SCR Altach reorganizes sporting management: Eric Orie becomes technical director, Maximilian Kreiner joins the management team
Austrian Bundesliga club SCR Altach has further expanded and more precisely divided responsibilities within its sporting department. The club from Altach in the federal state of Vorarlberg announced on 11 August 2026 that Eric Orie is moving into the role of technical director, while Maximilian Kreiner is taking over as sporting coordinator. Philipp Netzer remains sporting director and retains overall sporting responsibility, while Lisa Metzler independently manages the sporting segment of women's football. According to the club announcement reported on the same day by Sky Sport Austria and Ligaportal, the aim of the change is to separate day-to-day duties more clearly across professional, development, amateur and women's football, while at the same time maintaining a strong connection between all levels.
The new distribution of duties is not an isolated personnel change, but a continuation of the reorganization that has been taking place in Altach for several months. Back in May 2025, the club appointed Philipp Netzer as sporting director and brought in Eric Orie as sporting coordinator. In December 2025, during changes within the women's department, SCR Altach further defined Netzer's overall sporting responsibility at club level. Several weeks before the latest reorganization, Lisa Metzler was introduced as sporting director of women's football. Kreiner has now been added to that structure, while Orie has been given broader authority directly linking the professional team, the Juniors and talent development.
Philipp Netzer remains at the top of the sporting structure
The central figure of the new model remains Philipp Netzer. According to official SCR Altach data, the former captain spent more than 13 years in the club's playing squad and made 348 competitive appearances. He wore the captain's armband for more than a decade, was part of the team that returned to the Austrian Bundesliga and took part in the period in which Altach twice competed in European qualifying rounds. After ending his playing career in the summer of 2022, he immediately moved into sporting management, where he worked on scouting, player support, contracts and strategic squad planning. In May 2025, he succeeded Roland Kirchler as sporting director.
Netzer's role is now more clearly positioned as the overarching one. He retains overall sporting responsibility, while operational and development duties are distributed among Orie, Metzler and Kreiner. Such a model allows the sporting director to focus more on strategic decisions, squad construction and long-term sporting policy, while individual segments have responsible people with precisely defined areas of work. The club does not describe this as the creation of mutually separate departments, but rather as shorter communication channels and a clearer distribution of duties within a unified sporting structure.
That is precisely what Netzer emphasized in the club's message accompanying the reorganization. The sporting director stated that the new model creates "clear responsibilities and even shorter paths within the sporting department". He added that Orie, Metzler and Kreiner have a strong connection with the club and the region and that Altach sees this setup as the foundation for sustainable development. For a club that simultaneously runs a Bundesliga men's team, development squads and an increasingly extensive women's department, the importance of such coordination grows with every additional competitive and development segment.
Eric Orie receives broader authority between the professionals and the Juniors
The most important individual change concerns Eric Orie. The former sporting coordinator becomes technical director and assumes responsibility for professional football and the Juniors team. According to information published by Sky Sport Austria and Ligaportal, his task is to establish an even stronger connection between the first team, players from the development team competing at regional level and talents connected with the Vorarlberg Academy. Orie's function therefore moves from a coordinating position into a role that more directly encompasses sporting development, player evaluation and the transition between development and professional levels.
Orie enters the role with extensive experience in different football functions. When Altach hired him in 2025, the club stated that the Dutch expert had worked in professional football for more than 25 years as a head coach, assistant coach and sporting director. In Austria, among other roles, he worked at FC Lustenau and FC Dornbirn, was head coach of FC Vaduz in Liechtenstein, and gained experience as an assistant coach at Atromitos of Athens and Germany's 1. FC Nürnberg. His initial work at Altach was strongly focused on scouting and market knowledge, while the new role now places him closer to the day-to-day development of players and the vertical connection between teams.
For Altach, this vertical structure is particularly important because the club wants to ensure that its best young players are not separated from the demands of the first team. In practice, this means that the development department must work with a clear idea of the player profile required by the professional team, while the first-team coaching staff must have continuous insight into the progress of talents. As technical director, Orie is expected to be the person connecting these processes. This reduces the risk that decisions about young-player development, loans, inclusion in senior training or long-term planning are made within mutually separate structures.
Maximilian Kreiner becomes the operational link between sporting departments
With Maximilian Kreiner taking over as sporting coordinator, Altach is introducing an additional operational level between amateur and youth football and the leadership of the sporting department. According to the club announcement reported by Ligaportal, Kreiner will assist with organizing the day-to-day training process and coordinating duties between individual sporting areas. His role is therefore not intended as competition for the technical director or sporting director, but as a coordination point intended to ensure that agreed sporting decisions can be implemented in daily work.
Kreiner knows the club well from different perspectives. He played for the Juniors and later worked in SCR Altach's administrative department. Even before his new position, the club involved him in organizational projects; in one earlier official announcement, he was presented as the manager of summer football camps in Altach and other locations in Vorarlberg. Such a combination of dressing-room and office experience is important for a job that largely consists of coordinating schedules, training sessions, the needs of different teams and communication between specialist staff.
The new distribution of responsibilities therefore introduces a clear distinction between the strategic, technical and coordination levels. Netzer retains final sporting responsibility, Orie manages the technical connection between the professional department and the Juniors, Metzler manages the women's sporting segment, while Kreiner links the amateur and youth structures with the leadership. Such an arrangement is particularly important for clubs that must simultaneously focus on first-team results and the long-term development of their own players. With this move, Altach is making it clear that it does not want to treat development football as a separate addition to the professional department.
