SV Dinamo Helfort 15 Young Stars (Austria)

SV Dinamo Helfort 15 Young Stars is a football club that was formed in 1910 as Helfort Sports Club, based in the district of Ottakring in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Nobody is quite clear of the origins of the club name as is represents no geographical feature.

The team started out playing in the lower reaches of regional football, moving to their own home ground on Kendlerstraße in 1921. The 3. Klasse Nord title was won in 1924-25, but rather than taking promotion the club transferred to the alternative VAFÖ competition.

Helfort transferred back to the national set up in 1934, finishing fourth in Division Zwei Nord on their return. The league title was won in 1936-37 which led to a three team promotion round, which the team missed out on.

The second tier became one league with automatic promotion the following season. Helfort finished as runners-up. 1938-39 saw the beginning of Austrian Anschluss with the national championship becoming one of sixteen German top flight Gauliga’s with the lower divisions feeding into it.

Helfort played in Bezirksklasse Wien A finishing third in 1941-42 and then runners-up the following season prior to moving to the southern section for 1944-45 of which the side was leading the table until the season was abandoned because of War activities.

Their performance promoted them into the Erste Klasse in the liberated Austrian championship for 1945-46 which ended in relegation. A fourth place in the Wiener Liga ensued in 1947-48.

The Wiener Liga became the third level from 1949-50 as Helfort ended in fourth in 1951-52 which was bettered with runners-up in 1958-59. Another couple of fourth places were collected before the team won the title in 1964-65.

Helfort consolidated in Regionalliga Ost with several mid table finishes before being relegated in 1969-70. Back in the Wiener Liga, the ‘Ottakringers’ finished third in 1973-74 before the competition became the fourth tier after league reorganisation.

In 1981 the club merged with another local club, FC Hornek to become SC Helfort-Hornek. The club dropped down a further level where it was renamed as SC Helfort-Teleges in 1986 before another merger took place in 1991 as FC Fortuna Wien joined forces as the club became SC Helfort-Fortuna.

The titles continued to change. In 1996 a sponsorship deal led to the creation of the name SC Helfort KDAG. The side made it back into the Wiener Liga as SKF Helfort 15, going on to finish as runners-up in 1996-97.

A sponsorship deal with SPC Gschwandtner Seminare Projekte Consulting led to the club being called SPC Helfort 15 prior to another relegation. The club would be crowned as Oberliga A champions in 2005-06 as they netted 108 goals in just thirty games.

Their spell in the Wiener Stadtliga lasted just one season as Helfort went down after a play-off defeat to LAC Inter. The team ended the 2007-08 campaign in third in Oberliga A before Wilhelm Binder and Martin Puza became joint head coaches.

The third place was repeated in 2011-12 with Sasa Milenkovic top scoring. Ernst Ogris took over as head coach in June 2014 leading his team to fifth place before being replaced by Peter Keller in February 2016.

Christian Feitzinger took over as coach in October 2016 as the side played in the fifth tier 2. Landesliga. The club changed titles again in the summer of 2017 as they became SC Helfort 15 Young Stars while the team continued to struggle on the pitch.

Stefan Coric was appointed as the new coach in May 2018 with the club name changing to SV Dinamo Helfort 15 Young Stars before finishing fourth place in 2018-19 as Vinko Lastric finished top of the goals chart.

Helfort were in fourth place in the 2019-20 season when it was abandoned in March owing to the outbreak of COVID-19.

SV Dinamo Helfort 15 Young Stars will play in Wien 2. Landesliga in the 2020-21 season.

My visit

Sunday 8^th March 2020

It was a bright morning as I came up the steps at the Gottesmanngasse exit to Kendlerstraße U Bahn station. I was heading to the Wiener Stadtliga match round the corner between Helfort’s local rivals Slovan HAC and Schwechat.

However, as the entrance to Helfort Platz was bang opposite I decided to go inside for a look. I had contemplated returning later in the evening for a game on the artificial pitch of the two for a game in the church league but there were no guarantees.

The turf pitch seemed to be resting as the league season was nearing the end of the winter break. A match was in progress on the artificial pitch with some players congregating by the clubhouse looking as though they were next in action.

The ground was relatively basic but contained all the required features with a banking down one side having some open seating near the half way line and a clubhouse built on top of it. Spectator accommodation on the other three sides was basic.

Happy to have ticked the ground off I walked towards my 10.30 kick off and came across the home of Red Star Penzing a hundred metres or so further up Kendlerstraße. That would have to wait until full time!