The champion has the first word: The ladies of TSV Ottensheim, who only missed the jump into the second league in the last relegation match against GAK (0:5), will open the OÖ league on Friday (6:30 p.m.) at home against the SG Steyr ladies. “We want to play a good role again,” said Moritz Böker, the sporting director.
There is no lack of ambition, and this also applies to the North/East regional league, in which TSV has a “1b” team, “because we want to be a point of contact for all girls and women in our area.” This works well.
The Upper Austria League was actually supposed to start with an even number of participants (10) like last year, but in the end it will be a nine-team concert again. Perg/Windhaag had to stop playing in the winter after a bloodletting, and at the end of the transfer period on July 15th SPG SV Guntamatic Ried/Antiesenhofen/Weilbach, third in the last season, also pulled the emergency brake. “We had no other choice,” said sports director Stephanie Winklhofer-Ranftl, commenting on the withdrawal from the country’s top league.
In addition to three (still bearable) departures, six more were added on the so-called deadline day – all of them regular players who are said to have previously said yes to the Innviertel team.
The wave of departures hit Winklhofer-Ranftl like a bolt from the blue. Without a chance to react: “We were in shock, you have to digest something like that first.” Legal consequences are not to be expected: “We didn’t have to let the players go, but we don’t want to force anyone. A fresh start (in the women’s class South/West, note) is always an opportunity.”
One quintet has at least not seen things get worse in sporting terms and has found a new home at SPG Zaunergroup Wallern/Krenglbach. The 2023/24 Upper Austrian League runner-up starts on Sunday (4 p.m.) against newly promoted LASK 1c – perhaps even with title ambitions.
