Südtirol - South Tirol


Südtirol, or as the Italians call it, Alto Adige (part of the province Trentino-Alto Adige) , is the southern part of Austrian Tirol that was given to Italy as a reward for joining in on the Allied side in WWI. A nice vacation spot, it is basically a soccer wasteland, since the Südtirolers are too busy complaining on how they're being oppressed by Italy, and the Italian "immigrants" are too busy being government officials oppressing the local Südtirolers. Or something like that. Nevertheless, if you're willing to check out the small village soccer scene, there are a few places to check out.

The main town is BOZEN (Bolzano). This was the location of the main (Italian) based club, AC Bolzano, until they essentially went belly-up in 1996. They've been replaced by FC Bolzano 96 - FC Bozen 96, but is still based in the Italian speaking community. In 2004, they were playing in the Serie D.

The strongest south Tirolean club is based in BRIXEN (Bressanone), and currently competes in the Serie C2, FC Südtirol-Alto Adige. They play their matches in Bozen.

Among other "large" South tirolean clubs are SSV Bruneck and Meraner FC

		South Tirol League structure

Serie A
Serie B
Serie C1, Girone A/B
Serie C2, Girone A/B	
Serie D,  lots of Girone	
------------------------
Oberliga		
Landesliga
1.Amateurliga	Gruppe A/B
2.Amateurliga	Gruppe A/B/C
3.Amateurliga	Gruppe A/B/C/D

For further info regarding south Tirolean clubs, see Südtirol-Sport.


(c) Abseits Guide to Germany : www.abseits-soccer.com