ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish football club in Austria has one stage left to make it to the highest league in the country, but they say they need a lot of financial support that they do not currently have. Another struggling Kurdish team in Sweden is at risk of bankruptcy if they do not get funding soon.
“In 2017 there were no Kurdish teams here but many players, so as a group of young people we thought ‘why don’t we start a team?’ In 2017 we built the team,” Sharif Majdo, one of the founders of FC Kurd Wien in Austria, told Rudaw.
“We are playing the Oberliga currently and have one stage left to become professionals… Once you make it to the pros you need a lot of support and we do not have the capabilities to make that happen,” Majdo said.
Kurd Wien has players from all over the world, not only Kurds.
“We ask our Kurdish people to help this club. We do not have any support and need all our Kurds to help us,” said Idris Hassan, the club manager.
A 20-year old team called Dalkurd in Sweden is at risk of bankruptcy due to a lack of funding.
“The main problem is that we had someone sponsoring us but they backed out of the sponsorship after he invested money a few times and did not see any return. Many people worked with him who did not work in football, they knew nothing about football and this led to the investor losing their money and leaving,” said Sipan Botan, a member of a committee formed to keep the club going.
He said that they have contacted many people and organizations including the Kurdistan Regional Government for support and they have called on Kurdish investors to step up since “it is a Kurdish team for all Kurds.”
Sipan said they have high hopes of going to the Champions League in the name of Kurdistan and to help young Kurdish football players go to Sweden for training.
