorates this unique and historic event. “The blue and yellow family is the source of the more than 125-year history of Austrian football. We are proud of that” says Vienna Vice-President Kurt Svoboda, who is confident about the future. “In 125 years we have experienced many ups and downs. Our blue-yellow values are our foundation and our compass at the same time. We don't just want to build on the legendary past, but above all we want to redesign the future of football - in a solid financial and organizationally secure environment. "
On November 15, 1894, the first football game between two registered clubs took place in Austria. 219 spectators, primarily from Vienna's English colony, saw the match between Vienna and the Vienna Cricket Club. The game was played on the so-called “Kuglerwiese” in the 19th district of Vienna in accordance with the then applicable international rules (to halves of 50 minutes with a ten-minute break). The game ended in a 3-0 win for the Cricketers. The return game on the “Jesuitenwiese” in the Viennese Prater also ended with a defeat. It was only in the third game, in spring 1895, that Vienna won for the very first time.
The premiere on November 18, 1894 even earned itself a sidenote in the “Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung”. “The English colony of Vienna had a rendezvous on Thursday in Döbling, and a very respectable audience was in attendance. It was a football match between the First Vienna Football Club and the First Vienna Cricket and Football Club. While the majority of the former club consists of Viennese, the the cricket and football club is entirely made up of English expatriates. The latter, who have been playing ball games for generations, had the upper hand in yesterday's match thanks to the skill of the individual players and their team spirit. They hit the target three times, while their opponents never succeeded. Players and spectators alike had a lot of fun on Sunday, for which the flat terrain on the Hohe Warte stadium opposite the Villa Rothschild was used. English and Austrian gardeners working for Nathaniel Anselm von Rothschild began to play football on his estates. Nathaniel provided them with a field nearby and also donated the team's blue-yellow kits made of jockey costumes from his riding stable." The closing sentence of the report is particularly interesting and amusing: "It would be very desirable that the football game, this wonderful strengthening physical exercise, would spread with us and take root."
“In its early days, football was considered a game for the upper class: the British ambassador also attended the Viennese Derby. At the time, the fields were cordoned off with planks and fences in order to tame the crowd and prevent spectators from entering the field of play. Instead of entrance fees, visitors had to buy a programme which included the respective team line-ups, ”recalls historian and Vienna fan Alexander Juraske in his book, the Vienna soccer bible "Blue and Yellow is my Heart".
Further interesting details: The team of advanced cricketers already wore studs at that time, while the Vienna kickers did not yet have suitable footwear. First Vienna Football Club 1894 was registered as a club one day earlier than the Cricketers, which is why Vienna still operate as First Vienna Football Club 1894, the first and oldest football club in Austria.
In the anniversary year, the six-time Austrian champion and Mitropacup winner launched a number of activities. In July, the German Bundesliga club Union Berlin was invited to the birthday party at the Hohe Warte stadium. On August 22, the actual foundation day of the first and oldest football club in Austria, well-wishers from all over the world came to celebrate. Above all, Mario Kempes: Argentina's top scorer and world champion from 1978 had travelled specially from the US, his adopted country, to honour his former club. From 1986 to 1987 Kempes, El Matador, played in Austria with First Vienna.
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The original newspaper article of the "Allgemeine Sport Zeitung" is available at the Austrian National Library.
Link: http://anno.onb.ac.at/
"Blau-Gelb ist mein Herz", the book about the eventful history of the First Vienna FC 1894 is available at our Webshop for the price of EUR 19,90,-
