Sheffield FC agree prestigious summer friendly to take on oldest club in Austria

On the day before Austria’s pre-Euro 2020 friendly against England, Sheffield will travel to face First Vienna Football Club 1894, the oldest club in Austria.

This historic meeting between the two cult clubs was announced at a joint press conference held at ‘Pfarrwirt’ – the restaurant in which First Vienna was founded back in 1894 – in Vienna’s Döbling district.

The match at the Hohe Warte Stadium will kick off at 7pm on Monday, June 1 and will be televised live on Austrian TV.

Twenty-four hours later Gareth Southgate's Three Lions take on Austria at the Ernst Happel Stadion in a friendly.

“We’re very proud the oldest football club in the world is honouring us,” said First Vienna Vice-President Kurt Svoboda.

Richard Tims, chairman of Sheffield FC , said: “We want to continue flying the flag for football in the spirit of our founding fathers and to keep up their pioneering legacy.”

For First Vienna, playing a friendly against Sheffield FC is all about honouring its English roots. It is the only football club in Austria that has had an English-language name for over a century.

The club is paying tribute to this in several ways, one of which is the immediate launch of an English website.

“With the “Football’s Coming Home to Vienna” initiative, we want to make a statement and remind ourselves where First Vienna and Austrian football come from,” Svoboda said.