The two host associations EURO 2008- The Austrian Football Association (OFB)
Posted by SK at 12:12 PMThe Austrian Football Association (ÖFB), with a total of 592,375 members and 2,211 clubs, is by far the largest sports federation in Austria. To put it another way: around 1 million Austrians are involved in football matches (nearly) every weekend, either asplayers, coaches, officials or spectators. 7.4 per cent of the whole population plays football for a club, putting Austria in sixthposition among the 52 UEFA member associations, even ahead of Germany. The Austrian Football Association wasfounded in 1904 (it joined FIFA in 1907 and UEFA in 1954). The English gardeners of the noble Rothschild family had brought football to Austria. The country’s first ten international matches were all against neighbour Hungary.The Austrian national team has played in seven World Cup final tournaments, finishing third in Switzerland in 1954 and fourth in Italy in 1934. It failed to qualify from the group phase on its last appearance in the finals, in France in 1998 (drawing 1-1 with Cameroon and Chile, losing 1-2 to Italy).Austria has never previously qualified for the UEFA European Football Championship finals. The two host associations Former Bremen and Bayern star Andreas Herzog is the most-capped Austrian player (103 caps) and also the country’s EURO 2008ambassador. The national team’s record goal scorer is Anton Polster with 44 goals, followed by Hans Krankl with 34. President Friedrich Stickler has been in his post since 7 April 2002. General secretary Alfred Ludwig has been in office for more than 20 years. The national team coach is Josef Hickersberger. Capped 39 times, he took the job at the start of 2006. Born in Lower Austria (Amstetten, 27 April 1948), he won the Austrian league title with Rapid as a player in 1982 and as coach in 2005, taking Austria’s most successful club into the UEFA Champions League in 2005/06. Hickersberger previously coached the national team from 1987 to 1990, reaching the World Cup final tournament in Italy. Austria’s biggest victory in an international match was 9-0 (against Malta in Salzburg on 30 April 1977, including six goals by Hans Krankl) and its heaviest defeat was also 0-9 (against Spain in Valencia on 27 March 1999).
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