The Problem With Austrian Football

[memestrous]

Big conglomerates and corporations shouldn't be allowed to buy football clubs

[TilfordLau]

So basically…, Red bull ruined a whole country’s league
Edit:Thanks a lot for the likes

[Nav-syld]

There must be an award for fans to every year. They deserve it.

[maximilianbarteder]

As a Sturm Graz fan, i hate to be the one who's defending RB, but Austrian football was in a ditch before RB. Austria Salzburg as it was back then would have died either way, the club was basically in ruins. Sturm was far away from their heyday in the late 90s, LASK was a 2nd division club, GAK, the second big club from Graz who won the league in 2004, had been dissolved due to financial reasons and the dominating 2 clubs were Austria Wien and Rapid, 2 clubs mostly relying on foreign players as their stars. The national team was number 71 in the fifa world ranking, just a few spots behind the likes of Latvia, Belarus and Trinidad.

And when Red Bull came in they basically started doing the sam bs as the Vienna clubs buying ageing foreign stars (Zickler, Linke, Kovac, ...). Only when Ralf Rangnick came in as sporting director they changed the entire philosophy of the club to work towards youth developement and started to sign young exciting players while also paying attention to their own academy.

They had a big bonus in the beginning but, all the other clubs were way to slow in reacting to that. Sturm and Lask have only started a few years ago to follow a similar path signing exciting young players and selling them on for big money (Hojlund, Emegha, Yeboah, Nakamura, ...). Also many players who don't make it at Salzburg end up being important players at other Bundesliga clubs (Affengruber, Gazibegovic, Prass at Sturm for example).

I don't think that Salzburg is the problem in Austrian football, they just showed how bad the rest of the league or at least the "big clubs" were working. Both big Vienna clubs would have the relevance, the fan base and also the marketing potential to challenge Red Bull, but they're so badly run and stuck in their big past, each year they struggle to even reach the upper play-off.

The problems in Austrian football are systematic and start even in kids football, amateure football and the coaching education. Thanks to RB and especially Ralf Rangnick Austria has started to catch up to the rest of the world. 15 years ago the austrian bundesliga was number 20 in the uefa 5 year ranking, now they're 12th. At the same time the national team was number 92 in the fifa rankings now it's number 24.

Edit: shit, i didn't expect that comment to end up being so long, sorry

[simply]

Salzburg is legit the only reason why we even have a direct group stage spot for the champions league. Back in the day we did not even have a Euro league spot..

[julius]

I visited some games in Austria and I can highly recommend it.

[rukhsanahumayun]

I think RBS actually increased the exposure of Austrian football. They have also produced young talents and have good scouting networks. They may have lots of money but they didn’t use it on big money transfers or anything like that. They invest it into the academy and excellent scouting networks.

[scarecrowsurprise]

I'm English, but born to Austrian parents, and my dad is a die hard Rapid Wein fan, but it's sad to see that despite how big a fan he is, he spends more time watching West Ham, as they are the closest team to where we used to live in London, and the team I grew up supporting, also they had Arnautovic for a time.

[yannik]

At least this year one of my favourite clubs, Sturm Graz, won the league and can now represent 🇦🇹

[mate.wx]

That one Formula 1 fan that got bored of Red Bull dominance and started watching Austrian league to try something new: *traumatized screaming*

[markwinkler]

As an Austrian who actually watches the Austrian Bundesliga I can tell that in all honesty this is a vast over estimation, even before the dominance of RB Salzburg (starting about 2012), we never had a real chance in europe nor did was there any interest in our league from outside. Granting that the league surely lost some excitement because of RB, you can‘t tell anyone that they are at fault for Rapid and Austria, the biggest clubs in the leagues history, located in Vienna (One of the biggest cities, with the One of the best infrastructures in europe) struggling to make it to the top 6 year in and year out. Much More it is due to bad management and just because we are small country that nobody really cares for our league.
I understand why people don’t like RedBull Salzburg but creating a false stigma doesn‘t help it.

[DeltaKnight]

Thank you Fiago for making a video about Austria! RB Salzburg also has won all ÖFB Cups except for 2 in the last years, it really sucks! If any other Austrian club would have Stadium as RBS, they would get more 2x Fans into it.

[Dhruv]

Started watching the second bundesliga because of the fan culture(and also because of you lmao) now ill make sure to see some games from Austria aswell

[Q-hvcb]

German Bundesliga and Austrian football league should make Anschluss imo

[connorledwith]

Fiago my man, you’ve just gave me a career mode idea! Gonna rebuild Rapid Vienna due to them being the most historical Austrian club, even being former German champions during the Nazi reign. I’ll be selling 2-3 of my best players every year (seems to be the way in Austria), I’ll smash the youth academy, and I’ve set a rule that I can’t spend above Salzburg’s record transfer (which is €15 million for Lucas Gourna). I think I’m gonna have some fun with this! Only ever done the Austrian league once during my Red Bull journeyman career (NY > Salzburg > Leipzig), and that was some of the most fun I’ve had on the game in a long time!

[FormulaManuel]

On the contrary: Red Bull created a club that gives meaning to it. It’s youth development. Just look at all the stars Red Bull built, like Erling Håland, Marcel Sabitzer, Takumi Minamino, Sadio Mané, Karim Adeyemi etc. Which other club can present anything valuable? “All they have” is rich history and a loud stadium, and yes, I di envy that. But Red Bull Salzburg created a new style in Austrian football even the national team copies now, their scouting is on another level and barely any clubs have a bigger profit turnaround on their young players.
In my eyes, Red Bull Salzburg is an utter success 🇦🇹

[Togotor]

Salzburg won the last 10 league titles in Austria but Bayern won the last 11 in Germany, pretty similar in dominance.

[Yuyuzu]

What are the attendance numbers on the Salzburg 3rd division club, and what were the numbers prior to RB acquiring the club? I doubt it's bigger than current RB Salzburg.

One or two clubs dominating a league is common in smaller European countries, just look at Portugal, the Netherlands, Scotland, Belgium etc.

[kebabsvensken]

I was at the Sturm Graz Salzburg game last year and the fans of sturm was fantastic

[NatV]

Same for ligue 1 and psg, I genuinely think France are one of the countries with the best atmospheres in the world: marseille, saint-Étienne, lens, strasbourg, Nantes, even psg have incredible ultras