Football in Austria

Parts of this article (those related to League system - number of clubs) need to be updated. 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 in Austria. The Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB (Österreichischer Fußball-Bund), was founded in 1904 and has been a member of FIFA since then. 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.^[1] Austria played their first ever European championship as a qualifier in 2016, but finished last in their group and failed to advance. Appeared in the European championship in 2008 (when it co-hosted the championship with Switzerland), 2016, 2020 and recently qualified for 2024. Their best up to date achievement of this competition was the Round of 16 in the 2020 edition.

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, 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 as The 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.