By Redmann• Jun 30th, 2008 • Site Category: Destinations

With the jewel in UEFA's crown Euro 2008 now all but a distant memory, the Austrian Capital city of Vienna has been getting back to normal after the UEFA corporate cavalcade swept into town.  And just as the Habsburg empire diminshed in the face of an oncoming new Europe, so UEFA's bandwagen flagship tournament moves on and out of Vienna to reconvene once more in four years time in Poland and possibly if they get an act together, in Ukraine. 

But with the Austrian max. Bundesliga kicking off once more on 12th July 2008 not three weeks after the Tournament came to a close with the Spanish victory over Germany, Vienna as a venue finds itself ready once more to host professional domestic league football.    The Austrian Capital like Bern, Salzburg or any of the other host venues during Euro 2008 witnessed the business side of UEFA organised football; that of overbearing corporate advertising, logo overload and sportswear manufacturer saturation in every conceivable area of the city.  Despite a pre-tournament fear of percieved Austrian 'ambivilant attitudes' to Football, the numbers who attended the Fan Mile area in central Vienna would indicate that there was an appreciation of the UEFA/Mastercard football business machine that rolled into town with over 120,000 attending the Vienna fan area on the evening of Austria v Germany.    Life long and new Football fans as well as old or young alike turned a blind eye to the sponsored marketing overload, drunkeness, crowds and hightened security simply to have the opportunity with Euro 2008 to witness and participate first hand the cultural and sporting experience that is being the major host city in UEFA tournament football. 

Whilst names such as Puskas and Czibor have gone down in Hungarian football legend as 'greats', Austria, like its proud magyar neighbours, can boast some famous names all be it they have not quite reached the same level in football folklore.  Such glorious names as Hans Krankl, Herbert Prohaska and Toni Polster may not deserve a plateau alongside such famous members of the Magical Magyars of the 1950's but in themselves they were household names and indeed still are legends in Austria.  

Further back names such as Matthias Sindelar of the famous Wunderteam of the 1930's, Hugo Meisl, Ernst Happel and Gerhard Hanappi have woven a tapestry that was and still is the Viennese School of football.  The later two names in particular acheived a great deal in terms of playing and as is the case with Happel coaching.   But they also left a more telling legacy in that two of Vienna's major sporting stadia were named after them with Hanappi the footballer turned architect designing the Rapid Stadium.

Recent years would indicate that Austrian domestic league football struggles alone on gate receipts. Large scale corporate rebranding of teams such as Red Bull Salzburg would indicate a willingness to ditch at a shot heritage, tradition and history for the sake of extra income. On being renamed Red Bull Salzburg in 2005 Salzburg's owners declared and rebranded the club as a new one 'with no history'.   

As with anger in Manchester towards the US backed Manchester United and the formation of FC United of Manchester club as a means of opposition, similar manouverings have been seen with Salzburg.  Two separate fan groups following the club the "Red-Whites", who support the new side "Red Bull Salzburg" and the "Violet-Whites", who want to preserve the 72-year-old tradition of the former Casino Salzburg club, and refuse to support the rebranded club have emerged.   The Violet-Whites grouping ultimately formed a new club SV Austria Salzburg and they now play in the 5th Division and many of the original fan groups choose to retain loyalties to this club rather than Red Bull Salzburg.   Even deeper many club kits seem to have an impossible string of shirt and short sponsors whilst Sturm Graz have adorned Champions League Football by playing at the splendly inappropriate Arnold Swarzrnegger Stadium. The changing nature of Austrian football saw even this ending as the ground has now passed over to be named the UPC arena after the Governor of California revoked the city of Graz's right to use his name for the purpose of the Stadium.

Our destination here though Vienna is a little different to the rest of Austria as it plays host to Austria's major traditional match day derby the 'Meisterschaftsderby' between eternal rivals Rapid Vienna and Austria Vienna. Very few other fixtures in Austria raise such passions and in many ways the decline of the once proud FK Austria Vienna can be held responsible for the drop in quality of players seen in the Austrian National team.   Recent years have seen even Rapid Vienna legend Hans Krankl bemoan the decline of the FK Austria side as being a factor in the wider decline in the standard of player playing for the Austrian national side.

FK Austria Vienna may not be as household a name that they once had been in the 1970's and 1980's but the club can still traditionally be regarded as one - along with Rapid - of Austria's traditional big two sides.  Recent years have seen Sturm Graz and the now franchise led rebranded Casino Salzburg finding and making a mark in Champions league football.   FK Austria though, despite also suffering numerous team name changes, still retain a place at the heart of the Austrian game.  Name chanages are nothing new to the Violet clad FK Austria fans with the club originally being called the Vienna Cricket and Football Club FK.  When we visited they are now rightfully called the more traditional FK Austria Wien and the club crest no longer displaying the once Memphis or Magna titles.

