Austrian Football League

Austrian Football League

Current season	AFL 2020
sport	American football
abbreviation	AFL
Association	American Football Federation Austria
League foundation	1984
Teams	8th
Country countries	Austria , Czech Republic (1 team)
Title holder	Swarco Raiders Tirol
Record champions	Vienna Vikings (14 titles)
Website	football.at
↓ Division I

Austrian Bowl Trophy

The Austrian Football League (AFL) is the top division of American football in Austria and is held under the responsibility of the American Football Association Austria (AFBÖ). The AFL, like the following divisions I , II , III and IV, will be held on an amateur basis . The league was founded in 1984. The record champions are the Vienna Vikings with 14 titles.

mode

Game mode

The current mode has existed since the 2016 season. Eight teams play in the league. Each team completes ten games in the basic round and meets every other team at least once. There is a round trip against three teams, the higher a team is, the stronger the assigned opponents are. A ranking list is determined from the basic round. First of all, the quotient of wins to games is decisive for this. If this is the same for several teams, the point difference counts first in a direct comparison and then the total point difference. To calculate the difference, the point difference per game is capped at +35 or −35.

The play-offs follow after the regular season. Here, the third and fourth placed first compete in their own stadium against the sixth and fifth placed in a wildcard round. The two winners from the games then play away against the two best teams from the regular season in the semi-finals. The winners of these pairings then compete against each other in the Austrian Bowl. The winner of the Austrian Bowl is also the Austrian national champion, provided that it is an Austrian team. If only one Austrian team reaches the Austrian Bowl, this team is automatically national champion - this has never happened before.

The last of the basic round is relegated to Division I. The Division I champion qualifies for the AFL.

A class player

The semi-finalists of the preseason may lead two A-class players on the roster of a match day and use these two on the field at the same time. All other teams are allowed to have three A-class players in the squad on a matchday, but also only play two on the field at the same time. Only one A-class player was allowed in the past two seasons. In addition to those players from America, every other player who receives a fixed salary from his club is considered a class A player .

Teams

Swarco Raiders Vienna Vikings Graz Giants Danube Dragons Mödling Rangers Prague Panthers Steelsharks Traun Cineplexx Blue Devils

AFL football teams (2020)

There are currently eight teams in the AFL. Seven of the teams come from Austria, one team from the Czech Republic.

• Swarco Raiders Tirol ( Innsbruck )
• Vienna Vikings ( Vienna )
• Graz Giants ( Graz )
• Danube Dragons (Vienna)
• Mödling Rangers ( Mödling )
• Prague Black Panthers ( Prague , Czech Republic )
• Steelsharks Traun ( Traun )
• Cineplexx Blue Devils ( Hohenems )

History of the Austrian Football League

The first Austrian American football team, the Vienna Ramblocks , was founded in 1978. With the Graz Giants , another team was added in 1981, so that the first Austrian duel could take place in 1982, which went 44-0 to the Ramblocks.

In 1984 the AFL was founded by the Ramblocks, Giants and the Salzburg Lions . The champions of the first season were the Lions, who prevailed against the Giants in the final with 27:10. In the period that followed, the Graz team became the dominant team in the league. In the first eight seasons the Giants were always represented in the Austrian Bowl and emerged as winners six times. The Vienna Vikings won their first championship title in 1994 and between 1998 and 2005 set the Graz record with eight consecutive finals. During this period, the Vikings came up with six championship titles, and they even won the Austrian Bowl five times in a row from 1999 to 2003. Since 2012 the Vikings have been the Austrian record champions with 13 championship titles. The Tyrolean Raiders reached their first final in 2000, have been represented in twelve final games and celebrated their first championship title in 2004.

Up to and including the 2008 season , the AFL was played with six teams that meet once each in a round trip. Each team played 8 straight through games, after which the top two in the table played the final of the Austrian Bowl. It was the same mode that was used in NFL Europe . Before that, there was a basic round with subsequent play-offs until the 2005 season .

