This article deals with the Austrian men's football championship in the 1988/89 season. For the Austrian women's football championship of the 1988/89 season see under Austrian women's football championship 1988/89 .
The Austrian Football Championship 1988/89 was organized by the Austrian Football Association . The first-class 1st division and the second-class 2nd division were merged this season through a playoff mode. The regional league east (Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland) and west (Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg) as well as the regional leagues of Carinthia, Upper Austria and Styria acted as the third performance level .
The championship in the 1st and 2nd division was initially held in autumn with 12 teams each in a single round, so that each team initially completed 22 games. This was followed by the division into the championship playoff (1-8th 1st division), middle playoff (9-12th 1st division and 1-4th 2nd division) and relegation playoff. This meant that masters and European Cup starting positions were determined in the master playoff, promotions and relegations between the 1st and 2nd division in the middle playoff and relegation to the regional and national leagues in the relegation playoff. In the championship and relegation playoffs, games, goals and points were taken into spring. In order to increase the tension, the points were halved for the first time this season (and the result rounded up if necessary). Naturally, the teams in the middle playoff did not take any points and goals from autumn into the spring season.
General
In the 1988/89 championship, FC Swarovski, trained by Ernst Happel, was able to become Austrian football champions for the first time. The most expensive team of the year won the title in front of FC Admira / Wacker, which under coach Ernst Weber played for a long time, especially due to his storm with Rodax-Knaller-Schaub. In addition to Swarovski in the 1990 European Cup , Cup finalist Admira / Wacker competed internationally in the 1990 European Cup and Austria, Rapid and Vienna in the 1990 UEFA Cup . The most successful Austrian club was Admira / Wacker, who made it to the quarter-finals against Anderlecht, but also Rapid, who eliminated Aberdeen and Bruges, and Austria, which defeated Ajax Amsterdam in a scandalous game, celebrated great successes.
Vienna, which was 95 years old this season, wanted to achieve the championship by one hundred in five years and founded a so-called “100,000 club” for sponsors on March 9th.
