Extreme Football Tourism: AUSTRIA: SV Mödling (1923-1939, 1945-1950, 1953-1978?) / SV Mödling-Neudorf (1939-1945) / VfB Union Mödling (1950-1953) / ESV Admira Energie (1966) / VfB Mödling (1978?-1997) / VfB Admira Wacker Mödling (B) (1997-2006?) / FSV Fortuna Mödling (2024-)

Stadion der Stadt Mödling, Mödling (FSV Fortuna Mödling, formerly SV Mödling / SV Mödling-Neudorf / VfB Union Mödling / ESV Admira Energie / VfB Mödling / B ground of VfB Admira Wacker Mödling)

Austria, state: Lower Austria = Neder-Oostenrijk

October 2024 / no match visited

Timeline

1911 / At the instigation of Franz Zimmermann, a former player of Wiener SC originally hailing from Mödling, a football club is founded in his home town, Sportvereinigung (SV or SVg) Mödling. The club’s first chairman is Viktor Schmiedel, with a pitch being laid out that same year at the Gelände des Hyrtl’schen Waisenanstalt.
1912 / Moving away from the Gelände des Hyrtl’schen Waisenanstalt, SV Mödling settles at the so-called Königswiese. That same year, the club takes part in Lower Austria’s provincial championship for the first time.
1913 / In its first competitive season, SV Mödling finishes as runners-up in the Southern Group of the Lower Austrian Championship, behind winners Germania Schwechat.
1923 / Moving away from the Königswiese, SV Mödling settles at a newly laid-out pitch at Duursmagasse, later renamed Stadion der Stadt Mödling.
1928 / SV Mödling wins its first-ever league title, though it is unclear at which level of the Lower Austrian league pyramid. The club stays put in Lower Austria’s local divisions until after World War II.
1939 / SV Mödling merges with SV Wiener Neudorf, in what may have been a so-called Kriegsspielgemeinschaft (KSG) or War Association Agreement – a modus vivendi chosen by many clubs in Austria during the war years, as the German onslaught in World War II requires more and more cannon fodder, with an increasing number of clubs in Austria finding it impossible to field a representative team as a result. Be that as it may, the merger club SV Mödling-Neudorf is disentangled after the war.
1948 / SV Mödling crown themselves champions in the Lower Austrian State League (Landesliga Niederösterreich), 6 points ahead of runners-up SC Harland. As there is no nationwide league yet in post-war Austria, the club does not have the opportunity to win promotion.
1950 / Finishing in third place in the Lower Austrian State League, SV Mödling is placed in the newly created Staatsliga B, the second tier of the new national league pyramid. For the 1950-51 season, the club adopts a new name, VfB Union Mödling.
1952 / Clinching the title in Staatsliga B, 1 point ahead of closest followers Grazer SC, VfB Union Mödling wins promotion to Staatsliga A, the top flight of Austrian football, for the first time.
1953 / VfB Union Mödling drops out of Staatsliga A in the most dramatic of fashions, tying ninth to twelfth place with LASK, SK Sturm Graz, and FC Wien, but having the worst goal difference of the four clubs (-27 vs. -23 for FC Wien), thus dropping back into Staatsliga B after just one season, along with Grazer SC and bottom club Salzburger AK 1914. Following the 1952-53 season, VfB Union Mödling reverts to its old name, SV Mödling.
1954 / Finishing in tenth place in Staatsliga B, SV Mödling suffers its second relegation in a row, dropping back to the State League level along with KSV Ortmann, SK Vorwärts Steyr, SV Urfahr Linz, SV Mattersburg, and bottom club ASV Seegraben.
1955 / Finishing bottom of the table in Lower Austria’s State League, SV Mödling suffers its third relegation in a row, dropping back to the Second Lower Austrian State League (or ‘Unterliga’), the fourth tier of Austria’s league pyramid, along with Zuckerfabrik Leopoldsdorf and Badner AC.
1956 / Suffering a fourth relegation in a row, SV Mödling drops back from the Unterliga into Lower Austria’s 1. Klasse, the fifth tier of Austria’s league system.
1958 / In a fifth relegation in six seasons, SV Mödling drops back from Lower Austria’s 1. Klasse into the 2. Klasse, the sixth tier of Austria’s league pyramid.
1959 / Clinching the title in the South-Eastern Group of Lower Austria’s 2. Klasse, SV Mödling wins promotion back to the 1. Klasse after just one season.
1964 / SV Mödling wins promotion from the 1. Klasse to the Second Lower Austrian State League, the fourth tier of Austria’s league system.
1966 / Vienna top flight club ESV Admira Energie, fresh double winners (nationwide title, 3 points ahead of runners-up SK Rapid, and winner of the Austrian Cup, defeating SK Rapid in the final, 1-0) moves away from its historic Leopold-Stroh-Stadion at Hopfengasse in Vienna at the instigation of sponsors NEWAG NIOGAS, who own a plot of land in Maria Enzersdorf, to the south of the Austrian capital, where a new stadium is being built for the club. Admira settles for a short groundshare with SV Mödling in the Stadion der Stadt Mödling before moving into the new Bundesstadion Südstadt, although building works on the projected ground are still ongoing, at the start of the second half of the 1966-67 season.
1970 / Dropping out of the Second Lower Austrian State League, SV Mödling drops back into the Lower Austrian 1. Klasse.
1976 / Runners-up in the South-Eastern Group of Lower Austria’s 1. Klasse, SV Mödling wins promotion to the Second Lower Austrian State League – by now the sixth tier of Austria’s league system. The club must have suffered a relegation in 1977 or 1978, but no information is available on the matter.
