This article deals with the Austrian men's football championship in the 1996/97 season. For the Austrian women's soccer championship of the 1996/97 season, see Austrian women's soccer championship 1996/97 .
The games for the Austrian football championship in 1996/97 were played in the 1st Bundesliga , Austria's top division. The second division was called the Bundesliga - 2nd Division , including the third division in the three regional leagues West, Middle and East for promotion to the 2nd division.
First performance level - 1st division of the Bundesliga
Mode and general
The 1st division of the Bundesliga was played with 10 teams, each of which met four times during the entire season. SV Austria Salzburg celebrated its 3rd Austrian championship title after a very exciting championship course . The Salzburg team's last title win was in 1995 . Last year's champion Rapid Wien had to be content with second place. The team of SK Sturm Graz won the ÖFB Cup with a 2-1 final victory over the surprising finalist from the 2nd division First Vienna FC 1894 . The Supercup was played before the beginning of the following season in summer and Austria Salzburg won it for the third time. Shortly before the end of the season, the two major Linz clubs LASK and FC Linz officially announced their merger.
In the following season, champions Austria Salzburg played in the qualifying round for the UEFA Champions League , runners-up Rapid and Tirol in the UEFA Cup and cup winner Sturm Graz in the European Cup Winners' Cup . GAK, Austria and Ried registered for the games in the UI Cup .
TV: Sat 1 got in
The German broadcaster Sat 1 opened its Austria window and began broadcasting live on July 24th. For the time being, six transfers were fixed.
1 VfB Mödling joined the Bundesliga club and neighbor SCN Admira / Wacker.
2The favorite AC stopped its game operations after the autumn season for financial reasons. All games of the spring round were rated with 3 points and 0: 3 goals for the opponents.
Since LUV Graz had voluntarily relegated to the Styrian regional league after the previous season, the Joint Commission decided on July 5, 1996 for SVG Bleiburg - as it was called "for sporting reasons" - as an additional promoter.
1The Villacher SV joined the regional division SK Austria Klagenfurt after the end of the season. This was renamed in FC Austria / VSV and later FC Kärnten.
Due to the merger between the major Linz clubs LASK and FC Linz just before the end of the season, the alleged relegated SCN FC Admira / Wacker was allowed to compete in the relegation games for relegation against SK Vorwärts Steyr from the 2nd division. After the successful relegation games, the club then joined the second division VfB Mödling.