Wacker Innsbruck are a club that practically vanished from professional football several times, but always came back.
In the 1970s, they dominated the Austrian league, winning the national championship five times between 1970 and 1977. In the 77/78 season, they reached the quarter-finals of the European cups. In the 1980s, a series of ownership changes, bankruptcies and name changes began, which lasted for several decades.
After the bankruptcy of the professional company in 2022, Wacker fell all the way to the fifth tier, yet retained the club, its fans and its identity. They then achieved three consecutive promotions and returned to the second division in 2026.
The match against the Black-and-Whites from Bregenz was the first after the club’s return to Austrian professional football. The hosts approached the game without excessive caution, modesty or respect for their more experienced opponents. For the first 24 minutes, Bregenz stayed in the game. Then Wacker scored four goals before the break (the fourth – a wonder – a shot from over twenty metres straight into the top corner), and added a fifth shortly after the restart. The visitors had travelled across almost the entire width of Austria only to discover that the return journey would probably feel considerably longer.
After the opening round, the newly promoted team were top of the table and Bregenz were bottom. League tables can sometimes be misleading. This one required very little interpretation
