2017–18 Austrian Football First League

The 2017–18 Austrian Football First League (German: Erste Liga, also known as Sky Go Erste Liga due to sponsorship) was the 44th season of the Austrian second-level football league and the last one as the First League. It began on 21 July 2017 and ended on 25 May 2018. The fixtures were announced on 21 June 2017.^[1]

Austrian Football First League

Season	2017–18
Champions	FC Wacker Innsbruck
Promoted	FC Wacker Innsbruck TSV Hartberg
Matches played	180
Goals scored	507 (2.82 per match)
Top goalscorer	Seifedin Chabbi Hamdi Salihi (22 goals each)
Biggest home win	SV Ried 7–1 Kapfenberger SV (25 May 2018)
Biggest away win	Kapfenberger SV 0–5 FC Liefering (14 November 2017)
Highest scoring	SC Wiener Neustadt 6–3 FC Blau-Weiß Linz (1 December 2017)
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

Teams

Ten teams participated in the 2017–18 season. TSV Hartberg was promoted after winning the 2016–17 Regionalliga Mitte without having to compete in promotion play-offs as no team from the Regionalliga West or Ost applied for promotion.^[2] They replaced SV Horn who finished last in the 2016–17 First League. SV Ried were relegated from the 2016–17 Bundesliga, replacing 2016–17 First League champions LASK Linz.

Ried

Liefering

A. Lustenau

Floridsdorfer

Kapfenberg

FC Blau-Weiß Linz

Hartberg

W. Innsbruck

W. Neustadt

WSG Wattens

Location of teams in the 2017–18 Austrian Football First League

Club Name	City	Stadium	Capacity
Austria Lustenau	Lustenau	Reichshofstadion	8,800
FC Blau-Weiß Linz	Linz	Donauparkstadion	2,000
Floridsdorfer AC	Vienna	FAC-Platz	3,000
TSV Hartberg	Hartberg	Stadion Hartberg	4,500
Kapfenberger SV	Kapfenberg	Franz-Fekete-Stadion	12,000
Liefering	Salzburg	Untersberg-Arena	4,128
SV Ried	Ried im Innkreis	Keine Sorgen Arena	7,680
Wacker Innsbruck	Innsbruck	Tivoli-Neu	30,000
Wiener Neustadt	Wiener Neustadt	Stadion Wiener Neustadt	10,000
WSG Wattens	Wattens	Alpenstadion	5,500

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Austria Lustenau	Andreas Lipa (1–11)	Christoph Kobleder (1–4, 6–19)	Uhlsport	Mohren
	Daniel Ernemann (12–13)	Martin Grasegger (5)
	Gernot Plassnegger (from 14) & Michael Kopf (19–20)	Marco Krainz (20–22, 24–27, 29, 31–36)
		Ronivaldo (23)
		Sandro Djurić (28, 30)
FC Blau-Weiß Linz	Günther Gorenzel (1–15)	Florian Maier (1–3, 6–12, 14, 16–17)	Uhlsport	Linz AG
	David Wimleitner (16–20)	Lukas Gabriel (4–5, 13, 15, 18–20)
	Thomas Sageder (from 21)
		Thomas Hinum (21–29, 32–33)
		Daniel Kerschbaumer (30–31, 34–36)
Floridsdorfer	Thomas Eidler (1–23)	Martin Fraisl (1–21, 23–24)	Puma	Wiener Städtische & Wien Energie
	Martin Handl (from 24)	Mario Kröpfl (22, 25–28, 36)
		Robert Völkl (29)
		Marco Sahanek (30–35)
TSV Hartberg	Christian Ilzer	Siegfried Rasswalder (1–4, 7–16, 18, 20–35)	Jako	Prolacta, Admiral, Egger Glass & Profertil
		Manfred Gollner (5–6, 17)
		Roko Mišlov (19, 36)
Kapfenberger	Robert Pflug (1–4)	David Sencar (1–3, 6–17, 20–23, 25–27, 29–36)	Erima	Murauer Bier
	Stefan Rapp (5–34)	Paul Gartler (4–5)
	Karl-Heinz Kubesch (from 35)	Tobias Kainz (18–19, 24, 28)
Liefering	Janusz Góra & Gerhard Struber	Luca Meisl (1–8, 12, 15–16, 18–24, 27, 30–32, 34–35)	Nike	Red Bull
		Emir Karic (9)
		Carlos Miguel Coronel (10–11, 13–14, 17, 25–26, 28–29, 33)
		Mahamadou Dembélé (36)
SV Ried	Lassaad Chabbi (1–25)	Thomas Gebauer	Hummel	Josko
	Franz Schiemer (26–28)
	Thomas Weissenböck (from 29)
Wacker Innsbruck	Karl Daxbacher	Christoph Freitag (1–2, 4, 6, 20–24, 30, 32–33, 36)	Macron	Tiroler Wasserkraft
		Florian Jamnig (3, 5, 7–19, 25–26, 35)
		Roman Kerschbaum (27–29, 34)
		Harald Pichler (31)
WSG Wattens	Thomas Silberberger	Ferdinand Oswald (1–24, 27–31, 33–36)	Erima	PAPSTAR
		Benjamin Pranter (25)
		Sandro Neurauter (26)
		Florian Buchacher (32)
Wiener Neustadt	Roman Mählich	Sargon Duran (1, 13–24, 26–27)	Puma	Baumit
		Mario Ebenhofer (2–3, 5–6, 10, 25)
		Remo Mally (4, 7–9, 11–12)
		Hamdi Salihi (28–36)

