Grazer AK

Grazer Athletiksport-Klub (GAK) was founded in Graz in July 1902 by 17 sportsmen including Carl Markel, who modelled it on Vienna's Wiener AC. The traditional date, 18 August 1902, Emperor Franz Joseph's birthday, is ceremonial rather than official. Football had reached Graz in the 1890s through Georg August Wagner, a medical student from Prague. GAK plays in red and white and is known as the Rotjacken (red jackets). Its own ground on Korosistrasse was its base for 103 years; home games are at Stadion Graz-Liebenau, shared with Sturm Graz and called Merkur Arena from 2016 to February 2026.

GAK reached the top flight in 1951 and stayed 23 years, until a forced relegation in 1974 when the league was cut to ten clubs; it returned as second-tier champion in 1975. It won the Austrian Cup in 1981, 2000 and 2002, then the double in 2003-04 under Walter Schachner. In 2004 it beat Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield in Champions League qualifying but lost on aggregate. Financial collapse brought relegation in 2007 and dissolution in 2012. A fan-founded successor climbed from the eighth tier and won the second division in 2023-24, returning to the Bundesliga.