Fußballklub Austria Wien often known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria in German speaking countries) is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. The club have won 24 Austrian Bundesliga titles, surpassed only by their cross-city rivals SK Rapid Wien. With 27 victories in the Austrian Cup and six in the Austrian Supercup, Austria Wien is the most successful club in each of those tournaments. The club reached the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1978, and the semi-finals of the European Cup the season after.
FK Austria Wien was founded in Vienna on 12 March 1911 as the Wiener Amateur Sportvereinigung by players and officials of the Vienna Cricket- and Football- Club, taking violet and white as the new club’s colours. The team claimed its first championship title in 1924. Amateure changed their name to Austria in 1926 as the former amateurs had become professionals. The club also won their second league title that year.
The 1930s, one of Austria Wien’s most successful eras, brought two titles (1933, 1936) in the Mitropa Cup, a tournament for champions in Central Europe. The star of that side was forward Matthias Sindelar, who was voted in 1998 as the greatest ever Austrian footballer.
The club’s successes were halted by the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. While Jewish players and staff at the club were exterminated or fled the country, Sindelar died under unresolved circumstances on 23 January 1939 of carbon monoxide poisoning in his apartment. He had refused to play for Germany, citing injury and international retirement. Even though the club did not have any success in this period, playing in the Gauliga Ostmark, they managed a much more important victory in keeping the name “Austria” despite attempts by Nazi sports authorities to rename the club.
At the start of the 1990s, Austria Wien enjoyed its so far last successful era: a hat-trick of Bundesliga titles (1991-93); three cup titles (1990, 1992 and 1994) as well as four Super cup titles (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) were won. The club declined in the late 1990s due to financial problems which caused key players to be sold.
Austria Wien was taken over by Austro-Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach’s Magna auto-parts consortium in 1999, and due to further deals with the Memphis cigarette company was renamed FK Austria Memphis Magna. Stronach’s investment in players, on a budget three times as high as the average in the league, saw a first Bundesliga title for ten years in 2002–03. Despite this, coach Walter Schachner was fired, and his replacement Christoph Daum could not retain the league title, but won the Cup.
In 2004 the name Memphis was removed. Austria Wien reached their last European quarter-final in 2004-05 as they were eliminated by Parma of Italy in the UEFA Cup. On 21 November 2005, Frank Stonach decided to resign from his post. As a result several players such as topscorer Roland Linz, Vladimír Janočko, Joey Didulica, Libor Sionko, Filip Šebo and Sigurd Rushfeldt were transferred to other teams in Summer 2006. The 2005–06 season concluded with a league-and-cup double.
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The season 2006–07 saw a decline at the club due to a much-reduced budget and loss of key players. Despite losing 4-1 on aggregate to Benfica of Portugal in the preliminary round of the Champions League, the team managed to qualify (against Legia Warsaw winning 2–1 on aggregate) for the Group Phase of the UEFA Cup tournament. Former player and coach Thomas Parits became the new general manager, and after losing three days later 4–0 away to Red Bull Salzburg, sacked coaching pair Peter Stöger and Frank Schinkels. Georg Zellhofer replaced them. The league season saw a sixth-place finish despite being in last place on Christmas, although Austria Wien also won the Cup. The side improved the following season, finishing in third.
The summer of 2008 brought notable changes for Austria Wien. Twelve players left the club, among them key players like Sanel Kuljic and Yüksel Sariyar, who went and joined Frank Stronach’s newly founded team FC Magna in Austria’s second division. The Betriebsführervertrag with Stronach’s Magna company expired, which gave the club a wholly new structure. On 1 July 2008 the original name FK Austria Wien, without any sponsor name included for the first time in 30 years. The club also recruited Chinese international Sun Xiang, who became the first Chinese player to play in the Austrian Bundesliga. In the 2012-13 season Austria Vienna won their 24th league title, ahead of holders Red Bull Salzburg, but lost the Cup final 1-0 to third-tier FC Pasching. In August 2013, Austria Wien qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League for the first time after defeating Dinamo Zagreb in the play-offs round.
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