LASK
Also written as LASK Linz.
The club
LASK, in full Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, are from Linz in Upper Austria. The parent club, a heavy-athletics society called Linzer Athletik Sportklub Siegfried, dates from 7 August 1899; the football section was set up in the winter of 1908 by Albert Siems, head of the royal post-office garage in Linz, and the side wore black and white from the start. The name Linzer Athletik Sport-Klub was adopted at an extraordinary general meeting on 14 September 1919.
They play at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz, capacity 19,080, opened on 24 February 2023 with a win over Austria Lustenau. The nicknames are Die Schwarz-Weissen, the Black and Whites, and Die Laskler, Landstrassler and Athletiker. Siegmund Gruber is president. The head coach is Dietmar Kuhbauer, known as Didi.
The club was called LASK Linz between 1997 and 2017 following a merger with the city rivals FC Linz; the "Linz" was dropped again in 2017 along with a new crest.
Recent seasons
LASK's recent history swings hard. In 2024/25 they finished seventh in the regular season of the Austrian Bundesliga with nine wins, four draws and nine defeats from 22 matches, then won the relegation round group to finish the season on 16 wins, 6 draws and 10 defeats from 32. That was not enough for European football, and 2025/26 began with none.
It became the best season the club has had in sixty years. Joao Sacramento was head coach until 23 September 2025, Maximilian Ritscher took interim charge, and Dietmar Kuhbauer was appointed on 9 October 2025. LASK were third in the regular season with 11 wins, 4 draws and 7 defeats and 32 goals scored, then took the championship round and the title on the final matchday with a 3-0 win away at Austria Wien, finishing the season 17-7-8 with 56 goals scored and 42 conceded. They also won the Austrian Cup, beating SCR Altach 4-2 after extra time in the final. It was the club's second domestic double and its first title since 1964/65. Moses Usor scored 13 league goals and 15 in all competitions. Average home attendance was 13,433; the largest win was 5-1 away at Hartberg on 26 April 2026 and the heaviest defeat 5-1 at home to Red Bull Salzburg on 22 February 2026.
Honours and landmarks
LASK have won the Austrian league twice, in 1964/65 and 2025/26, and been runners-up twice, in 1961/62 and 2018/19. They have won the Austrian Cup twice, in 1964/65 and 2025/26, and lost five finals, in 1962/63, 1966/67, 1969/70, 1998/99 and 2020/21. They have won the Austrian second division five times.
The 1964/65 double made LASK the first club from outside Vienna to win the Austrian championship. The club has also been to the edge twice: bankruptcy in 1995, with the president absconding to the Ivory Coast, and again in 2012, when a licence withdrawal dropped them into the third tier. A consortium called Friends of LASK took over in December 2013 with players unpaid and the club unable to afford the city stadium; promotion back to the second division followed on 5 June 2014 and to the Bundesliga on 21 April 2017.
Notable scorelines
The 8-0 home defeat by FC Karnten in August 2004 is the low-water mark. The high ones are European: 1-0 against Internazionale at home in the UEFA Cup on 23 October 1985, 7-0 against DAC Dunajska Streda in the 2020/21 Europa League third qualifying round, 4-1 against Sporting CP in that season's play-off, 4-1 away at PSV Eindhoven and 3-0 at home to Sporting in the 2019/20 group stage. The heaviest European beating is the 7-0 away at Fiorentina in the Conference League league phase in 2024/25; before that, the 7-1 aggregate loss to Manchester United in the last 16 in 2020.
European record
LASK's best campaign was 2019/20. They topped a Europa League group containing Sporting CP and PSV Eindhoven, opening with a 1-0 win over Rosenborg, beating PSV 4-1 and finishing with a 3-0 home win over Sporting on 12 December 2019. They drew 1-1 at AZ Alkmaar in the round of 32 and won the return 2-0, then lost 7-1 on aggregate to Manchester United in the last 16.
Before that, the club had beaten Internazionale 1-0 at home in the second round of the 1985/86 UEFA Cup, going out 4-1 on aggregate, and had a strong 1996 Intertoto Cup, topping their group unbeaten with wins over Werder Bremen (3-1) and Djurgarden (2-0) before losing 7-2 on aggregate to Rotor Volgograd in the semi-finals. In 2018 they returned to Europe and went out of Europa League qualifying to Besiktas on away goals despite winning the second leg 2-1.
In 2020/21 LASK beat DAC Dunajska Streda 7-0 and Sporting CP 4-1 to reach the Europa League group stage, where they finished third behind Tottenham Hotspur and Antwerp, drawing 3-3 at home with Spurs and beating Ludogorets home and away. In 2021/22 they won their Europa Conference League group ahead of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Alashkert and HJK, beating HJK 3-0 at home and 2-0 away, then lost the last-16 tie to Slavia Prague 7-5 on aggregate after winning the first leg 4-3. In 2023/24 they came through a Europa League play-off against Zrinjski Mostar 3-2 and finished bottom of a group with Liverpool, Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse, their one win a 3-0 at home to Union.
