Sportklub Niederösterreich St. Poelten

Sankt Pölten

Sankt Pölten is the capital city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria. With inhabitants , it is Lower Austria's largest city...

is an Austrian association football

Football in Austria

Football is a popular sport in Austria, second only to alpine skiing. The Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB , was founded in 1904 and has been a member of FIFA since then.-League system:...

 club from the provincial capital of the Austrian state of Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

. St. Poelten currently play in the Austrian Football First League

Austrian Football First League

The Austrian Football First League is the second highest professional division in Austrian football. It contains 10 teams and is run in the same fashion as the Austrian Bundesliga...

, which is the second tier of the Austrian football league system.

History

SKN St. Poelten were formed after dissolving its unofficial predecessor, FCN St. Poelten and its predecessor VSE St. Poelten in June 2000. The new club took over all of FCN infrastructure, the stadium and also the ownership of the Bundesliga junior center. Through the acquisition of BNZ St. Poelten, SKN was not classed as a newly founded association (and therefore entered into the lowest league), but was allowed in the 2nd League West, the fifth level of Austrian football.

In its first season in existence, the team won the 2nd League championship, and were therefore promoted to the fourth tier. In the 2001/02 season, SNK won their second successive title and hence were promoted into the Regional League East. In the same year, the SKN also appeared in the final of the Lower Austria Cup, but were beaten by Theresienfeld.

In the 2002/03 season, St. Poelten finished twelfth, but improved the following year to finish in fourth. The following season the club attained sixth place in the league and had a run in the ÖFB Cup

Austrian Cup

The Austrian Cup, in German: ÖFB-Cup is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB.It has been held since 1919, with the exception of the time of the Anschluss between 1939 and 1945 and the period between 1950 and 1958 when the competition was deemed of...

 which included victories over SV Wörgl (3-0), SW Bregenz (2–1) and a sensational 5-1 victory overAustria Salzburg in the third round. In the quarter-finals, St. Poelten, were soundly beaten by Austria Wien

FK Austria Wien

Fußballklub Austria Wien is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. They are considered the most successful club in Austria, having won the highest Austrian Bundesliga 23 times, the Austrian Cup 27 times and the Austrian Supercup 6 times. They also reached the UEFA...

 6-0.

St. Poelten finally achieved promotion in 2007/2008, going 24 games unbeaten during one period of the season.

Current squad

As of 15 August 2011

Youth work

The SKN St. Poelten currently has ten youth teams between for children from the age of 7 to 15, with a total of 150 children and youths. In addition to the junior teams, the club have a second team (SKN II), who play their games in the Mid Western League, with the squad mostly consisting of squad players under the age of 18.

Sponsors

Under the sponsorship of the furniture store Leiner, the club was known as Leiner SKN St. Poelten until 2005. With the introduction of staff24 GmbH, the club its name in 2006 to SKN staff24 St. Poelten.