Parts of this article (those related to League system - number of clubs) need to beupdated. The reason given is: from the season 2018/19, there is a different number of clubs in the top leagues. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2018)

Football is the most popular sport inAustria. Around 55% of the Austrians are football fans.^[1] TheAustrian Football Association, theÖFB (Österreichischer Fußball-Bund), was founded in 1904 and has been a member ofFIFA since then.Despite the sport's popularity, except for asuccessful streak in the early 1930s, the country'snational team has not been successful in tournaments.^[2] Austria played their first everEuropean championship as a qualifier in2016, but finished last in their group and failed to advance. Appeared in theEuropean championship in2008 (when it co-hosted the championship withSwitzerland),2016,2020 and recently qualified for2024. Their best up to date achievement of this competition was the Round of 16 in the 2020 edition.

In theWorld Cup, Austria has a slightly better record, achieving fourth and third place in1934 and1954, respectively. Other than that, Austria either did not enter (1930), did not qualify (1966,1970,1974,1986,1994,2002,2006,2010,2014,2018,2022), withdrew (1938,1950,1962), or was either eliminated at the group stages (1958,1990,1998), or the second rounds (1978,1982).

In 1978 Austria won its group ahead of Brazil. In the group of the second round, any chance of progressing was gone after losses in the two first matches. But in the last match, against West Germany, which had chances of progressing even to the final, the Austrians produced what would become known asThe Miracle of Córdoba, winning against any German national team (West, East or unified) for the first time in 47 years, thus eliminating the West German team from the tournament.

Football was born in Austria around 1890, and from 1900 a cup was played in Vienna called Neues Wiener Tagblatt Pokal. The first football league of the country was born in 1911, called 1. Klasse, organized by the Football Federation of Lower Austria, and became a professional league in 1924, the year in which it changed its name to I. Liga.^[3] In 1929 an amateur championship was organized thatGrazer AK won, in which the clubs of the professional league of Vienna were excluded from participating.^[4]

The national team became a European power in the 1930s under the command of coachHugo Meisl and the leadership ofMatthias Sindelar, which earned him the nickname "Wunderteam".^[5][6][7] On May 16, 1931 the Austrian national team was the first European to defeat Scotland, and subsequently won theCentral European International Cup in 1932, finished in fourth place in the 1934 World Cup and won the silver medal in the Olympic Games of Berlin 1936.

In 1937 the Nationalliga was introduced, the second division in which the equipment of other states of Austria could ascend and consist of the maximum competition of the country. With the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany came the prohibition of professionalism in sport in May 1938 and several teams were banned, such asHakoah Vienna andFK Austria Wien.^[8] The Nationalliga joined the system of the Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (National Socialist League of the Reich). TheGauliga Ostmark, an amateur league, covered most of the country except the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, which were included in the Bavarian league system.^[9] The league champion qualified for the German championship, and after the Second World War returned the 1. Klasse - later called only Liga -, only for Viennese teams.

After the creation of Staatsliga A in 1949, all Austrian teams came together to form a league. However, the road to organizing the league was difficult. A conflict between the representatives of amateur and professional football led to the separation of the Vienna league from the football federation, and a new competition was established on June 30, 1949. A year later the Staatsliga B, the second division, was born. which remained until 1959.

On April 21, 1974 the currentBundesliga was introduced, and the Nationalliga was established as the second division of the country (now known as the First League ofAustrian Football First League). The Austrian Football Federation (ÖFB) is the highest professional football organization in Austria and was founded in 1904, although it joined FIFA in 1905 and UEFA in 1954. The ÖFB organizes the Bundesliga - the first and highest league competition of the country- and the Austrian Cup, and manages the national men's and women's national team.

The oldest team in Austria isFirst Vienna FC, champion of the German Cup in 1943 and six Austrian leagues.^[10]SK Rapid Wien is the most successful team in the country, with 32 league titles, one German championship and two runners-up in the European Cup Winners Cup.FK Austria Wien also managed to be a finalist of theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup in1978 andSV Austria Salzburg were finalist of the UEFA Cup in1993–94.

The Austrian men's national team, in its different categories, is controlled by the Austrian Football Federation.

The Austrian team played their first official game on October 12, 1902 in Vienna against Hungary, a match that was resolved with victory by the Austrians 5-0. This match was the first played between two non-British European teams.

Austria has managed to qualify for seven FIFA World Cups and four European Championship, the first which was organized together with Switzerland in 2008. The Austrian combined team's third-best achievement was the third place in the 1954 World Cup, the fourth in the Cup. World Cup of 1934 and the silver medal won at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. In the 1930s, the Austrian team known as "Wunderteam" had players likeMatthias Sindelar, nicknamed the "Mozart of football", 8 the scorerJosef Bican andJohann Horvath.^[11][12] This team was 14 undefeated games, 9 from April 12, 1931 to December 7, 1932, in that same period they won theCentral European International Cup. Between the years of 1931 to 1934, they had the impressive run of 28 victories, a draw and two defeats, scoring a whopping 102 goals, reaching the World Cup in 1934.

Andreas Herzog, with 104 internationals, is the player who has worn the shirt of the national team most times. The top scorer in history isToni Polster, with 44 goals in 95 games.

TheBundesliga is the highest national league-club competition in Austria has 12 teams, the second tier is theSecond League (2. Liga) has 16 teams. The third tier consists of three parallel divisions which are theregional leagues (Regionalliga). These cover the different regions of Austria as follows: theEast (Regionalliga Ost), which comprises teams fromVienna,Lower Austria, andBurgenland; theCentral (Regionalliga Mitte), featuring teams fromStyria,Carinthia,Upper Austria, andEast Tyrol; and theWest (Regionalliga West), competed for by teams fromSalzburg,Tyrol, andVorarlberg. The fourth tier is thestate league (Landesliga), with the2. 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 theÖFB, but theoretically the champions of these tiers can promote to the official ÖFB-tiers.

Below shows how the current system works.

Until 1982 the championship was organized by Wiener Fußball-Verband. After that date he went to the organization of the National Federation. The championship has a national character for the first two divisions,ÖFB-Frauenliga and2. Frauenliga, which in turn is divided into three groups: Mitte / West (composed of 10 teams), Ost (11) and Süd (7). The first of each group runs the promotions for the promotion, retires the last ranked. Regional tournaments are organized, organized by the individual Federation of Land, from 3rd to 5th level.

Until 2004, the winner contested the Austrian Supercup against the winners of the Austrian Cup.

In the 2010-2011 season, 334 teams are registered^[13]

The Austrian women's national team debuted on July 9, 1970 before the selection of Mexico in a match won by the Mexicans by 9-0 in Italy. The Austrian women's team has not yet participated in a theFIFA Women's World Cup but reached the semi-finals of theEuropean Championship in2017.^[14]

Stadiums with a capacity of 30,000 or higher are included.

#	Photo	Stadium	Capacity	Club	City	Notes
1		Ernst Happel Stadion	50,865	Austria national team,FK Austria Wien	Vienna	UEFA Category 4 stadium
2		28 Black Arena	32,000	SK Austria Klagenfurt	Klagenfurt
3		Red Bull Arena	31,895	Red Bull Salzburg	Salzburg

• Austria national football team
• Austrian Bundesliga
• List of football stadiums in Austria

• League321.com - Austrian football league tables, records & statistics database.
• Austrian football league summary(flashscore)

• Football in Austria

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Wikipedia articles in need of updating from November 2018
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