Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Good, The Bad, The WTF

I have to admit, I am at a loss. Usually I can come across these shirts and, within a couple of minutes of googling, know who they belong to. Not this time, though. Instead I have a pretty bad shirt with no idea who it belongs to. So I need your help. Tell me which team sported this beauty shirt.


Yowza. How's that for a design? It looks like someone sponge-painted the bathroom, then leaned against the wet wall with this shirt. Plus, as an added bonus, there are some fossils on the bottom right of the shirt. I can't really tell what they are, but they're interesting to look at nonetheless. The real fun of this shirt, though, comes when viewed from a second angle.


What in the hell? All of a sudden, with a different angle from the light, this shirt turns into snakeskin. Turn this shirt into a pair of Bon Jovi boots (Wanted Dead or Alive era), STAT! I am confused and intrigued by this early-90s era Puma innovation. Why didn't this take off with other teams? As we've seen before, sublimation was all the rage, why not sublimate being a rattler?

Back to the request. The page I got this from lists this as being the 1990-91 shirt for something called BNZ Swarovski Innsbruck. Unfortunately, when you search "BNZ Swarovski Innsbruck", the only site that comes up is the one linked above (and, eventually, this page I'm sure). A wider search shows that a team called FC Swarovski Tirol once existed in Innsbruck. That team became FC Tirol Innsbruck (a team which has since folded), but no logo exists that matches what is on this shirt (assuming the S with a dot is a logo and not a sponsor). I would have believed this was the team, but there is also a WSG Swarovski Wattens that still exists. Their badge and colors do not match either, so I'm not sure.

All of that said, when FC Swarovski Tirol existed, they did take on Liverpool in the UEFA Cup back in 1991. Perhaps some nice Scouser can dip into the way back machine and remember/find proof of playing a team in this shirt. Unfortunately, all I've been able to find so far is a matchday programme which has no pics of the visiting club, at least on the cover.

Happy hunting, and thank you.

10 comments:

Nathaniel said...

Came across a few things:

Ernst Happel managed the team:

In 1991, after managing Swarovski Innsbruck for three years during which they won the league twice and the cup once, Happel was appointed as manager of the Austrian national team.

And from a list of Austrian League champions:
1970/71 Swarovski W. Innsbruck
1971/72 Swarovski W. Innsbruck
1972/73 Swarovski W. Innsbruck
1973/74 VOEST Linz
1974/75 Swarovski W. Innsbruck
1976/77 Sparkasse W. Innsbruck

The champions list is at http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encyclop.f/f988842.htm%3Binternal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en

Nathaniel said...

And one more thing (from Wikipedia):

On July 20 1971 FC Wacker Innsbruck and WSG Swarovski Wattens, also playing in Austrian first division, merged to form a single team called SpG Swarovski Wattens-Innsbruck (SSW Innsbruck) in order to focus the football power of Tyrol better. The union applied only to the professional footballers - the junior sides of both teams carried on as part of their original clubs. SSW Innsbruck won the Austrian Championship four times und reached the quarterfinals in the European Cup in 1977-78.But still no pictures...

Jacob said...

And no "BNZ" either.

Nathaniel said...

I'll stop after this...I promise.

FC Wacker Innsbruck team photo. These might be worse than our still unidentified kit:

http://www.wfc.at/Foto/Fussball3.JPG

Nathaniel said...

Oh, and it appears that BNZ is some sort of football acronym, as it proceeds about 4 or 5 austrian teams i've come across thus far (such as FC Barcelona, blah, blah, blah).

Mark said...

I don't know what the specific team is but the S with the dot over it is for Sparkasse, a German-based bank. That would lead me to believe that the shirt is from a Bundesliga team. I hope this helps give some direction.

EbullientFatalist said...

I didn't find anything because I didn't look because I'm still pissed that I didn't see the Arsenal-Liverpool epic yesterday.

Jacob said...

Alright, so we have no badge to go off of. Wonder if Sparkasse operates in Austria as well?

Spectator said...

Guess there were at least two teams in Innsbruck that went caput. Could be this one too....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Tirol_Innsbruck

The Fan's Attic said...

The Swarovski/Innsbruck team has had several names it appears...found this website detailing the changes, it's in German though.

Namen von 1913 bis heute:

" 1913 - 1971: FC Wacker Innsbruck

" 1971 - 1986: Spielgemeinschaft Swarovski Wacker Innsbruck - Swarovski Wattens, kurz: SSW Innsbruck später als "Sparkasse Swarovski Wacker" interpretiert.

" 1986 - 1992: FC Swarovski Tirol bzw. FC Swarovski Tirol Innsbruck im Vereinsregister angeblich als FC Swarovski Wacker Innsbruck eingetragen.

" 1992 - 1993: FC Wacker Innsbruck

" 1993 - 1994: FC Capillaris Innsbruck

" 1994 - 1995: FC Tirol

" 1995 - 2000: FC Tirol Milch Innsbruck

" 2000 - 2002: FC Tirol

" 2002 - 2003: Spielgemeinschaft Wacker / Wattens

" 2003 - ???: FC Wacker Tirol

Looks like Sparkasse was an owner/sponsor in the 80s. Still no luck on finding the jersey.