Chronicle
The SOCCA GROUP’s road to success
Founding of soccerline!
The company is founded in October as a sole proprietorship by Marcus Häusler in Rosenheim. The original business idea was Germany’s first SMS results service for amateur football, which over time developed into the amateur football community soccerline!
Shortly after the company was founded, it registered as a tour operator; the offers for organising training camps and tournament trips for amateur, select and professional teams were integrated into the community.
The first award
soccerline!, the Bavarian amateur football community, is voted Sports Website of the Year 2005.
Milestone 100 –
Germany’s most successful training camp organiser
For the first time, the hundred mark is broken in terms of the number of training camps booked. In the year as a whole, 111 teams decide to have their training camp organised by us, making us the most successful training camp organiser in Germany. The corporate vision of SOCCATOURS is born out of this success.
Training camp for a national team
In 2007, the company organised the first training camp for a national team on behalf of the Liechtenstein Football Association.
Training camp for professional team
The following year, the first training camp for a professional team was organised with Slavia Prague.
SOCCATOURS becomes a brand
In September 2009, the tourism division was spun off under the brand name SOCCATOURS® into socca! Sports GmbH, which is now one of the European industry leaders in the segment of sports tour operators specialising in training camps and tournament tours with several hundred organised group tours per year.
From January to December 2009, the company recorded 245 booked training camps and tournaments.
Most successful training camp organiser in Europe
The Bavarian Football Association books a training camp for its selection teams for the first time.
In October, SOCCATOURS becomes a partner of the Tyrolean Football Association with the trainingslager.at brand and is responsible for the training camps for the selection teams.
The 2010 calendar year ends with 385 teams booked. This makes SOCCATOURS the most successful training camp organiser in Europe.
Milestone UEFA Match Agent Licence
Another milestone is reached: In January 2011, the European Football Association UEFA awards Managing Director Marcus Häusler the Official UEFA Match Agents Licence.
Two years after the spin-off, socca! Sports GmbH was renamed SOCCATOURS GmbH in August 2011 as part of the group’s reorganisation. The sole shareholder becomes SOCCA! Holding GmbH & Co. KG.
SOCCATOURS closes the 2011 calendar year with 439 booked sports group tours.
FIFMA Membership
Marcus Häusler is one of two German match agents to become a full member of AULMA (now FIFMA), the association of FIFA’s most renowned match agents.
In the 2012 calendar year, 463 teams decide to book a sports group tour with SOCCATOURS.
Milestone 500 training camps
and new offices
In the summer, we move into our new 250 square metre offices in front of a breathtaking Alpine panorama on the southern outskirts of Rosenheim.
In December, the UEFA Executive Committee decides to abolish the regulations for licensed match agents. This means that from the beginning of the new year, there will no longer be any UEFA match agents, only FIFA match agents. Marcus Häusler is one of five German FIFA match agents.
From January to December 2013, the company recorded 561 booked training camps and tournament trips for amateur and professional teams.
Marcus Häusler as FIFA Match Agent
In January 2014, FIFA also awards Managing Director Marcus Häusler the Official FIFA Licensed Match Agent Licence.
Throughout the calendar year, 694 teams book their training camp with SOCCATOURS.
In 2015, 862 teams opted for a training camp or tournament trip organised by SOCCATOURS.
Milestone 1.000 training camps
SOCCATOURS® is registered. Growth continues unabated: at the beginning of November, the 1,000 bookings mark is broken for the first time in the previous 12-month period and the year as a whole is then concluded with a total of 1,052 bookings. A total of 428 test matches are organised as part of training camps and tournament trips.
DMCs Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic –
the new brand SOCCACUP –
and new operational software
In the first quarter, the company opens Destination Management Companies as incoming agencies in some of the most important target markets, namely Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic. This vertical integration enables a quantum leap in terms of service quality.
Under the SOCCACUP® brand, the organisation of a football tournament is taken over for the first time. The tournament on Lake Garda is a great success.
We make the biggest investment in the company’s history: after consuming a lot of manpower from our product managers throughout the year, our new, specially programmed operational software enters the final phase of testing at the end of the year. The number of bookings increased again, with 1,123 teams on the counter at the end of the year.
IATA Licence
At the beginning of the year, SOCCATOURS is the only training camp organiser in Germany to receive an IATA licence.
In the 2018 calendar year, 1,214 teams book a training camp or tournament trip with SOCCATOURS.
Bigger team, new office space and SOCCATOURS Austria
Due to our rapid growth, the office space is already too small again. We move a few hundred metres further into Mangfallstraße and now use 520 square metres.
Origin of SOCCATOURS Austria: On 16/08/2019, the company was entered in the Austrian commercial register, initially as a branch. From 01/03/2022 it was changed to SOCCATOURS Austria GmbH.
At the end of the year, 1,355 teams have booked a training camp or tournament with SOCCATOURS®.
Covid
The Covid-19 crisis has hit us hard, as it has the entire tourism industry. We are opting for a solidarity-based approach and are not laying off any employees.
Bookings at pre-crisis level
The pandemic is dragging on. But the trend reversed in late summer. Since then, things have been on the up again. Our concept of not cancelling anyone is paying off. We are gaining market share because we can immediately get back into full swing. In the last few months of the year, we are already back to pre-crisis levels.
New record moths
The first months of the year are off to a promising start. Favoured by catch-up effects, all months of the first half of the year turn out to be record months.
Steady growth
In 2023, SOCCATOURS finally returns to its old growth trajectory. With training camps and tournaments for over 1,600 teams, the year becomes the most successful year in the company’s history.
Higher and higher, further and further…
