The
Austrian Football Bundesliga ( ) is the
highest-ranking national league club competition in Austrian
football. It is the competition
which decides the Austrian
national football champions,
as well the country's entrants for the various European cups run by
UEFA.
The Austrian Bundesliga, which began in the
1974-75 season, has
been a separate registered association since December 1, 1991. At
present it is composed of two divisions - the Bundesliga and
First League, known
as "tipp3-Bundesliga powered by
T-Mobile"
and "ADEG 1st league" for sponsorship reasons.
History
1900 to 1938
Football has been played in Austria since around
1890. Around the turn of the
twentieth century two attempts were made to start a national
championship. From 1900 onwards, a cup competition was played in
Vienna, the
Neues Wiener Tagblatt Pokal. This cup was
actually played in league format.
The efforts to create a football league succeeded in
1911, with the introduction of the
first Austrian
football championship. The competition for this championship,
the
1. Klasse (First Class), was
created and organized by the Niederösterreichischer
Fußball-Verband (the Lower Austrian
Football Federation), and the participants played
for the title of Niederösterreichische Landesmeister
(Lower Austrian National Champion). From 1924, the league
was considered professional and changed its name to
I.
Liga (
First League).
In 1929, an all-Austrian amateur championship was first played, won
by
Grazer AK. Clubs from the professional
league in Vienna were not part of this competition. Teams from the
other
states of Austria were first
allowed to join the highest division with the introduction of the
Nationalliga (
National League) in the season of
1937-38.
1938 to 1945
Austria's
annexation by
Germany in 1938 brought the Austrian
Nationalliga to an early end. Numerous teams were disbanded and
some players fled out of the country. The Austrian Nationalliga was
integrated into the system of the
NSRL, the
Sports office of the Third Reich as the
Gau
XVII section under
Gaufachwart Hans Janisch. Despised
by
Nazis as unworthy of a true German,
professionalism in sports was outlawed in May 1938. "Innovations"
like the
Hitler salute were introduced
as compulsory before and after every game. Finally, the operation
of the junior teams was handed over to the local
Hitlerjugend units.
The new
highest league in what had been Austria, the Gauliga
Ostmark, was an amateur league and covered the whole of the
former country except Tyrol
and Vorarlberg
, which were added to the Bavarian
league
system. The league champions now qualified for the
German football championship,
which
Rapid Vienna won in 1941. From
1941, the league was renamed
Gauliga Donau-Alpenland to
further eradicate the memory of Austria as an independent
country.
Following Nazi Germany's defeat in
World
War II and the disbandment of the NSRL, Austria's teams were
excluded again from the German league.
1945 to 1974
The league returned to a Vienna-only format in 1945, briefly named
1. Klasse once more before changing to just
Liga in 1946.
Only upon the introduction of the all-Austrian
Staatsliga
A in
1949 did teams from the whole federal
territory finally play for the Austrian Championship. However, the
road to organising the Staatsliga proved difficult.
A conflict between the
representatives of the amateur and the professional aspects of the
sport led to the separation of the Viennese
league from
the football federation, and to the establishment of its own
competition on June 30, 1949. At the statutory Presidential Election
Council of the
Austrian
Football Association only a few days later a surprising turn
took place - upon the request of Lower Austria, the introduction of
the
Staatsliga was finally and unanimously confirmed. The
organization was in the hands of the Fußballstaatsliga Österreich,
created for this purpose. A
Staatsliga B, the second
division of national league football, was formed in 1950. This
league, however, was disbanded again in 1959, whereby the
Staatsliga A dropped the
A from its name, the
need for differentiating having been gone.
In 1965, however, the Austrian Football Association again took over
the organization of the top division, with the (second)
introduction of the
Nationalliga.
On 21 April 1974, against the vote of the Vorarlberg association,
the introduction of the
Bundesliga was decided. The
Nationalliga remained as the second division, for
now.
1974 to current
In the
1974/75
season the Bundesliga was introduced which, still led by the
Austrian Football Association, aligned both of the highest
divisions in Austria. In 1976, the
Nationalliga was
renamed to
Bundesliga - Second Division while the
Bundesliga was now called
Bundesliga - First
Division.
26 years after dissolution of the independent Staatsliga on 17
November 1991, the Austrian Football Bundesliga was reconstituted
as a federation and admitted on 1 December 1991 to the Austrian
Football Association as its 10th member.
Tasks and legal form
Since 1991 the Bundesliga has carried its own responsibility as a
separate association, and organises the championships of the two
highest divisions in Austria. Both are named after their sponsors;
at present,
T-Mobile for the Bundesliga and
Red Zac for the first division. In addition
the Bundesliga is responsible for the Toto Jugendliga and
represents professional football in Austria, in co-operation with
the football clubs themselves.
The Bundesliga is legally a non-profit organisation. The twenty-two
teams of the T-Mobile Bundesliga and the Red Zac first division
constitute the members of the Bundesliga. The Bundesliga is
represented by an acting executive committee, which supports a
supervisory board. Each association of the two professional leagues
is represented in presidential conferences; these have advisory
function in all affairs concerning the Bundesliga.
Scopes of responsibility of the senates
The 'senates' are organising committees which consist of honorary
and committee-members independent of the clubs. The first senate is
responsible for
suspensions
and for the running of championship games. The second senate
functions as an arbitration board for financial disagreements, the
third senate is responsible for all financial concerns and the
fourth senate is the panel of referees for the Bundesliga.
The evaluation of a club's economic competency which is required in
order to obtain a playing license for the two professional leagues
takes place at the fifth senate, the Bundesliga
license committee.
Objectives
The Austrian Bundesliga carries the obligation for a positive
development of football as a sport at the élite level, as well as
for the advancement of the next generation of players in
co-operation with the teams at the junior levels of the sport. To
accomplish this, the Bundesliga requires economic audits of the
teams, the introduction of laws particular to professional
football, TV marketing, centralised sponsorship and collective
marketing for all teams.
Tipp 3 Bundesliga
In the Tipp 3 Bundesliga, 10 teams play a "double championship"
with each team playing every other twice at home and twice away
during a championship year which is divided into an autumn and a
spring season. The season typically lasts from July to June of the
following year. At the end of the season, the team finishing in
last place in the table is relegated to the ADEG Erste Liga, the
champion of which is promoted to the Tipp 3 Bundesliga.
Member clubs for the 2009-10 season
The ten teams competing in the 2009-10 Bundesliga season are:
* Promoted from the
First League as
champions.
The Bundesliga
champion qualifies for the
UEFA Champions League, and the
clubs at positions 2 and 3, as well as the Austrian Cup winner,
enter the qualification rounds for the
UEFA
Cup. The team at position 4 enters the qualification for the
UEFA Intertoto Cup. In case
Bundesliga champion is equal to the Austrian Cup winner the team in
4th position enters the qualification for the UEFA Cup and the 5th
position team can qualify for the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Top scorers
See also
References
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