Football in Austria

Football is a popular sport in Austria, second only to alpine skiing. The Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB (Österreichischer Fußball-Bund), was founded in 1904 and has been a member of FIFA since then.[1] Despite the sport's popularity, except for a successful streak in the early 1930s, the country's national team has not been successful in tournaments.[2][3][4][5][6] Austria will play their first ever European championship as a qualifier in 2016. Their only prior appearance in the European championship was in 2008 (when it co-hosted the championship with Switzerland and was thus exempt from qualification), but was promptly eliminated at the group stage. [7][8]

In the World Cup, Austria has a slightly better record, achieving fourth and third place in 1934 and 1954, respectively. Other than that, Austria either did not enter (1930), did not qualify (1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2010), withdrew (1938, 1950, 1962), or was eliminated at the group stages (1958, 1978, 1982, 1990, 1998).

Competitions

League system

The Bundesliga is the highest national league-club competition in Austria. It has ten teams, as does the second tier is the First Division (Erste Liga). The third tier consists of three parallel divisions which are the regional leagues (Regionalliga). These cover the different regions of Austria as follows: the East (Regionalliga Ost), which comprises teams from Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland; the Central (Regionalliga Mitte), featuring teams from Styria, Carinthia, Upper Austria, and East Tyrol; and the West (Regionalliga West), competed for by teams from Salzburg, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. The fourth tier is the state league (Landesliga), with the 2. Landesliga as the fifth tier in Lower Austria and Vienna. Most states have 7 to 10 official tiers, but in Vienna unofficial tiers exist under the normal tiers. They are not organized by the ÖFB, but theoretically the champions of these tiers can promote to the official ÖFB-tiers.

Below shows how the current system works.

Level Division
I Bundesliga
10 clubs
↓↑ 1 club
II Erste Liga
(First League)
10 clubs
↓↑ 1-2 clubs
↑ 0-1 club ↑ 0-1 club ↑ 0-1 club
III Regionalliga Ost
(Regional League East)
16 clubs		 Regionalliga Mitte
(Regional League Central)
16 clubs		 Regionalliga West
(Regional League West)
16 clubs
↓ 2-5 clubs ↓ 2-5 clubs ↓ 2-5 clubs
↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club
IV Landesliga Burgenland
17 clubs		 Landesliga Niederösterreich
16 clubs		 Wiener Stadtliga
16 clubs		 Landesliga Steiermark
16 clubs		 Landesliga Oberösterreich
14 clubs		 Landesliga Kärnten
16 clubs		 Landesliga Salzburg
16 clubs		 Tiroler Liga
16 clubs		 Landesliga Vorarlberg
14 clubs
↓↑ No. of clubs may vary (below Landesliga)
V+ Burgenland state leagues
3 tiers		 Lower Austria state leagues
6 tiers		 Vienna city leagues
5 tiers		 Styria state leagues
3 tiers		 Upper Austria state leagues
4 tiers		 Carinthia state leagues
3 tiers		 Salzburg state leagues
4 tiers		 Tirol state leagues
6 tiers		 Vorarlberg state leagues
6 tiers

Austrian Cup

Main article: Austrian Cup

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dunbar, Graham (2010-02-07). "Sports | Austria has tough task living up to Wunderteam tag | Seattle Times Newspaper". Seattletimes.com. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  2. ↑ Kennedy, Paul (2013-11-19). "Long gone are the days of the 'Wunderteam' 11/19/2013". SoccerAmerica. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  3. ↑ "The striker who snubbed Hitler". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  4. ↑ "How total football inventor was lost to Hungary | Football". The Guardian. 2003-11-22. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  5. ↑ Phil Gordos. "BBC SPORT | Euro 2008 blog". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  6. ↑ Bevan, Chris (2013-11-24). "BBC Sport - Jimmy Hogan: The Englishman who inspired the Magical Magyars". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  7. ↑ "Wunderteam and Cordoba: The Austrian sensations | Football - News | NDTVSports.com". Sports.ndtv.com. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  8. ↑ "Seventy years on, ‘Wunderteam’ not forgotten in Austria - Taipei Times". Ns2.libertytimes.com.tw. 2013-11-27. Retrieved 2013-12-03.

External links

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