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. The second tier is the First Division (Erste Liga), which as of the 2006/7 season has twelve teams (up from ten the previous season). The third tiers are the regional leagues (Regionalliga), which are split into three geographical divisions: 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
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See also
References
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External links
- League321.com - Austrian football league tables, records & statistics database.