The 2024/25 season was poor: out of the Europa League play-off to FCSB 2-1, then 35th of 36 in the Conference League league phase with three points from 2-2 with Djurgarden, 0-0 with Cercle Brugge, 1-1 with Vikingur Reykjavik, and defeats away at Olimpija Ljubljana, away at Borac Banja Luka and a 7-0 away at Fiorentina. Their six-match record was three draws and three defeats, four goals scored and 14 conceded. LASK played no European football in 2025/26.
Quotes
- "Es freut uns, dass wir das zweite Spiel zu null gewinnen und selbst zwei Tore erzielen konnten. Wir sind sehr gut gestartet und haben von Beginn an gezeigt, dass wir hierhergefahren sind, um das Spiel zu gewinnen." - Dietmar Kuhbauer, LASK head coach, on the club's own site after the 2-0 win at Austria Wien, 9 August 2026. In English: we are pleased to have won a second match without conceding and to have scored twice ourselves; we started very well and showed from the beginning that we had travelled here to win the game. https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/spielbericht-fak-ask
- "In manchen Phasen waren wir aber zu verhalten und haben es der Austria zu leicht gemacht. Wir haben es verpasst, mit dem dritten Tor fuer mehr Ruhe zu sorgen. Da muessen wir uns selbst an der Nase nehmen." - Dietmar Kuhbauer, LASK head coach, same match report, 9 August 2026. In English: in some phases we were too cautious and made it too easy for Austria; we failed to settle the game with a third goal, and we have only ourselves to blame. https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/spielbericht-fak-ask
- "Auch wenn der Bundesliga-Start bei der Austria nicht gut verlaufen ist, hat ihnen das Europacup-Spiel unter der Woche mit Sicherheit Selbstvertrauen gegeben. Wir rechnen mit einem engagierten Gegner, der uns schlagen moechte." - Dietmar Kuhbauer, LASK head coach, in the club's preview of the Austria Wien match, 8 August 2026. In English: even though Austria's league start has not gone well, their European tie in midweek will certainly have given them confidence; we expect a committed opponent who wants to beat us. https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/zu-gast-bei-der-wiener-austria
- "Es waren immer schwierige Spiele gegen die Austria, das wird uns auch diese Saison wieder erwarten. Vor allem auswaerts ist es nie leicht gegen sie." - Lukas Jungwirth, LASK goalkeeper, in the club's preview, 8 August 2026. In English: matches against Austria have always been difficult and it will be the same again this season; away from home in particular it is never easy against them. https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/zu-gast-bei-der-wiener-austria
All four quotes were published in German; the German is verbatim, with umlauts written out, and the English is a translation, not a published version. No quotes specifically about the Celtic tie were confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Dietmar Kuhbauer is head coach and LASK are Austrian champions and cup holders. The Bundesliga began on 1 August 2026 and this season, for the first time since 2018/19, points will not be halved after the regular season.
LASK have won both of their opening matches without conceding: 3-0 at home to Grazer AK, and 2-0 away at Austria Wien on Sunday 9 August in the Generali Arena, the ground where they clinched the title in May. Alberto Andrade headed in a Sascha Horvath cross on 54 minutes after a flick from Adeniran, and Moses Usor scored on 83 from the rebound after his penalty was saved by Sahin-Radlinger, the spot-kick awarded when Aleksandar Dragovic was sent off for blocking Adeniran's shot with his arm on 81. An Austria Wien header had been ruled out for offside after a long VAR check in the first half. LASK top the table after two rounds with a goal difference of five scored and none conceded. In the Austrian Cup they have been drawn against Deutschlandsberg in the second round.
The European tie they are in right now has not yet kicked off. As Austrian champions LASK entered the Champions League at the play-off round, Champions Path, and were drawn against Celtic. The first leg is at Celtic Park on 19 August 2026 and the second at the Raiffeisen Arena on 25 August. The club put play-off tickets on sale on 4 August, away tickets for Celtic Park on 7 August, and announced an official supporters' trip to Glasgow on 11 August. Whoever loses the tie drops into the Europa League league phase.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_LASK_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Austrian_Football_Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Austrian_Football_Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Austrian_Football_Bundesliga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying https://www.lask.at/home/ https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/spielbericht-fak-ask https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/zu-gast-bei-der-wiener-austria https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/lask-trifft-in-zweiter-cup-runde-auf-deutschlandsberg https://www.lask.at/de/m/news/fanreise-nach-glasgow
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.