Due to a change of sponsors , there were some name changes after the 2008 season: the former Chrysler Vikings now play as Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna, Papa Joe's Tyrolean Raiders as Swarco Raiders Tirol and the Öko-Box Graz Giants as Turek Graz Giants. The Carinthian Falcons changed their club name to Carinthian Black Lions in 2005. Meanwhile, the Vienna Vikings and the Graz Giants play again under their original name without any sponsorship.

After the 2008 season, dissatisfaction with the structure of the AFL increased, especially among the Carinthian Black Lions and the Cineplexx Blue Devils . These two teams no longer considered participating in the continuation of the previous mode, which led to considerable changes in the structure of Austrian football. The AFL was reduced to the four strongest clubs, Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna , Turek Graz Giants , Swarco Raiders Tirol and Danube Dragons , and a so-called interdivison was founded with the Black Lions and the Blue Devils. These two teams played games with both Division I and AFL teams.

Since the 2010 season there have again been major changes in the structure of the AFL. At that time the league was increased from four to eight teams and the interdivision, which was only founded for the 2009 season, was dissolved. In addition to the four top teams, the Carinthian Black Lions (Interdivision), the Salzburg Bulls and the Generali Invaders (both Division I), as well as the Prague Panthers from the Czech Republic entered. The Cineplexx Blue Devils, however, joined the Swiss National League A in.

In the 2011 season , the Generali Invaders got out of the league at short notice due to financial problems, so that the AFL 2011 only comprised seven teams.

Before the 2012 season , the Black Lions and Salzburg Bulls got out of the league, but the AFC Rangers , so that the AFL 2012 comprised six teams. Each team played a home and away game against the other teams. This mode was retained in the 2013 season . The AFC Rangers chose a voluntary relegation to Division 2, so that the 2014 season was completed with five remaining teams.

There were efforts to play the 2015 season with eight teams. However, since the Carinthian Lions and the Vienna Knights refused to ascend, they stayed with the well-known mode.

Austrian Bowl

In the Austrian Bowl, which was played for the first time on October 20, 1984 in Salzburg , the Austrian national champion in American football is chosen every year:

