Austrian Bundesliga

With Euro 2008 being jointly hosted by Austria I thought it was time to look at the domestic leagues of the two countries, starting with Austria.

The top division (Bundesliga) is a relatively small division containing only ten teams. Clubs play each other twice at home and twice away.

SV Ried are another club in Austria who have accepted the "corporate dollar", the full title of their side is SV Josko Fenster Ried, the logo of the firm is even featured on their badge, something that makes me quite uneasy. Saying that the picture in their gallery from the Innsbruck game made me feel quite uneasy too. SCR Rheindorf Altach are another club who have incorperated their sponsors logo (CASHPOINT) onto their badge, it's one thing allowing a company to sponsor your ground or kit but on the badge? Step too far perhaps?

SV Rien vs Innsbruck.

Wacker Innsbruck are one of many sides (almost half) that play in green in the Bundesliga. They see themselves as the continuation of the Tirol Innsbruck club who won the Austrian title three times earlier this decade. However, Tirol went bust in 2002. Wacker Innsbruck had Liverpool defender Besian Idrizaj on loan this year, a player who has also had spells at Crystal Palace and Luton Town.

Carsten Jancker, remember him? The man who scored "the Germans" only goal against England in their humiliating 5-1 defeat? The man who used to terrify defences all over Europe with his aerial ability? Well, he's now at SV Mattersburg who finished 5th in the Austrian Bundesliga this season. The Champions League winner (really!) has scored a decent 14 goals for the club this term and seems to have got his career back on track after a poor spell in China. Despite Mattersburg being a town of only 6300 people they had one of the highest average attendances in the Bundesliga.

Carsten Jancker

Franchise football is unsurprisingly present in Austrian football. SK Austria Kamten were only a couple of years ago known as ASKO Pasching (a club who once beat Werder Bremen in Europe) - they were the club who were called FC Superfund for a while as sponsorship in Austria ran amock amongst their football clubs. They finished second bottom of the Bundesliga this season, saving themselves from relegation as only one club is demoted each season.

One of the more famous names in Austrian football are Sturm Graz. They made the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup in the early 80s, beaten by Nottingham Forest by a dubious penalty (or at least that's what the wikipedia page says - I suspect it was written by a still angry Sturm fan!). Their European exploits didn't end there however. In the 99/00 season they won their group in the Champions League above European giants Galatasaray, Rangers and Monaco. Times have been a bit harder on the Graz club recently. Financial problems have blighted the club and they've been unable to repeat their European successes.

FC Red Bull Salzburg are probably the most controversial side in the division. On April 6, 2005 Red Bull purchased the club and rebranded it under their Red Bull name. Not only did they change the name of the club they also changed the club colours from violet (there is no violet on the kit at all now) and stated "this is a new club with no history". It's a pretty brutal way to run a football club. Fans of the club obviously weren't happy so set up their own club as SV Austria Salzburg (Red Bull Salzburg's old name) and joined the seventh tier of the Austrian pyramid and began playing at the start of the 2006/2007 season. They won the championship in their first and second seasons as a football club and are now only four promotions away from playing the Red Bull horrors (who incidentally were Austrian champions in the same season). Their official website is very violet and has a basic English version. Definitely worth a look, though the club shop is only in German at the moment.

SV Austria Salzburg fans decked out in violet

LASK Linz are a breath of fresh air in a smog of commercialism in Austrian football. They have never allowed a sponsor to sully their club name in their entire history. LASK Linz were the first club outside of Vienna to win the Austrian title (1965 - they won the cup in the same year) but have never got near to repeating this feat.

The two Vienna clubs dominate the footballing landscape in Austria. 'Rapid' and 'Austria' have won the Austrian title on a remarkable 55 occasions. Austria Vienna play in lovely violet and white and have won the Austrian championship 23 times and the cup 26 times. Their best modern European performance (Austria Vienna won the Mitropa Cup twice in the 30s) saw them lose 4-0 to Anderlecht in the Cup Winners Cup Final in 1978.

Rapid Vienna (who sport a green and white strip) have never won a European trophy, but have made two Cup Winners Cup finals. Once against Everton in 1985 and once against Paris St Germain in 1996, a youthful Carsten Jancker (now at SV Mattersburg as described earlier) played in Rapid's 1-0 loss. Despite these European "failures" the club has an impressive list of honours that include a German championship and cup victory! They are the current Austrian champions having won the title by six points from Red Bull Salzburg.

Overall I find the league quite depressing. Massive commercialism (some of the players look like Formula One drivers with sponsor logos stuck on every part of the body) and many clubs moving from city to city.