Josef Freund as first president of the FAC
The Floridsdorfer AC was founded in August 1904 by a group of adolescents along with a few adults and played its first games from then on. The first president in the history of the club was Josef Freund. Franz Schwarz was the first to take over the operative day-to-day business, before Thomas Daubek, the secretary, took over the field of activity. Already some years before the founders dedicated themselves with enthusiasm with the association under the name „Spielvereinigung” on the Iserfeld am Mühlschüttel in Floridsdorf to the football sport.
The first game of the FAC
The first game was played on 09.07.1905 against the Viennese team “Liverpool”. The name was changed to Floridsdorfer Athletik-Klub in November 1905. Under the new name the Floridsdorfer athletes could win a brilliant 7:0 victory against Orion on 18.11.1905. In June 1906 the 1. Floridsdorfer A.C. was accepted as the 20th Viennese club into the Austrian Football Association.
Kant victories and a new home
The structural and sporting development progressed rapidly. Numerous successes and cantonal victories were achieved. In mid-June 1906, the still young association already had 3 teams and the clubhouse in Andreas Platzers Gasthaus in Rautenkranzgasse 33 in the 21st district. The clubs played were Sport Club Slovan, Sport Vereinigung Rudolsfshügel, 1. Simmeringer Sport Club, Fußball Club Wiener Kicker, Währinger Bicycleklub, Sport Club Red Star, Fußball Club Ostmark, Olympia and Die weißen Elf. In September, a further highlight followed: The game on the Hohe Warte against a major club of Vienna – the second team of First Vienna FC. Another event was the opening of the first home of the Floridsdorfer AC, the “Birner-Platz”, where about 1000 fans usually met to watch the blue-white ball artists on their feet (07.10.1906). On 14 October 1906 a new square was opened at the Nordbahnbrücke with a match against SK Slovan Vienna in front of another 1000 spectators. The old course was taken over by SC Hakoah Wien.
A national player from the FAC
On 09.07.1907 one took part in the Viennese Cup, which had been newly founded. There the FAC surprisingly defeated Rapid Vienna and made it into the Vienna Cup final, where they narrowly lost against the First Vienna FC: 1:0.
Due to good performances, the association decided to place the FAC in the 1st division at the beginning of the 1908/09 season. For the first time they played at eye level with clubs like Cricketers, First Vienna FC, Sportclub or Rapid Vienna. In the autumn of 1908, the old square was transferred to Vienna Viktoria, during which time the club only played in foreign stadiums. From 8 May 1909, the team celebrated successes in its new home – the “Floridsdorf Sportplatz” and parted company with a 3:3 draw against Vienna in the first game. After successful matches against Rapid Vienna, the then top Viennese club WAC and their favorite opponent, Wiener Austria, they continued to play in the highest league for the next few years and also played a match in Budapest against the Hungarian renowned club Ferencvaros. With goalkeeper Heinrich Plhak, the first FAC player not only managed to play in the Viennese selection but also for the Austrian national team in the autumn of 1913. And the FAC also attached great importance to the youth from now on. From November 1913 onwards, the club was to be on everyone’s lips with a specially founded junior club due to its pupils.
The championship title for the FAC
In both 1916 and 1917, they achieved the runner-up title and only Rapid Wien had to admit defeat with two points each. In the 1917/18 season, however, the Floridsdorf AC turned the tide. Thanks to a better goal ratio, the team became Austrian football champions for the first time but also for the last time before Rapid.
Also the Cup could be won
The Floridsdorfer AC even managed to win the double. In the final match of the cup the Floridsdorfer won 4:3 against the Wiener Amateur-Sportverein. However, the match should have taken place a week earlier, both teams agreed to postpone the match due to the heavy rain without the approval of the federation. The Austrian Football Association thus ruled out recognition of the match as a cup final match in advance and refused to hand over the cup to the winner.
Hard times for the FAC
After the First World War, the Floridsdorfer AC could no longer follow the previous successes. Injuries plagued the club in particular, which after a few mediocre seasons in 1923 finally found itself on a relegation spot. This relegation, however, was somewhat unfortunate. The number of clubs in the first league was reduced from 13 to 12, so the eleventh – in this case the Floridsdorf AC – also had to relegate to the second division. In addition, the club protested against the tenth in the table, Wiener AF, who had used players who had been blocked in several matches illegally. The Floridsdorfer AC was right, but at this point he was already playing in 2nd class. As a weak consolation, the club could nevertheless call itself “first-class”.
Introduction of an all-Austrian league
In the 2nd Class North the Floridsdorfer AC became first with one point behind the Viennese AC Vice-Champion. One year later, in 1925, they were champions and returned to the Vienna League. In the years that followed, they were successful in the highest Austrian league, but never made it past fifth place in the table. In 1933 the Floridsdorfer AC took over the old place of the Admira in the Deublergasse. The biggest success in this period was the participation in the international Mitropacup. In the 1938 season, the Floridsdorfer AC reached only 8th place and had to relegate, since the introduction of an all-Austrian league in this year, no less than four Viennese clubs had to relegate in favor of the new clubs from the provinces.
The FAC is first class again
At the time of the Second World War, however, the Floridsdorf AC gained strength again. In 1940, the club merged with their district rivals SV Amateure Fiat Wien to return to Austria’s top league, the then called Gauliga. From 1940 to 1945 due to the war they also merged with FC Stadlau.