Lisa Metzler manages squad planning and the development of women's football
Responsibility for women's football is also separately defined within the new organization. Lisa Metzler, a former player for SCR Altach and FFC Vorderland, is responsible for squad planning, the sporting direction of the first women's team and the connection with the Future Team. According to the club's official announcement about her appointment, Metzler continued working in club administration after ending her playing career in 2025 and gradually took on an increasing number of organizational duties around the team. She had previously made more than 90 appearances in the highest tier of Austrian women's football.
Her role is important because the women's department at Altach is no longer limited to a single senior team. In recent seasons, the club has developed a system that includes youth categories, the Future Team and the first team in the Austrian Frauen-Bundesliga, while for the 2026/27 season it also introduced its own team in the Vorarlberg women's Landesliga. When presenting the project, SCR Altach stated that it wanted to provide a development pathway for players of different ages and levels, from girls in younger categories through regional competition and the Future Team to the Bundesliga team. In such a system, the sporting director must simultaneously take care of the needs of the first team and determine which players from the development system can take the next step.
That is precisely why Metzler has been positioned as the link between the Future Team and the first team. Her responsibility extends beyond the administrative management of the women's team: it includes shaping the squad and sporting concept, monitoring player development and coordinating transitions toward the highest level. Within the club hierarchy, she reports to Netzer, preserving unified overall sporting responsibility while allowing women's football to have a person dedicated to it as a separate specialist area. This is also one of the most visible changes compared with the previous model, in which a greater proportion of sporting decisions was concentrated among a smaller number of people.
Player development becomes a central part of the organizational model
The reorganization can also be viewed as a continuation of SCR Altach's investment in development infrastructure. In recent years, the club has emphasized the importance of its own youth system, cooperation with the Vorarlberg Academy and creating the clearest possible pathway toward senior football. The club's official website states that the Adi Hütter Nachwuchscampus serves as the sporting base for the younger categories, and the facility was named after former Altach player and internationally established coach Adi Hütter. Infrastructure alone, however, does not solve the issue of transition from youth to senior football; that requires people who connect coaches, development teams and sporting management on a daily basis.
In the men's department, this task within the new structure is expected to be carried primarily by Orie, with Kreiner providing organizational support. In the women's department, the same logic is applied through Metzler and the connection between younger selections, the Landesliga, the Future Team and the Bundesliga. The difference is that responsibilities are now named and assigned to specific individuals, which should make it clearer who decides on sporting direction, who monitors the transition of talents and who ensures operational coordination. In this way, the club is attempting to avoid overlapping duties, but also situations in which development teams do not have a sufficiently direct connection with the people making decisions for the first team.
Such an organization does not guarantee sporting success, but it shows the direction in which Altach wants to develop its management. For a club from a relatively small town in western Austria, developing and integrating its own talents at the right time can be just as important as bringing in players from outside. Orie's experience in scouting and senior football, Netzer's many years of knowledge of the club, Metzler's direct insights from the women's department and Kreiner's experience with the Juniors and administration are intended to cover different parts of that process. Whether the new distribution will actually accelerate player development and decision-making can only be assessed over a longer period.
Changes arrive at the beginning of the 2026/27 season
The new sporting structure was presented in the early stages of the 2026/27 season, when both the men's and women's first teams had already begun their competitive commitments. According to the official Austrian Bundesliga website, after an opening 0:1 defeat away to Rapid, Altach's men's team recorded its first league victory on 7 August, defeating WSG Tirol 3:1 in Altach after coming from behind. The women's team had also already begun its new season in Austria's top division. The organizational changes are therefore not being introduced during a quiet transition period, but alongside competition, squad planning and player development.
The greatest practical effect should be visible in day-to-day communication. Professional football and the Juniors now have a clearly designated technical director, women's football has its own sporting director, and the amateur and youth segment has a coordinator connecting them with the top of sporting management. Netzer remains the person with overall responsibility and the final say on sporting direction. SCR Altach presents its decision as a foundation for long-term and sustainable development; the real test of the new structure will be how effectively it connects first-team results with the development of players who are expected to reach senior level in the future.
Sources:
- Sky Sport Austria - report dated 11 August 2026 on SCR Altach's new sporting structure and the distribution of responsibilities between Netzer, Orie, Metzler and Kreiner (link)
- Ligaportal - details about Orie's new role, Kreiner's duties and the connection between the professional, amateur and youth departments (link)
- SCR Altach - official announcement about the appointment of Philipp Netzer as sporting director and Eric Orie's professional biography (link)
- SCR Altach - official announcement about the appointment of Lisa Metzler as sporting director of women's football and her responsibilities (link)
- SCR Altach - official announcement about the expansion of the women's development system and the introduction of a team in the Vorarlberg women's Landesliga (link)
- SCR Altach - information about Maximilian Kreiner's earlier organizational duties in the club's football camps (link)
- Austrian Football Bundesliga - official report on SCR Altach's 3:1 victory over WSG Tirol at the start of the 2026/27 season (link)
- SCR Altach - official announcement about the Adi Hütter Nachwuchscampus and the facility's role in developing younger categories (link)
- SCR Altach - official women's team page with the schedule and results for the 2026/27 season (link)