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

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SK Sturm Graz

Full name	Sportklub Puntigamer Sturm Graz
Nickname(s)	Die Schwoazn, The Blackies
Founded	1 May 1909; 113 years ago (1 May 1909)
Ground	Merkur Arena
Capacity	16,364 15,400 (international games)
Chairman	Christian Jauk
Manager	Christian Ilzer
League	Austrian Bundesliga
2021–22	Austrian Bundesliga, 2nd of 12
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

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

Foundation

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 success in winning the regional Styrian championship 11 times.^{[citation needed]}

The Anschluss in 1938 made Austria part of the German Third Reich and Austrian clubs became part of German football competition. Sturm played in the opening round of the 1940 Tschammerpokal, predecessor to the modern-day DFB-Pokal. They then qualified to play in the Gauliga Ostmark, one of Germany's top-flight regional leagues, in 1941. The team withdrew part way through the 1941–42 season and was relegated after an 11th-place result in the following campaign.[1]

In 1949, Sturm entered the Austrian national league as the first non-Vienna-based team.

1981: First success

The first great success came under manager Otto Barić, when the club finished runners-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: Start of a new era

In December 1992, Hannes Kartnig was installed as president, naming his close friend Heinz Schilcher as new manager. At the time, 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 instead for a new start using young players from the club's youth setup. In 1993, Milan Đuričić became manager.

1994 to 2002: Osim and European football

In 1994, the Bosnian Ivica Osim took control of the up-to-now unsuccessful Sturm; this proved to be a crucial turning-point in the club's history. Osim succeeded in producing an effective and powerful team using the young and inexperienced players at his disposal, strengthened with a few experienced leading players. The team's first success was as runners-up in the league in 1995. One year later, they won their first title, beating Admira Wacker in the cup final, but wobbling in the league to finish runners-up yet again.

In 1998, Sturm won its first Austrian Bundesliga title, pulling away from the field early on and winning the title with seven games in 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 total, winning the title with 19 points ahead of Rapid Wien. This season also saw the development of the "magic triangle" of Mario Haas, Hannes Reinmayr and Ivica Vastić.

The year 1999 saw Sturm Graz retain the title, securing the treble as they did so (league, cup and super cup), in addition to appearing in the qualification 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 in its group. FC Tirol wrested the domestic title from Sturm's grasp, but the runners-up spot achieved was sufficient for a third trip into the following season's Champions League.

Sensationally, Sturm Graz won its Champions League Group D (against Galatasaray, Rangers and Monaco), reaching the second round for the first time. The league campaign was less successful – a fourth-place finish, the worst under Osim.

After the Champions League exploits, several key players out of the 12 who later left were not suitably replaced. Worse still, this hasty squad redevelopment devoured almost all the profit made from the European campaign. Only a small fraction of the money was invested in youth development to establish an academy. Despite this, the newly assembled team again finished in second place in the league, but failed at the qualification hurdle for the Champions League. This, together with increasing criticism from the club president, precipitated the departure of Osim after eight years at the helm.^{[citation needed]}

2002 to 2009: Consolidation

Franco Foda and Gilbert Gress (seven defeats in nine games) both enjoyed short and fruitless stints as coach, before former sweeper Michael Petrović took control in autumn 2003. He presided over a gradual introduction of young talent, securing the team's place in the top flight in both 2004 and 2005, finishing in seventh position.

Since 2005, Sturm has been facing financial problems and, on 1 September 2006, a petition of bankruptcy was filed by the tax authorities. Because of the financial situation, Sturm was forced to use young players who were soon sold to reconsole the club. Also in 2006, coach Michael Petrović left the club and was replaced by Franco Foda.

2009 to present day: New successes

After a fourth-place finish in 2009, the Blackies qualified for the group stage 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 front of 25,000 of its own fans against Wiener Neustadt. That was the highest number of fans ever travelling to a match in a different state.

In 2010–11, Sturm won the Austrian championship. A highlight of the season was a qualifying match against Juventus in the UEFA Europa League.

