Football is the most popular sport in Austria. The Austrian Football Association ( or ) was founded on 18 March 1904, joined FIFA in 1905 and was a founder member of UEFA in 1954.
Austria's national team was among the strongest in Europe in the early 1930s, when the side known as the Wunderteam () finished fourth at the 1934 FIFA World Cup and took the silver medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Its best result remains third place at the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Austria has since reached eight World Cup finals tournaments and four UEFA European Championships.
The team qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by winning its European qualifying group, ending an absence of 28 years, and reached the round of 32 before losing to the eventual champions Spain. That was its first appearance in a knockout round since 1982. At the European Championship, Austria appeared as co-hosts with Switzerland in 2008 and then qualified in 2016, 2020 and 2024, reaching the round of 16 in the last two.
At the 1978 FIFA World Cup Austria won its first round group ahead of Brazil but lost its opening two second round matches. In the last of them, against West Germany, it produced the win remembered as the Miracle of Córdoba, beating a German national side for the first time in 47 years and eliminating the holders of the previous tournament's runners-up place.
History Football reached Austria in the late nineteenth century, and from 1900 a cup competition was played in Vienna under the name Neues Wiener Tagblatt-Pokal. The country's first league followed in 1911, the 1. Klasse, organised by the football federation of Lower Austria. It became a professional competition in 1924 and was renamed the I. Liga. An amateur championship was introduced in 1929, from which the professional clubs of Vienna were excluded, and was won by Grazer AK.
Under coach Hugo Meisl and built around Matthias Sindelar, the national team of the early 1930s became known as the Wunderteam. On 16 May 1931 it became the first team from continental Europe to beat Scotland, and it went on to win the Central European International Cup in 1932.
The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938 brought the abolition of professionalism in May of that year. Jewish clubs, among them Hakoah Vienna, were dissolved, and clubs with Jewish officials and members, Austria Wien among them, were forced to restructure. The Austrian top division, renamed the Nationalliga in 1937–38, was absorbed into the competition structure of the National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise (). The Gauliga Ostmark covered most of the country, while Tyrol and Vorarlberg were attached to the Bavarian structure, and its champion entered the German championship.
After the Second World War the Vienna league was reactivated as the top division for three seasons. A dispute between the amateur and professional wings of the game then led the leading clubs to break with the Vienna association and form their own competition, the Österreichische Fußball-Staatsliga, which was admitted to the ÖFB in July 1949 as its tenth member alongside the nine state associations. The resulting Staatsliga A was the first genuinely national league, and a second division, the Staatsliga B, followed a year later and ran until 1959.
On 21 April 1974 the Bundesliga was introduced as the top division, and the Nationalliga became the second tier. That division has since been renamed several times and has been the 2. Liga since 2018. The Bundesliga has been run since 1 December 1991 by the Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, a legally separate association within the ÖFB, while the ÖFB itself organises the Austrian Cup and the national teams.
First Vienna is the oldest club in the country and has won six Austrian league titles and the German cup in 1943. Rapid Wien is the most successful, with 32 league titles, the German championship of 1941 and two runners-up finishes in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Austria Wien also reached a Cup Winners' Cup final, in 1978, and Austria Salzburg, now Red Bull Salzburg, were beaten finalists in the 1994 UEFA Cup.
National team The men's national team is controlled by the ÖFB. It played its first official match on 12 October 1902 in Vienna, beating Hungary 5–0 in the first international contested between two continental European sides.
Austria has appeared at eight World Cup finals tournaments and four European Championships, the first of the latter as co-host in 2008. Its best results are third place at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, fourth in 1934 in Italy and the Olympic silver medal of 1936 in Berlin. The Wunderteam of the 1930s, which included Sindelar, the forward nicknamed the "Mozart of football", alongside Josef Bican and Johann Horvath, went 14 matches unbeaten between April 1931 and December 1932 and won the Central European International Cup in that period.
Under Ralf Rangnick, appointed in 2022, the team won its 2026 World Cup qualifying group with six wins from eight matches and a goal difference of 22–4, securing its place with a 1–1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 18 November 2025. At the tournament it finished second in a group containing Argentina, Algeria and Jordan, then lost 3–0 to Spain in the round of 32.
Marko Arnautović holds both principal records. He passed Andreas Herzog's 103 appearances in September 2022 and overtook Toni Polster's 44 goals on 9 October 2025, scoring four in a 10–0 win over San Marino that was also Austria's largest ever victory, beating a 9–0 win over Malta in 1977. He extended both marks at the 2026 World Cup, where he also became the oldest player to represent Austria at the tournament, at 37 years and 59 days.
Competitions League system The Bundesliga is the highest national club competition in Austria and is contested by 12 teams. The second tier is the 2. Liga, with 16 teams. The third tier consists of four parallel divisions known as the Regionalliga, each covering the area of one or more state associations: the East comprises clubs from Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland; the North clubs from Upper Austria and Salzburg; the South clubs from Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol; and the West clubs from Tyrol, excluding East Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. This structure replaced a three-division third tier in 2026–27.
