SV Lafnitz

Full name	Sportverein Lafnitz
Founded	1964; 60 years ago (1964)
Ground	Sportplatz Lafnitz[1]
Capacity	2,000
Owner	Bernhard Loidl
Chairman	Walter Kogler
Manager	Robert Weinstabl
League	2. Liga
2023–24	2. Liga, 10th of 16
Website	http://www.sv-licht-loidl-lafnitz.at/
colours colours
Current season

Sportverein Lafnitz (commonly known as SV Licht-Loidl Lafnitz for sponsorship purposes) is an Austrian association football club from Lafnitz. They currently play in the Austrian 2. Liga after their promotion in 2018 and play their home games at the Sportplatz Lafnitz in Lafnitz.

The club, which is a part of the Styria Football Association, was founded in 1964 and played predominantly in the lower leagues within Styria.

With the takeover of the chairmanship by Bernhard Loidl, who previously supported the club with his company Licht Loidl as a sponsor, in 2009, the club achieved great sporting success. At two-year intervals, championship titles were celebrated, with which, by 2013, the rise from the sixth to the third division in Austria, the Regionalliga Mitte, was achieved.

At the same time, in 2011 and 2012, the old, dilapidated sports field was transformed into a new, smart football arena with a new clubhouse and new grandstand. Although the municipality has only 1,400 inhabitants, the capacity of the stadium holds about 2000 spectators. While an average of around 800 spectators visited the home matches in the national league, there are currently around 1000 visitors in the regional league, most of whom come from neighboring Burgenland. About 100 fans accompany the team to away games.

The players of the team generally come from the region, which makes them popular with supporters. There are currently some former players from neighboring second division TSV Hartberg at SV Lafnitz.

Two players made the leap into professional football via Lafnitz: the Croatian Domagoj Bešlić, who moved to the second division club Austria Klagenfurt in 2015 before returning to Lafnitz in January 2018, and Albert Vallci, who joined the second division club SV Horn in 2016.

Christian Waldl, who is in possession of the UEFA A license, arrived in the summer of 2012 from the USV Hartberg Umgebung and he succeeded right away to lead the team to the title in the Landesliga Steiermark. In September 2015, they parted company with Waldl. Waldl's successor was former Austrian international Ferdinand Feldhofer.

In the first season under Feldhofer (2015–16) the team finished in sixth place. In 2016–17, they finished just two points behind the champions TSV Hartberg in second place. In 2017–18 Lafnitz, who were top of the league from the 13th game, guaranteed their promotion to the 2. Liga with a 3–0 victory over Wolfsberger AC at the 26 game. Just two games later, the team sealed the championship title in the Regionalliga Mitte with a 3–1 victory over local rivals FC Gleisdorf 09.

Since their promotion to the 2. Liga in the 2018–19 season, Lafnitz has steadily climbed the table each year. After Feldhofer's departure at the end of 2019, current coach Philip Semlic has led the squad to finish as high as 4th place in the 2021-22 2. Liga and took them to a 3rd round appearance in the 2021-22 Austrian Cup.

As of 2 August, 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  AUT Gabriel Suprun 2 MF  FRA Enzo Mougnol 4 DF  AUT Sebastian Feyrer 5 MF  AUT Vincent Spari 6 MF  AUT Johannes Schriebl 7 MF  GER Luca Butkovic 8 MF  AUT Philipp Siegl 9 FW  GER Timon Burmeister 10 FW  BEL Edon Murataj 11 FW  AUT Jakob Knollmüller 12 FW  FRA Kylian Silvestre 13 MF  GER Justin Hofmann 14 FW  SUI Yvan Alounga 15 DF  GER Tim Meyer

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF  AUT Stefan Trimmel 17 MF  AUT Andreas Radics 18 DF  AUT Florian Freissegger 19 FW  BIH Zvonimir Plavcic 20 MF  BIH Ermin Mahmic 21 GK  GER Kimi Løkkevik 22 MF  SUI Burak Alili 23 FW  NED Mink Peeters 24 DF  AUT Christoph Pichorner 26 MF  AUT Michael Preisinger 27 MF  AUT Denis Dizdarevic 28 DF  NED Alvaro Henry 33 GK  AUT Kilian Schröcker

Position	Staff
Head coach	Philipp Semlic
Athletic coach	Denny Krcmarek
Assistant coach	Rainer Wohlmuth
Assistant coach	Daniel Siegl
Video Analyst	Michael Steiner
Goalkeeper coach	Daniel Breier
Team manager	Thomas Zingl
Physiotherapist	Benjamin Ebner
Massagist	Ferenc Jakab

No.	Head coach	Nationality	From	Until	Days
1	Norbert Krutzler	Austria	1 August 2008	14 February 2010	531
2	Johannes Sauhammel	Austria	15 February 2010	30 June 2012	866
3	Christian Waldl	Austria	30 July 2012	26 September 2015	1153
4	Rainer Wohlmuth (interim)	Austria	25 September 2015	9 October 2015	14
5	Ferdinand Feldhofer	Austria	10 October 2015	23 December 2019	1535
6	Philip Semlic	Austria	3 January 2020

Position	Staff
Head coach	Klaus Guger
Assistant coach	Andreas Pichlbauer
Video Analyst	Patrick Mikovits
Massagist	Marco Wilfinger Verena Schocher

• Austrian Regionalliga Mitte (III)
  • Winners (1): 2017–18
  • Runner-ups (1): 2016–17
• Landesliga Steiermark (IV)
  • Winners (1): 2012–13
• Oberliga Süd/Ost (V)
  • Winners (1): 2010–11, 2017–18 ‡
• Unterliga Ost (VI)
  • Winners (1): 2008–09
  • Runner-ups (1): 2016–17 ‡
• Gebietsliga Ost (VII)
  • Winners (1): 2015–16 ‡
• 1. Klasse Mitte A (VIII)
  • Winners (1): 2014–15 ‡

‡ Reserve team

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