FC Kärnten

FC Kärnten was an Austrian association football club. The club played in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. It was founded in 1920 under the name of KSK Klagenfurt.
History.
FC Kärnten played successfully in the "Kärntner Liga". In 1960 they were promoted to the Austrian Regional League. They won the 1961–62 championship and were promoted to the Austrian Football Bundesliga "(Liga A)". In 1989 they were finally relegated from the Bundesliga. In the 1992–93 season the club was relegated to the Kärntner Liga.
Though FC Kärnten again gained the promotion to the Regional League Central in 1996 it was the aim that the Carinthian Clubs work together in order to send a team to the Bundesliga. It led to a cooperation of SK Austria and Villacher SV. In 1997, the clubs changed their name to FC Austria/VSV and were promoted to the First League. In 1999 the clubs merged under the name FC Kärnten.
Under manager Walter Schachner in 2001, the team won the Austrian Cup, the Supercup and became champions of the First League and were promoted to the Bundesliga. The club again reached the finals of the Austrian Cup and the Supercup in 2003, which they both lost to FK Austria Wien. FC Kärnten played in the Bundesliga for three years until relegation in 2004. The club was under the honorary presidency of Carinthias Governor Jörg Haider
Their decline after the resignation of Jörg Haider in 2006 and the foundation of rival club SK Austria Kärnten in June 2007. Kärnten held the Bundesliga licence of the defunct ASKÖ Pasching. The team had to leave their stadium, the present-day Hypo-Arena and went back to the small Fischl ground. At the end of the 2007–08 season, FC Kärnten was relegated into the Regional League and several players left the club. On 21 January 2009 the club ceased operations. The team's tradition is continued by the SK Austria Klagenfurt football club who was founded in 2007.