Austrian champions (football)

The Austrian football champions are the winners of the highest league of football in Austria. The championship has been contested through the Austrian Football Bundesliga since the 1974–75 season.

Rapid Wien and Austria Wien are the most successful clubs. They have won 32 and 24 titles, respectively, as of 2016.

From 1911 until 1923 the Austrian football championship was organized by the football association of Niederösterreich (Lower Austria) which was made up only of clubs from the nation's capital of Vienna. The championship was then taken over by the newly formed football association of Vienna (WFV, Wiener Fußball-Verband), which organized the first professional league in continental Europe in 1924–25.

In 1938 Austria was united with Germany in the Anschluss and the country's football competition became part of the German league structure as the Gauliga Ostmark. For the first time clubs from outside of Vienna were included in top-flight Austrian competition.

Austrian clubs took part in the German championship during this period. An "Austrian champion" would emerge from divisional play in the Gauliga Ostmark and then move on to the German national playoffs with other Gauliga winners. Austrian clubs enjoyed a considerable measure of success playing in Germany, making three national final appearances and two Tschammerspokal (predecessor of today's German Cup) appearances: Rapid Vienna won the national title in 1941, while First Vienna took the Tschammerspokal in 1943.

Austrian football was again independent after World War II and championship play was limited to Viennese clubs until 1948–49 when clubs from the rest of Austria were re-admitted. In 1965, Linzer ASK became the first team from outside the capital to claim the Austrian title, leading the way for clubs such as FC Wacker Innsbruck, VÖEST Linz, SV Austria Salzburg, Sturm Graz, and Grazer AK.

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