Having absorbed another side Wiener Athletik in 1973 and attaining the names Memphis and Magna along the way FK Austria are known to have a Jewish influence and lack the traditional working class roots of the Rapid Club.   A return back to its true name came as the Betriebsführervertrag with the Magna organisation expired in 2007 and the club now simply attain the tradional FK Austria Wien title so proudly displayed on the club crest.  

Today the Franz Horr Stadion plays host to games of the Die Veilchen (The Violets).  Located in the home district Favoriten of one time club legend Matthias Sindelar the stadium is neat and compact but one end of the stadia was under rennovation during summer 2008.    Despite a number of Euro 2008 participants using the ground for training practice in between games, the stadium was easily accessible for fans wishing to browse but sadly lacked a museum dedicated to the club's heritage.   Nevertheless it was easy to venture onto the pitch, sit in the dugout areas and visit the press box without any complaints from anyone.   Indeed welcomes were forthcoming from club employees though ironically only as we exited the stadia.  

Transport in Vienna is efficient and extensive but curiously the Franz Horr stadium is located at an intersection of motorway reachable only via tram 67 from the city centre.   The ten minute walk from the road side tram stop to the ground saw vast amounts of Ultra paraphinalia such as stickers and 'Fuck Rapid' violet coloured sprayed slogans on numerous buildings.  Inside the ground various interesting works of discrete and original graffitti painted by Vienna fans adorn the goal area of the ground, hinting at a club eager to appease creativity and the colour its fan groups can bring to the club.    Fan groups for FK Vienna games are located in the Westtribune of the stadium with prices ranging from € 14,00 for 'normale spiele' to €21.00 for classic derby games against Rapid and against the new corporate enemies of Red Bull Salzburg.  For those eager to committ for the season, a season ticket in the Westtribune end can be attained for as litle as €132,00.   Last champions in 2006 where fans celebrated in the nearby Rathuas area the past league season saw the Violets finish in third place and with a cramped, small yet attractive traditional type stadium that they would struggle to participate in should UEFA or Champions League football be attained, FK Austria's fans ambitions for now are concentrated on domestic fare.

Rapid Vienna hold the majority of loyalties in Vienna and can be rightfully recognised as Austria's most successful ever club side.    Many see Die Grün-Weißen as a traditional sleeping giant of European Football and with Champions league particpation achieved on a number of occasions these arguments hold some strength.  Only paper though with two, if unsuccessful, appearances in the European Cup Winners cup Final in 1985 and 1996 Rapid are more of a domestic super club as the title of Rekord Meister with over 30 league titles and cup triumphs would suggest.   Unlike FK Austria which has an awkward location across pedestrian underpasses and across busy city roads via a tram line, Rapid's Gerhard Hannappi Stadion is reachable via both S-Bahn and U-Bahn U4 with the Hutteldorf terminus located next door to the stadium. Coming out of the station the ground is on the left hand side and is unmissable as the U-Bahn stop approaches  Named after the player turned architect Gerhard Hannappi, Rapid's fans are known for colourful displays and enthusiastic support of the side.  A newer hatred of the Red Bull Salzburg side has seen former Rapid club hero and national team capitan Andreas Ivanschitz tagged 'JudasSchitz' by many Rapid fan groups for his onetime defection to the cash rich new club.   He has subsequently moved to Panathiniakos.  Despite this, like Manchester United in the United Kingdom and Bayern Munchen in Germany, Rapid are a club with a nationwide fan base.   Traditional fan groups at the Hanappi stadium can be located on match day within both the West and Nord tribunes with match day displays and stand graffiitti, as with FK Austria, being seen around the tradional fan areas of the ground.

Interestingly, the Gerhard Hanappi Stadion was closed to curious visitors including an inquistive yours truly during Euro 2008 with only a small Rapid fan shop available for visiting fans to browse. With safety factors in mind UEFA and the local organisers decided that the Stadium was to be utilised as an overspill area for fans who were unable to access the Rathaus fan park area in central Vienna.

The Stadium usage at Euro 2008 also led to numerous Ultra graffitti murals within the stadium being covered up by UEFA and Rapid club chiefs, with corporate advertising and black bin liners covering slogans taking its place.   Despite being used by the Austrian national team for friendly matches and playing host to Champions League qualifying round football this approaching season the Gerhard Hanappi stadium looks - all be it from the outside - slightly rundown and worn.   Gerhard Hanappi will retain his place in the club's history as the architect of the stadium but surely even he would be disappointed that it played host to only a secondary overspill fan area rather than any games during Euro 2008.  Rapid's hardcore fans on the other hand were glad that Euro 2008 largely took place elsewhere in Vienna.