List of all Austrian bowls

	year	date	master	Runner-up	result	venue
I.	1984	Oct. 20	Salzburg Lions	Graz Giants	27:10	Salzburg
	1985	not carried out
II	1986	June 28th	Graz Giants	Vienna Vikings	31:12	Salzburg
III	1987	05th July	Graz Giants	Salzburg Lions	20: 00	ASKÖ Schmelz , Vienna
IV	1988	03rd of July	Graz Giants	Vienna Vikings	33:15	ASKÖ Schmelz, Vienna
V	1989	0July 1	Salzburg Lions	Graz Giants	34: 00	Salzburg
VI	1990	0July 1	Graz Giants	Klosterneuburg Mercenaries	59: 70	Linz Stadium , Linz
VII	1991	07th of July	Graz Giants	Vienna Vikings	38: 70	ASKÖ Eggenberg , Graz
VIII	1992	05th July	Graz Giants	Schwarzenau Rangers	28:13	ASKÖ Schmelz, Vienna
IX	1993	0July 4th	Feldkirch Oscar Dinos	Salzburg Lions	45:10	BSZ Südstadt , Maria Enzersdorf
X	1994	0July 4th	Vienna Vikings	Levi's Graz Giants	45:23	Rudolf-Tonn-Stadion , Schwechat-Rannersdorf
XI	1995	15th of July	Levi's Graz Giants	Vienna Vikings	26:20	Rudolf-Tonn-Stadion, Schwechat-Rannersdorf
XII	1996	July 13th	Vienna Vikings	Levi's Graz Giants	41:35	Rudolf-Tonn-Stadion, Schwechat-Rannersdorf
XIII	1997	July 12	Levi's Graz Giants	Klosterneuburg Mercenaries	53:14	Rudolf-Tonn-Stadion, Schwechat-Rannersdorf
XIV	1998	July 18th	Levi's Graz Giants	Vienna Vikings	43: 30	BSZ Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf
XV	1999	20th of July	Chrysler Vikings	Levi's Graz Giants	37:35	Rudolf-Tonn-Stadion Schwechat-Rannersdorf
XVI	2000	22nd of July	Chrysler Vikings	Papa Joe's Tyrolean Raiders	34:28	Hohe Warte stadium , Vienna
XVII	2001	21 July	Chrysler Vikings	Papa Joe's Tyrolean Raiders	24:14	Lindenstadion , Eisenstadt
XVIII	2002	20th of July	Chrysler Vikings	Eco-Box Graz Giants	52:21	Hohe Warte stadium, Vienna
XIX	2003	July 12	Chrysler Vikings	Eco-Box Graz Giants	56:42	Hohe Warte stadium, Vienna
XX	2004	17th July	Papa Joe's Tyrolean Raiders	Chrysler Vikings	28:20	EM stadium Wals-Siezenheim , Wals
XXI	2005	16th of July	Chrysler Vikings	Papa Joe's Tyrolean Raiders	43:14	BSZ Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf
XXII	2006	15th of July	Swarco Raiders Tirol	Dodge Vikings Vienna	43:19	Hohe Warte stadium, Vienna
XXIII	2007	July 14th	Dodge Vikings Vienna	Turek Graz Giants	42:14	Hohe Warte stadium, Vienna
XXIV	2008	June 27th	Turek Graz Giants	Swarco Raiders Tirol	31:21	Sports stadium , Wolfsberg
XXV	2009	July 18th	Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna	Turek Graz Giants	22:19	ASKÖ Stadium Eggenberg, Graz
XXVI	2010	0July 9	Danube Dragons	Swarco Raiders Tirol	28:21	Tivoli-Neu , Innsbruck
XXVII	2011	23rd June	Swarco Raiders Tirol	Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna	23:13	Ernst Happel Stadium , Vienna
XXVIII	2012	July 28th	Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna	Swarco Raiders Tirol	48:34	Hohe Warte stadium, Vienna
XXIX	2013	July 27th	Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna	Swarco Raiders Tirol	48:31	NV Arena , St. Pölten
XXX	2014	July 26th	Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna	Swarco Raiders Tirol	24:17	NV Arena, St. Pölten
XXXI	2015	July 11th	Swarco Raiders Tirol	Vienna Vikings	38: 00	Wörthersee Stadium , Klagenfurt
XXXII	2016	July 23	Swarco Raiders Tirol	Graz Giants	51: 70	Wörthersee Stadium, Klagenfurt
XXXIII	2017	29th of July	Dacia Vikings Vienna	Swarco Raiders Tirol	45:26	Wörthersee Stadium, Klagenfurt
XXXIV	2018	21 July	Swarco Raiders Tirol	Dacia Vikings Vienna	51:48	NV Arena, St. Pölten
XXXV	2019	July 27th	Swarco Raiders Tirol	Dacia Vikings Vienna	42:34	NV Arena, St. Pölten

Ranking by teams

	team	title	Participation
1	Vienna Vikings	14th	25th
2	Turek Graz Giants	10	20th
3	Swarco Raiders Tirol	7th	16
4th	Salzburg Lions	2	4th
5	Danube Dragons	1	3 a
6th	Feldkirch Oscar Dinos	1	1
7th	Schwarzenau Rangers	0	1

^aTwo participations as Klosterneuburg Mercenaries

See also

• European national championships in American football
• Austrian Football Division Ladies
• American football in Austria

Individual evidence, comment

1. ↑ Increase in AFL 2016 ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) AFBÖ ; As of December 1, 2015.
2. ^ ^{A b} Elisabeth Kollreider: American Football Kicks Off in Austria. June 9, 2011, accessed June 5, 2018 . 
3. ^ Hall of Fame - Players - AFBÖ. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
4. ↑ In contrast to Germany and Switzerland, where proper names in bowl games are always male, the female form is more common in Austria.
5. ^ Hall of Fame - AFL Champions. In: football.at. AFBÖ , accessed on May 30, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : American Football in Austria  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• AFBÖ American Football Association Austria
• Football Austria Austria's largest football portal with the latest news, videos, photo galleries, statistics and LIVE ticker.