This week’s headline had it all: Second division football team SV Guntamatic Ried announced a cooperation with the traditional German club Schalke 04.
Tomorrow’s opponent SKN St. Pölten (10.30 a.m., Innviertel Arena) can also serve as a warning example for the Innviertel team when it comes to such collaborations: the Lower Austrians entered into a close partnership with the German Bundesliga club Wolfsburg in the past.
The Germans should help financially and with kickers to ensure that the return to the Bundesliga is successful. However, after the top club’s exit, St. Pölten was on the verge of elimination. In Ried, the partnership should be lived differently. “You can’t really compare the collaborations. We’re entering into a partnership with no performance, and there’s no money flowing in either,” explains Ried sports director Wolfgang Fiala, who also says: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for small clubs to succeed. You have to think about whether “How to stay fit for the future. We don’t want an investor, we’re pursuing the concept of a partner association.”