With its strikingly modern new buildings and historical landmarks, Graz is Austria’s second largest city.
First mentioned in a document dating from 1128 the city sits at the intersection of a number of European cultures.
Here Habsburg, Italian, Austrian, Baroque, Romanesque, Slavic, Magyar and Alpine-Germanic influences have combined over the centuries serving to create a very special city character. Throughout Graz, a number of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau sites can be seen and its unique old town has been given UNESCO World Heritage status.
Today the Styrian capital is said to be a world model eco-city and is regarded as being just as important to Austria as the large cultural centers of Vienna and Salzburg. Innovative environmental projects are promoted in the city and its transport infrastructure is on par with anything else that Europe has to offer.
With its mix of historical tradition and new ideas, it is ironic that the two resident football clubs of Graz should also be known for a mix of qualities. But while Sturm Graz founded in 1909 continue to participate at the higher end of the Austrian Bundesliga the other city club Grazer AK are no longer at the top table.
Founded way back on 18th August 1902 as Grazer Athletik Sport Klub the club is better known in Austria as the traditional ‘GAK’.
Between 2000 and 2004 GAK were a hugely successful side domestically.
Despite being Austrian Bundesliga winners in 2004 – and beating Liverpool 1-0 in UEFA Champions League qualifiers – the footballing section of GAK was dissolved in 2012. Numerous years of financial turmoil had taken a toll and the club collapsed in a sudden fashion.
For six months the club ceased to exist and only a youth team continued to represent the club colors.
Like at many clubs a phoenix side was set up by the fans who rallied around soon after the misfortune of bankruptcy. This new club was called Grazer AC and started its new operations from the bottom tier of Styrian football – the 6th tier.
At first, the club was prohibited from using the traditional club emblems and the previous GAK title.
Then, after a number of legal arguments, the new Grazer AC was legally considered to be a continuation of the original ‘GAK’ club at an extraordinary general meeting.
With the decline on the field and an associated loss of sponsorship the club now finds itself playing away from the city’s main sporting stadium the Merkur Arena (the one time Arnold Schwarzenegger-Stadium).
The club plays in the Oberliga Mitte-West and it continues to use the traditional club colors and use the previous Grazer AthletikSport Klub title.
Despite this fall from grace season ticket sales sit at around 1,000 fans and GAK now plays its home matches at the sports center Weinzödl. A rather more humble venue compared to its former home.
The red seats and small compact surroundings continue to give the club some sense of identity as it seeks a way back.
By the late 1990’s Sturm Graz were an unlikely powerhouse within the Austrian game. Traditionally the domestic league has been dominated by the Viennese clubs of Austria and Rapid, but a Graz assault on Austrian football’s power base was launched from the superbly named Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium.
This was a new municipal stadium that was built on the site of GAK’s old Liebenau Stadium.
Now run and owned by a joint public/private body the name of the stadium has changed over the years with the former Governor of California withdrawing the right for his name to be used. The ‘Stadion Graz Liebenau’ stadium name was also removed in 2006. In the same year, it was renamed the UPC Arena after a naming rights issue was promoted. More recently, the Austrian insurance company Merkur Versicherung secured the rights and the stadium was renamed the Merkur Arena.
Grazer AK naturally has a big rivalry with Sturm Graz and a merger of the club’s was resisted during the 1970’s. But with the demise of GAK to the local regional leagues, the fiercely contested Graz derby has gone from the calendar of Austrian football.
At GAK calls have gone out for many absent fans of old to return and mobilise additional support for GAK. They are still regarded as the more traditional of the two Graz clubs.
‘Support your local football club’ states the posters and stickers. The club website meanwhile serves as a rallying point talking of finding a way back and a desire to see the club not go the way of Casino Salzburg and became a energy drink.
It would appear a period of stability is required at GAK before it can launch any energetic assault into getting back to the top three leagues. The Graz derby is a great loss to the Austrian game and it might be some time before the Styrian Derby is seen again in the ‘other’ Bundesliga.
Postscript: After the “GAK” football section folded it played for a number of years in the lower leagues and returned to the Austrian Second League in 2019.
In 2024 they won promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga after a seventeen-year hiatus.
The first derby between the two took place in 1911. On 19 October 2022, a long period without a derby ended when the two clubs met in the last 16 of the ÖFB-Cup.