In 2011–12, Sturm played in the UEFA Champions League qualification rounds and managed to defeat Hungarian club Videoton and Zestafoni of Georgia. In the play-off, however, Sturm Graz lost against BATE Borisov, thus ensuring qualification to the group stages of the Europa League, where they were grouped with Anderlecht, Lokomotiv Moscow and AEK Athens. At the end of the season, Sturm finished fifth in the Bundesliga and head coach Franco Foda was fired after six years. With his replacement Peter Hyballa, Sturm played strong during the autumn months, but a poor spring resulted in Hyballa's dismissal before the end of the season. Luckily, Sturm managed to fourth in the final league table, albeit with the lowest number of points ever sufficed for fourth place. This ensured Europa League qualification for the subsequent year. Darko Milanič, who won several titles with Maribor in Slovenia, took the reins of the club for the 2013–14 campaign.

Stadium

The traditional home of the team for many years was the Gruabn, which held over 12,000 people – almost exclusively standing – and which was characterised by its narrow playing field and the proximity of the fans to the players. From 1997 to 2005, Gruabn was used just as a training ground and for youth and amateur matches. In 2005, the ground was sold to the city of Graz to relieve the club's financial difficulties. The year 1997 saw the 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

A study published in 2008 by the German market research 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 supported club.[4]

There are several organised fan groups – the biggest and most well-known are Jewels Sturm and the Brigata Graz, which were both founded in 1994, and Grazer Sturmflut, founded two years later in 1996.

Sturm fans have a very strong friendship with fans of German 2. Bundesliga club Karlsruhe. They have also contacts with fans of Werder Bremen and fans from Pisa and Carrara in the Italian league. More recently, they have also had contacts with a group of Maribor ultras.

Sturm have a big rivalry with cross-town rivals Grazer AK, with whom they compete the Graz Derby. In 1974, there was big opposition from both sets of fans against a proposed merger to become "FC Graz." Since 1920, excluding the friendly matches (especially 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 additional 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 place in 1911, the last was dated 17 May 2007. So far, Sturm have won more derby 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 strong dislike of Red Bull Salzburg, unhappy with the acquisition of Austria Salzburg by Austrian energy drink company Red Bull.

Honours

• Austrian Bundesliga

• Champions (3): 1997–98, 1998–99, 2010–11
• Runners-up (7): 1980–81, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2017–18, 2021–22

• ÖFB-Cup

• Winners (5): 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2009–10, 2017–18
• Runners-up (4): 1947–48, 1974–75, 1997–98, 2001–02

• Austrian Supercup

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

• Austrian Amateur Champions (1): 1934
• UEFA Champions League (3 participations): 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01 (2nd Group stage)
• UEFA Cup (11 participations): 1970–71, 1974–75, 1978–79, 1981–82, 1983–84 (Quarter-final), 1988–89, 1991–92, 1995–96, 1999–2000, 2002–03
• UEFA Intertoto Cup (1): 2008 (Joint Winner)[5]