Fight against relegation
Here the club played again for the title and became 1943/44 even vice champion behind the First Vienna FC. After the end of the Second World War, the Floridsdorfer AC played against relegation for almost ten years. The club had to let good players such as Robert Dienst, who would later score 307 goals in the championship for Rapid, go. In 1954, the club finally finished last in the A-League and relegated to the B-League. The first season in the B-League ended in fourth place, but in the following season, the Floridsdorf AC were relegated from national league B.
Between second and fourth class
After the Floridsdorfer AC became champions of the third-class called Wiener Stadtliga in 1959, they were relegated directly to the bottom of the table in 1960. In 1966, the club found a new home at the old Admira-Platz in Hopfengasse, but had no major successes. In 1967 the club played in a second-rate league for the last time, but had no chance. In the 1970s they remained in the third-class Regionalliga. In 1980 they missed the championship title and the promotion to the 1st division of the Bundesliga only due to the goal difference with SC Neusiedl am See. In the meantime, the Floridsdorfer AC had to accept relegation to the fourth division.
Formative times
In 1990 the club merged with the SV Groß Viktoria to form the FAC Viktoria Wien and in the 1996/97 season was promoted to the Regionalliga Ost with the championship title of the Wiener Stadtliga. After winning the title, the merger with Viktoria was resolved in the summer of 1997. In three consecutive seasons (2001 to 2003), the Floridsdorfer AC became vice champion of the Regionalliga Ost. In 2004 they were once again relegated to the Wiener Stadtliga and merged with the FK Old Formation-RAG Feibra (founded 1985). In the season 2006/07 the club played as FAC-OFR in the Wiener Stadtliga.
On 18 June 2007, the club decided to merge with the PSV Team für Wien starting in the 2007/08 season. Since then the club has been known as FAC Team für Wien. In 2014 the name Team für Wien was deleted from the club name.
Champion of the Regionalliga Ost
After the merger, the 2007/08 season saw a narrow miss out on advancing to the first league, the FAC became second in the league. In the 2008/09 season, the club took ninth place. In 2014, the FAC became champion of the Regionalliga Ost and played in the relegation against SV Austria Salzburg, the champion of the Regionalliga West, for the promotion to the second Austrian league, and surprisingly won the away game 3:0, after they had separated 2:2 in the home game. The FAC, coached by Hans Kleer, returned to the second-rate professional league in Austria after 47 years.
The FAC in the second Austrian league
The 2014/15 season was difficult and the club was at the bottom of the table for the whole season. In April 2015, the FAC finally separated from coach Kleer, who was replaced by Peter Pacult. Pacult managed to keep the league. In September 2015, after a catastrophic start to the season, he had to leave suffering 10 defeats in the first 10 matches of the season and the out in the Austrian cup against Lankowitz FC. He was temporarily replaced by Thomas Flögel. Until the winter break, the FAC achieved only 5 points out of 19 games.
At the end of the season, the FAC took the last place with 17 points from 36 games and was thus determined as a fixed relegation.
However, as the league competitor SV Austria Salzburg relegated to the Regionalliga due to financial problems and the relegated Bundesliga club (SV Grödig) did not apply for a licence to play professionally, the FAC remained in the first league for the 2016/17 season.
For the 2017/18 season, Thomas Eidler, the new head coach, took over the FAC team. Despite a weak start to the season, the team hibernated with a five-point lead over the last of the table, Blau Weiß Linz. Shortly after the start of the spring season, Thomas Eidler announced his resignation to take up a position at the Austrian football association. Mario Handl, coach of the FAC amateurs and co-coach of the professional team, took over the position until the end of the season. The highlight of a good second half of the season was the 2-0 away win against Wacker Innsbruck on the last matchday. It was the first victory of an FAC team at the Tiroler Tivoli in the club’s history, which earned the FAC ninth place at the end of the season. Due to league reforms a relegation in the 2017/18 season would not have been possible.
The FAC presented Oliver Oberhammer as new head coach for the 2018/19 season, before the end of the season 2017/18. After a change of coach during the 2018/19 winter break, Andreas Heraf acted as head coach of the FAC, but in May 2019 there was already an amicable separation between the Viennese and the FAC. After a few matches as interim coach, Mario Handl was confirmed as head coach for the 2019/20 season. Aleksandar Gitsov has been his assistant coach since the beginning of the 2019/20 season and has also been the head coach of the FAC amateurs ever since.
In summer 2020 Miron Muslic became headcoach of Floridsdorfer AC. After 16 games and 23 points he returned to SV Ried. In January 2021 Roman Ellensohn signed his first professional contract as coach with FAC. Due to missing success Floridsdorfer AC announced the severance of all ties with Roman Ellensohn in April 2021. The former assistant coaches Mitja Mörec and Aleksandar Gitsov took the position temporarily over. They have reached the assigned goal for the season 2020/21 so the coaches remained for the following playing period 2021/22 which turned out to be the best result in the history in the second division for the club. In UNIQA ÖFB-Cup Floridsdorfer AC reached the quarter finals and lost against Bundesliga-club Wolfsberger AC after overtime. In the championship ADMIRAL 2. Liga FAC completed the league as vice-champion with 65 points. Five points were missing for the promotion to Austrian Bundesliga. In summer 2022 Floridsdorfer AC announced a cooperation with women’s second division team from Floridsdorf USC Landhaus. They will play as SG FAC – USC Landhaus from season 2022/23 in the women’s football championship.