Just outside Vienna can be found VfB Admira Wacker Mödling now playing in the second division. Reachable via an impossibly hard to find 'Badner Bahn' tram from Karlplatz in central Vienna, the club have witnessed numerous name changes but have been Austrian champions as recently as 1966. 

An unlikely yet alternative setting for football fans the club's Bundesstadion Sudstadt was used by the Italian National team during Euro 2008 with some of the FIGC (Italian FA) also decamping nearby. Numerous security gaurds stood guard around the stadium as the Italians trained but access to the ground was easy enough for those determined enough to see what the ground can offer fans despite overdone FIGC logos dominating the ground.   

As a general tip for anyone who wants to visit the Admira Wacker ground, but is unlucky enough to officially get in, there exists a fence just up from the Maria Enzerdorf station near the away fans entrance on the corner of the Sud and Ost Tribune where from it is quite easy to gaze into or indeed jump inside the ground terracing areas and experience what it might be like on match day.

Further afield yet unlike Admira still in Vienna, First Vienna FC play at Hohe Warte stadium near Vienna's Heiligenstadt area.   Reachable via U4 from the city, the club were the first 'football only' club in Austria and as recently as 1997 reached the Austrian Cup final and in 1988 played in the UEFA cup. Today this famous club lurk in the lower Regionaliga divisions yet, unlike so many clubs in franchise money driven Austrian football, retain an attachment to the past by still playing at the now pictureseque Hohe Warte ground.   Once the venue for all the Austrian national team games, the Hohe Warte retains an attraction and character that Vienna's other stadia lacks.  Amongst other characteristics are a grassy terracing, cabin fan shop, picnic table seating behind the goal areas, wooden benches and open expansive areas behind the goal areas.  All of these comes together to offer a glimpse into the Vienna's football past that still exists in 2008.   

The home of First Vienna also  once witnessed a mudslide at an international fixture between Italy and Austria and its usage Internationally did not extend to witnessing the Wunderteam on any great scale.   A more gentle variety of  football can be witnessed at the ground nowadays and that is added to the tradition, history and modern fan culture that still lurks around every corner.  The club still retains sympathies amongst fans in Vienna and the clubs utilisation of the original colours and club crest wins fans amonsgt those in Austria tired of its now major teams teams being rebranded with energy drink companies.

No visit to Vienna would be complete without adventuring to the Prater area and seeing the Ernst Happel stadion.  Sadly, despite a football museum, guided tours and a long history encompassing Champions League finals the stadium was deemed off limits to interested fans during Euro 2008.   A corporate village complete with red carpet dominated the grounds of the stadium and the nearest any ticketless fan could get to the stadium was to peer through fencing areas past mean looking security staff having a night off from club door duty.  Yes, the super bowl type stadia was UEFA's crowning glory during the tournament and access had to be restricted with a crucial clash between Austria and Germany to be played the next day as well as a semi final and final further ahead.   But to corden off such vast areas around the stadia vicinity seemed extreme especially on non-tournament matchdays. Ordinary fans lost out as the media, UEFA delegates and staff wondered in and out of the access areas at will.  

UEFA should have endevoured to allow some aspect of the Ernst Happel to be accessed during the tournament if only for short organised periods of time.   Instead frustrated fans had to make do with visits to the nearby Prater Park and Ferris Wheel made famous by The Third Man movie as a consolation.  Outwith Euro 2008 and the enforced restrictions it brought the Ernst Happel Stadium is one of the most highly rated stadia in Europe despite only a modest 50,000 capacity.  Playing host to the majority of the Austrian National teams qualification fixtures, the ground also has regular domestic duties with the local Viennese derby - despite oppostion from both team's fans - often being played at the ground.  Similarly Champions league games involving Rapid have been played at the ground in recent years as have the OFB Cup finals in May. 

Vienna may not be the first choice for football fans seeking history, tradition and football action but the city in its own way offers a great deal alongside terrace and fan culture that other major accepted football venues lack.   Despite a supposed ambivilant attitude towards football, Vienna has a solid football core that exhibits itself in many forms.  Yes, the Austrian Bundesliga lacks the attendances that so many of Germany's Bundesliga sides can offer.  Germany can also provide quality football, classy atmopheres and a first class football experience even at lower league level.  But very few places out with Munich and Berlin can offer such a culturally rich city landscape to match the Austrian Capital of Vienna.   

From the steep pitchside hill within the Hohe Warte stadium that once witnessed European Football's first ever and the only mudslide, to the modern day terracing areas of the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium, Austria football like the German variety brings together a working class football heritage played out within the modern corporate ampitheatre.  The Austrian version of the Bundesliga lacks depth and in recent years teams have disappeared, all be it in name, faster than any other league in Europe.

Outwith this, particularly in Vienna, there are strong cutural, energetic and traditional brands such as Rapid Vienna whose team and fan base will continue to dominate and fizz the scene long after Red Bull Salzburg have gone.