| UEFA | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1904 |
| FIFA affiliation | 1905 |
| UEFA affiliation | 1954 |
| President | Dr. Leo Windtner |
The Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) (German: Österreichischer Fußball-Bund) is the governing body of football in Austria. It organizes the football league, Austrian Bundesliga, the Austrian Cup and the Austrian national team, as well as its female equivalent. It is based in Vienna.
Since 1905, it has been a FIFA member, and since 1954, a UEFA member. Since 7 April 2002, Friedrich Stickler (Dipl. Eng.), the director of executive committee of the Austrian lottery, has been the President of the Austrian Football Association. Supporting him is its President, Kurt Ehrenberger, Frank Stronach, Dr. Gerhard Kapl, and Dr. Leo Windtner. In 2004, it was announced there are 285,000 players (both sexes) in Austria playing for 2,309 teams in the federation, although many more players play informally or for non-recognised teams. Thus the federation is the largest sporting organization the country. Football is, perhaps with the exception of skiing, the most popular sport in Austria. Football possesses a large value, and has a rich history and tradition in Austria.
Each year the Austrian championship in the Bundesliga and the Cup winner are decided. Further the Austrian national soccer team plays several international friendly matches and participates in matches to qualify for international tournaments, such as the World Cup and the European Championship.
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In the year 1894, with the First Vienna Football Club, the first football team of the country was created in Vienna. From this nucleus, the Austrian football federation was established in 1904. Already one year after the establishment, Austria became a member of the international football federation FIFA and hosted the fifth FIFA congress in 1908.
The milestones of the federation and past football history were the years 1930 to 1933, 1950 to 1954 and then 1958 as well as 1978, 1982, 1990 and 1998 with the participation of Austria at the World Cup.
Hugo Meisl was one of the best-known personalities in the beginnings of the Austrian Football Association. Meisl's greatest triumph should be the participation with a team of Austrian amateurs in the final of the 1936 Summer Olympics, where they fell victims to Italy with 1:2. Until today, it remained the only final, which Austria reached in an important international tournament. Meisl became 1927 General-Secretary and manager/coach of the federation.
Meisl had huge success and remained unbeaten from 12 April 1931 to 23 October 1932 in 14 successive matches. The highlights of this series were the 6:0 (Berlin) and 5:0 (Vienna) victories against Germany. A 3:4 defeat against England on 7 December 1933 at London's [Stamford Bridge] stadium terminated the run of being unbeaten. The 1950s saw a sequel to the tradition of this miracle team (the 1930s heroes were named "Wunderteam"), with their well-known football greats such as Ernst Ocwirk (twice captain of the FIFA World Selection Team), Ernst Happel, Gerhard Hanappi and Walter Zeman. The FIFA World Cup 1954 ranks among being most successful in Austrian Football Association history. Twenty years after being in 4th place in the FIFA World Cup 1934 held in Italy, Austria returned to the circle of the best teams again.
The Austrian national team qualified seven times for the World Cup tournaments and reached as best ranks 3rd (1954), 4th (1934), 7th (1978) and 8th (1982)place. In 1936, Austria's amateur team won the silver medal in the Olympic football tournament in Berlin.
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