European records

• Q= Qualifying
• P= Preliminary
• PO = Play-off

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away
1970–71	UEFA Cup	1		Ilves	3–0	2–4
		2		Arsenal	1–0	0–2
1974–75	UEFA Cup	1		Royal Antwerp	2–1	0–1
1975–76	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1		Slavia Sofia	3–1	0–1
		2		Szombathelyi Haladás	2–0	1–1
		QF		Eintracht Frankfurt	0–2	0–1
1978–79	UEFA Cup	1R		Borussia Mönchengladbach	1–2	1–5
1981–82	UEFA Cup	1		CSKA Moscow	1–0	1–2
		2		IFK Göteborg	2–2	2–3
1983–84	UEFA Cup	1		Sportul Studențesc	0–0	2–1
		2		Hellas Verona	0–0	2–2
		3		Lokomotive Leipzig	2–0	0–1
		QF		Nottingham Forest	1–1 (AET)	0–1
1988–89	UEFA Cup	1		Servette	0–0	0–1
1991–92	UEFA Cup	1		Utrecht	0–1	1–3
1995–96	UEFA Cup	Q		Slavia Prague	0–1	1–1
1996–97	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1		Sparta Prague	2–2	1–1
1997–98	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1		APOEL	3–0	1–0
		2		AEK Athens	1–0	0–2
1998–99	UEFA Champions League	Q2		Újpest	4–0	3–2
		Group C – 4th		Spartak Moscow	0–2	0–0
				Internazionale	0–2	0–1
				Real Madrid	1–5	1–6
1999–00	UEFA Champions League	Q3		Servette	2–1	2–2
		Group D – 3rd, P		Marseille	3–2	0–2
				Manchester United	0–3	1–2
				Croatia Zagreb	1–0	0–3
1999–00	UEFA Cup	3		Parma	3–3 (AET)	1–2
2000–01	UEFA Champions League	Q2		Hapoel Tel Aviv	3–0	2–1
		Q3		Feyenoord	2–1	1–1
		Group D – 1st, P		Rangers	2–0	0–5
				Galatasaray	3–0	2–2
				Monaco	2–0	0–5
		Group A – 3rd		Valencia	0–5	0–2
				Manchester United	0–2	0–3
				Panathinaikos	2–0	2–1
2001	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2		Lausanne-Sport	0–1	3–3
2002–03	UEFA Champions League	Q3		Maccabi Haifa	3–3	0–2
2002–03	UEFA Cup	1		Livingston	5–2	3–4
		2		Levski Sofia	1–0	0–1 (p 8–7)
		3		Lazio	1–3	1–0
2005	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1		Rànger's	5–0	1–1
		2		VfL Wolfsburg	1–3	2–2
2008	UEFA Intertoto Cup	R		Shakhtyor Soligorsk	2–0	0–0
		3		Budapest Honvéd	0–0	2–1
2008–09	UEFA Cup	Q2		Zürich	1–1 (p 2–4)	1–1
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	Q2		Široki Brijeg	2–1	1–1
		Q3		Petrovac	5–0	2–1
		Play-off		Metalist Kharkiv	1–1	1–0
		Group F – 4th		Dinamo București	0–1	1–2
				Galatasaray	1–0	1–1
				Panathinaikos	0–1	0–1
2010–11	UEFA Europa League	Q3		Dinamo Tbilisi	2–0	1–1
		Play-off		Juventus	1–2	0–1
2011–12	UEFA Champions League	Q2		Videoton	2–0	2–3
		Q3		Zestafoni	1–0	1–1
		PO		BATE Borisov	0–2	1–1
	UEFA Europa League	Group L – 4th		Lokomotiv Moscow	1–2	1–3
				AEK Athens	1–3	2–1
				Anderlecht	0–2	0–3
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	Q2		Breiðablik	0–1	0–0
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	Q3		Rubin Kazan	2–3	1–1
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	Q2		Mladost Podgorica	0–1	3–0
		Q3		Fenerbahçe	1–2	1–1
2018–19	UEFA Champions League	Q2		Ajax	1–3	0–2
	UEFA Europa League	Q3		AEK Larnaca	0–2	0–5
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	Q2		Haugesund	2–1	0–2
2021–22	UEFA Europa League	Play-off		Mura	2–0	3–1
		Group B – 4th		AS Monaco	1–1	0–1
				PSV Eindhoven	1–4	0–2
				Real Sociedad	0–1	1–1
2022–23	UEFA Champions League	Q3		Dynamo Kyiv	1–2 (AET)	0–1
	UEFA Europa League	Group F		Lazio	0–0	2–2
				Feyenoord	1–0	0–6
				Midtjylland	1–0	0–2

