MATTERSBURG FOOTBALL CLUB FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY

Founded in Austria almost a hundred of years ago, Mattersburg FC informed its fans of the plans for bankruptcy. The club's management is going to admit its insolvency and refuse to participate in the top division of the Austrian Bundesligain the nearest future. The club found itself insolvent, having lost its leading sponsor.

The main sponsor of the club was the commercial bank of Mattersburg. Founded by Martin Pucher in 1995, the bank was mired in a major financial scandal - audits carried out by the Austrian finance department back in 2015 and 2017 revealed a number of problems. However, then they seemed irrelevant.

On July 14, 2020, having discovered a discrepancy in the accounting documents, the financial department decided to temporarily close the bank.

The founder and head of the bank Puher left his post on the same day, after which the prosecutor's office had confirmed its suspicions of falsification of the accounts and abuse of trust regarding FMA.

Martin Pucher, who had worked as a president of the football club for many years, confessed to the Austrian prosecutor's office, saying that he had lost his righteous path because of the big business, regular donations to the football club and tightening requirements of the state regulator for capital reserves. Through his lawyer, he announced that he would fully cooperate with the authorities.

On July 27, 2020, the state administration filed an application to the prosecutor's office to initiate the bank’s insolvency case. Initially, information that appeared in the press stated that the bank had a debt of € 528 million. Later, the amount was clarified and it became known about € 690 million of debt related to non-existent assets (fictitious loans), as well as € 490 million of debt on real deposits.

Many people suffered from the scandal - the bank's clients could not withdraw money from ATMs and make transfers, and paying for purchases with an ATM card became impossible as well. In total, 13,500 “large” clients were affected.

But Mattersburg football club suffered the most from the scandal.

Around € 4.9 million of the football club's annual budget of € 11 million was funded through the sponsorship from Commerzialbank.

There was no one to ensure the participation of the club in the next season. As a result, the athletes of the first team will be asked to leave the club, and the license to participate in the Bundesliga will be returned. This statement was given to the press by the vice-president of Mattersburg, Hans-Georg Deischler.

In recent years, since its debut in the 2003-2004 season, the club has participated in the Austrian top league and has been able to take part in the UEFA Cup several times. However, the club's footballers did not manage to overcome the knockout round. In the season of 2006-2007, the club was able to get bronze medals in the Bundesliga competitions.