Winning a Regionalliga no longer brings automatic promotion. Since 2026–27 the best eligible club in each of the four divisions enters a promotion play-off, contested as two two-legged ties whose pairings are drawn before the season. The two winners go up to the 2. Liga. Should a further place in the 2. Liga fall vacant, the losing club from the first tie drawn is promoted as well. Because only two clubs now come up, only two are relegated from the 2. Liga, where previously there were three. The ÖFB introduced the change after repeated seasons in which clubs that had qualified on the pitch declined to apply for a second tier licence.
The fourth tier consists of nine divisions, one for each state association, and the champion of each is promoted to the Regionalliga covering its area. Seven are named after the state or carry the Landesliga title. The other two, in Tyrol and Vorarlberg, kept the names they were given in 2019 when the Regionalliga West was broken up into state competitions, and dropped to the fourth tier when it was restored in 2023–24. Below the fourth tier the structure is set by each state association and the number of levels differs from state to state. In Vienna, unofficial tiers exist beneath the official ones. They are not organised by the ÖFB, but in theory their champions can be promoted into the official structure.
Level Division I Bundesliga12 clubs ↓↑ 1 club II 2. Liga(Second League)16 clubs ↓ 2 clubs ↑ 2 clubs via play-off between the four Regionalliga representatives III Regionalliga Ost(Regional League East)16 clubs Regionalliga Nord(Regional League North)15 clubs Regionalliga Süd(Regional League South)16 clubs Regionalliga West(Regional League West)16 clubs ↓ number varies ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club ↑ 1 club IV Landesliga Burgenland 1. Landesliga Wiener Stadtliga OÖ Liga Salzburger Liga Landesliga Steiermark Kärntner Liga Regionalliga Tirol Eliteliga Vorarlberg ↓↑ Number of clubs may vary V+ Burgenland state leagues Lower Austria state leagues Vienna city leagues Upper Austria state leagues Salzburg state leagues Styria state leagues Carinthia state leagues Tyrol state leagues Vorarlberg state leagues
Austrian Cup
Women's football Domestic football
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 and 2. 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.
National team
The Austrian women's national team debuted on 9 July 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 the FIFA Women's World Cup but reached the semi-finals of the European Championship in 2017.
Largest football stadiums in Austria
Stadiums with a capacity of 30,000 or higher are included.
#PhotoStadiumCapacityClubCityNotes1Ernst Happel Stadion50,865Austria national team, FK Austria Wien ViennaUEFA Category 4 stadium228 Black Arena32,000SK Austria KlagenfurtKlagenfurt3 Red Bull Arena 31,895 Red Bull Salzburg Salzburg
Attendances
The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:
Season League average Best club Best club average 2023–24 8,144 SK Rapid 18,859 2022–23 7,559 SK Rapid 18,844 2021–22 — — — 2020–21 — — — 2019–20 6,322 SK Rapid 18,667 2018–19 6,373 SK Rapid 16,483 2017–18 6,394 SK Rapid 18,791 2016–17 7,037 SK Rapid 21,033 2015–16 6,274 SK Rapid 16,860 2014–15 6,580 SK Rapid 16,770 2013–14 6,169 SK Rapid 13,792 2012–13 6,802 SK Rapid 14,221 2011–12 7,075 SK Rapid 15,832 2010–11 7,953 SK Rapid 15,825 2009–10 7,873 SK Rapid 15,343 2008–09 9,013 SK Rapid 15,777 2007–08 9,338 SK Rapid 14,336 2006–07 8,022 Salzburg 15,109 2005–06 7,664 Salzburg 13,683 2004–05 6,757 SK Rapid 14,718 2003–04 7,216 SK Rapid 12,324 2002–03 5,285 Salzburg 7,514 2001–02 6,043 Innsbruck 10,157 2000–01 6,480 Innsbruck 13,131 1999–2000 7,702 Innsbruck 11,404 1998–99 6,864 Sturm Graz 11,031 1997–98 8,105 Sturm Graz 14,247 1996–97 6,407 Salzburg 12,000 1995–96 6,628 SK Rapid 12,306 1994–95 6,532 Salzburg 12,889 1993–94 4,267 Salzburg 10,250 1992–93 4,244 Salzburg 10,306 1991–92 5,094 Salzburg 13,083 1990–91 4,359 Salzburg 9,528 1989–90 4,845 Innsbruck 10,067 1988–89 4,377 Innsbruck 10,956 1987–88 4,522 Innsbruck 7,150 1986–87 4,537 Innsbruck 9,072 1985–86 4,226 Innsbruck 8,928 1984–85 3,510 Leoben 5,800 1983–84 4,049 SK Rapid 8,214 1982–83 4,230 SK Rapid 7,467 1981–82 5,644 SK Rapid 8,711 1980–81 6,256 SK Rapid 9,794 1979–80 6,437 LASK 6,437 1978–79 5,780 BW Linz 7,526 1977–78 4,353 Sturm Graz 6,250 1976–77 4,759 Innsbruck 6,889 1975–76 5,451 Austria Wien 7,389 1974–75 5,793 Innsbruck 8,206 1973–74 5,225 Innsbruck 8,531 1972–73 5,254 Innsbruck 8,667 1971–72 6,394 Innsbruck 10,821 1970–71 5,473 Innsbruck 8,767 1969–70 5,113 Sturm Graz 8,067Source:
Most successful clubs overall