Players

Current squad

As of 25 September 2022

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 4 DF  SVN Jon Gorenc Stanković 5 DF  SUI Gregory Wüthrich 6 DF  AUT Aleksandar Borković (on loan from Hoffenheim) 8 MF  AUT Alexander Prass 9 FW  SUI Albian Ajeti (on loan from Celtic) 10 MF  GEO Otar Kiteishvili 11 MF  AUT Manprit Sarkaria 13 FW  AUT Jakob Jantscher 14 DF  AUT Paul Komposch 15 FW  DEN William Bøving 16 MF  AUT Sandro Schendl 17 MF  AUT Vesel Demaku 18 DF  CRO Alois Oroz (on loan from Vitesse) 19 FW  SVN Tomi Horvat 20 FW  NED Emanuel Emegha 21 MF  AUT Samuel Stückler 22 DF  BIH Jusuf Gazibegović

No. Pos. Nation Player 24 DF  AUT Sandro Ingolitsch 25 MF  AUT Stefan Hierländer 26 MF  AUT Christoph Lang 27 GK  AUT Jörg Siebenhandl 28 DF  AUT David Schnegg 29 FW  GHA Mohammed Fuseini 30 MF  AUT Ivan Ljubic 31 GK  AUT Luka Marić 32 GK  AUT Tobias Schützenauer 34 DF  AUT Simon Nelson 35 DF  AUT Niklas Geyrhofer 36 DF  AUT Vincent Trummer 37 DF  AUT Moritz Wels 41 GK  AUT Christopher Giuliani 42 DF  AUT David Affengruber 44 DF  MLI Amadou Dante

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  AUT Dardan Shabanhaxhaj (at Mura until 30 June 2023)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  AUT Luca Kronberger (at Ried until 30 June 2023)

Retired numbers

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  AUT Günther Neukirchner (1989–2006) 7 FW  AUT Mario Haas (1993–2012)

Coaching Staff

Position	Name
First-Team Manager	Christian Ilzer
First-Team Assistant Manager	Uwe Hölzl
First-Team Coach	Dominik Deutschl
First-Team Goalkeeper Coach	Stefan Loch
Mental Coach	Mathias Berthold
Athletic Coach	Marco Angeler
Rehab Coach	Bernd Prorok
Development Coach	Günther Neukirchner
Chief Analyst	Paul Pajduch
Managing Director Sport	Andreas Schicker
Scout	Bruno Friesenbichler Christoph Leitgeb
Director of youth department/Stadium Announcer	Thomas Raffl
Chief instructor	Dietmar Pegam
Team Manager	Martin Ehrenreich

Managerial history

[6]

Club management

Administration

• President: Christian Jauk

Coaching staff

• Coach: Christian Ilzer
• Asst. Coach: Dominik Deutschl, Uwe Hölzl
• Goalkeeping Coach: Stefan Loch
• Youth and Amateur Team Coach: Mohamed Sahli

References

External links

• (in German) Official Website
• Sturm Graz at UEFA.COM
• Sturm Graz at EUFO.DE
• Sturm Graz at Weltfussball.de
• Sturm Graz at Football Squads.co.uk
• Sturm Graz at National Football Teams.com
• Sturm Graz at Football-Lineups.com
• (in German) Onlinenews about Sturm Graz

На других языках

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- [en] SK Sturm Graz

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[es] SK Sturm Graz

El Sportklub Sturm Graz es un equipo de fútbol austríaco, con sede en la ciudad de Graz, Estiria, que juega en la Bundesliga de Austria. El club fue fundado en 1909 y sus colores son el blanco y negro.

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[it] Sportklub Sturm Graz

Lo Sportklub Sturm Graz, ufficialmente Sportklub Puntigamer Sturm Graz per motivi di sponsor, comunemente abbreviato in SK Sturm Graz o solo Sturm Graz, è una società calcistica austriaca con sede a Graz, in Stiria. Milita nellaBundesliga, la massima categoria del campionato austriaco di calcio.

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[ru] Штурм (футбольный клуб)

«Штурм» (нем. Sportklub Puntigamer Sturm Graz) — австрийский профессиональный футбольный клуб из Граца. Клуб был основан в 1909 году группой местных рабочих. Домашней ареной клуба является стадион «UPC-Arena», вмещающий 15 400 человек. Традиционными цветами команды являются чёрный и белый.

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