1978 / Businessman Hans-Werner Weiss takes over the club with the ambition to move it up the league ladder as quickly as possible. Weiss’ takeover may have coincided with the club changing its name from SV Mödling to VfB Mödling, but information about this name change has sadly not been found yet (Do you know more about this matter? Feel free to get in touch with me; the year 1992, given in some sources, is obviously false).
1979 / Winning the title in the Unterliga Süd-Südost, VfB Mödling wins promotion to the Oberliga, the fifth tier of Austria’s league pyramid.
1980 / Winning the title in Lower Austria’s Oberliga Ost, VfB Mödling wins promotion to the Second Lower Austrian State League, the fourth tier of Austria’s league pyramid.
1981 / Winning the title in the Second Lower Austrian State League, VfB Mödling accedes to the (First) Lower Austrian State League, the third level of Austria’s league system.
1985 / Clinching the title in Lower Austria’s State League, VfB Mödling fails to win promotion to the 2. Division in the play-offs against the title-winners of the Viennese and Burgenland State Leagues, with SV Schwechat (Vienna) walking away with the promotion ticket, ahead of VfB Mödling and USV Rudersdorf. For the 1985-86 season, VfB Mödling is placed in the newly created Regionalliga Ost.
1986 / Clinching the title in the Regionalliga Ost, 2 points ahead of derby rivals 1. Wiener Neustädter SC, VfB Mödling accedes to the 2. Division.
1987 / Finishing as runners-up in the regular 2. Division season, 1 point behind SV Austria Salzburg, VfB Mödling goes on to win the promotion-relegation play-off, acceding to the 1. Division after an absence of 34 years in the top flight of Austria’s football pyramid.
1988 / Finishing bottom of the table in the regular 1. Division season, VfB Mödling fails to stave off relegation in the promotion-relegation play-off, finishing in eighth and last place and dropping back into the 2. Division after just one season. That same season, the club reaches the semifinal of the Austrian Cup for the first and only time in its history, following wins over SV Neuberg, SV Feldkirchen, First Vienna FC 1894, and FC Kufstein. In the semis, eventual cup winners Kremser SC bar the way to the final with a 3-1 win (A.E.T.).
1990 / Runners-up in the regular 2. Division season behind winners SV Spittal an der Drau, VfB Mödling fails to follow up on this success in the promotion-relegation play-offs, missing out on promotion to the 1. Division.
1991 / Winners of the regular 2. Division season, 1 point ahead of closest rivals SK VOEST Linz, VfB Mödling yet again fails to achieve promotion in the promotion-relegation play-offs. Also in 1991, former Austrian international defender, 31-year-old Josef Degeorgi (30 caps between 1982 and 1990 & part of Austria’s squad in the 1982 World Cup), joins VfB Mödling from FK Austria Wien. Degeorgi stayed in Mödling for two seasons, hanging up his boots in 1993.
1992 / Finishing in third place in the regular 2. Division season, VfB Mödling manages to qualify for the 1. Division in the promotion-relegation play-offs along with LASK and Wiener SC.
1993 / For the first time in club history, a VfB Mödling player is called up for the Austrian national side. In what was to remain his only international match, defender Michael Zisser scored the only Austrian goal in a 1-3 home defeat against Finland. In fact, Zisser earns himself a transfer to SK Rapid (Vienna) later that same year.
1994 / In the most successful season in club history, VfB Mödling, coached by legendary former Austrian superstar striker Hans Krankl, finishes in sixth place in the 1. Bundesliga.
1995 / Finishing bottom of the table in the 1. Bundesliga, VfB Mödling descends into the 2. Bundesliga after three years of top flight football, along with FC Linz.
1997 / In its last season as an independent club, VfB Mödling finishes in thirteenth place in the 2. Bundesliga, enough to stay up at that level. Following the 1996-97 season, the club accepts an offer to merge with top flight team SCN Admira Wacker from nearby Maria Enzersdorf, which finds itself in grave financial problems. In fact, the club finish bottom of the table in the Bundesliga, staving off direct relegation due to FC Linz concluding a merger with LASK – as a result of which Admira takes over FC Linz’s place in the promotion-relegation play-off against SK Vorwärts Steyr, which is won (5-1 aggr.). The new merger club of SCN Admira Wacker and VfB Mödling is given the name VfB Admira Wacker Mödling. First team football is naturally played at the Bundesliga Südstadt, with the much more modest Stadion der Stadt Mödling being retained for lower team football for the time being.
2006 / Lower Austria Titans, an American football club from nearby Maria Enzersdorf, moves from Bundesstadion Südstadt, where it groundshared with VfB Admira Wacker Mödling, to the Stadion der Stadt Mödling. This probably coincided with VfB Admira Wacker Mödling giving up the stadium in Mödling as its B ground. Lower Austria Titans later changed their name to become AFC Rangers Mödling.
2024 / A new football club is founded in Mödling, FSV Fortuna Mödling, which is allowed by Mödling’s municipal authorities to move into the Stadion der Stadt Mödling as groundsharers with American football club AFC Rangers Mödling, starting its life in the East/Central Group of Lower Austria's 2. Klasse, the ninth tier of Austria's league pyramid.