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	FC Wacker Innsbruck (C, P)	36	21	8	7	60	31	+29	71	Promotion to 2018–19 Austrian Bundesliga
2	TSV Hartberg (P)	36	20	8	8	63	34	+29	68
3	SC Wiener Neustadt	36	17	11	8	53	37	+16	62	Qualification for the promotion play-off[a]
4	SV Ried	36	17	10	9	68	41	+27	61
5	FC Liefering	36	14	13	9	58	44	+14	55	Ineligible for promotion
6	SC Austria Lustenau	36	12	9	15	48	52	−4	45
7	WSG Wattens	36	10	10	16	45	56	−11	40
8	Kapfenberger SV	36	9	8	19	40	68	−28	35
9	Floridsdorfer AC	36	8	6	22	37	75	−38	30
10	FC Blau-Weiß Linz	36	5	11	20	35	69	−34	26	Reprieved from relegation[b]

Source:
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Less matches awarded against; 3) Goal difference; 4) Goals scored; 5) Matches won; 6) Away matches won; 7) Head-to-head points; 8) Head-to-head goal difference; 9) Head-to-head goals scored.^[3]
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:

1. The team finishing in third place competed against the tenth placed team of the Bundesliga for a place in the 2018-19 Austrian Bundesliga.
2. No team will be relegated due to the league's expansion from 10 teams to 16 for the 2018–19 season.

Results

Teams played each other four times in the league. In the first half of the season each team played every other team twice (home and away), and then did the same in the second half of the season.

First half of season Home \ Away ALU BWL FLO HAR KAP RIE LIE WKR WIE WAT Austria Lustenau 1–1 5–0 1–2 1–2 0–2 2–4 0–4 2–3 2–0 FC Blau-Weiß Linz 1–2 4–0 1–1 0–2 1–1 2–3 1–1 1–1 0–2 Floridsdorfer AC 1–5 0–0 2–0 0–3 1–4 2–2 1–1 0–3 1–0 TSV Hartberg 0–0 2–0 3–1 4–0 2–2 2–2 3–1 0–1 2–1 Kapfenberger SV 0–1 0–1 4–1 0–2 2–1 1–2 2–1 0–0 1–1 SV Ried 3–1 2–1 3–2 2–3 2–0 6–1 4–1 0–1 4–0 Liefering 0–0 3–0 3–1 3–1 2–1 4–0 1–0 0–0 0–1 Wacker Innsbruck 3–2 3–0 3–0 0–0 0–0 1–1 1–0 3–0 1–0 Wiener Neustadt 1–1 4–0 1–2 1–0 4–2 0–3 2–0 0–1 2–1 WSG Wattens 1–2 2–2 5–1 0–1 3–1 1–2 3–2 1–3 0–1 Updated to match(es) played on 17 November 2017. Source: Austrian Football First League (in German) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season Home \ Away ALU BWL FLO HAR KAP RIE LIE WKR WIE WAT Austria Lustenau 1–0 2–1 0–4 3–1 0–0 0–0 1–2 2–1 2–2 FC Blau-Weiß Linz 0–2 1–0 1–3 0–2 2–2 2–1 1–2 0–3 2–2 Floridsdorfer AC 2–1 5–0 0–1 0–1 2–4 3–2 0–2 0–3 0–0 TSV Hartberg 2–0 2–2 1–2 4–0 1–0 0–2 0–2 2–1 4–0 Kapfenberger SV 0–2 1–4 3–3 1–3 0–0 0–5 2–1 0–0 2–3 SV Ried 2–0 1–0 1–1 0–1 7–1 1–0 1–3 2–2 2–0 Liefering 1–1 1–1 1–0 3–2 1–1 1–1 2–2 1–1 2–2 Wacker Innsbruck 2–1 4–0 0–2 0–0 1–1 3–1 2–1 2–0 2–0 Wiener Neustadt 2–2 6–3 1–0 1–1 2–1 1–0 0–2 1–0 2–2 WSG Wattens 2–0 1–0 2–0 1–4 3–2 1–1 0–0 1–2 1–1 Updated to match(es) played on 25 May 2018. Source: Austrian Football First League (in German) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Up to 25 May 2018.^[4]

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Seifedin Chabbi	SV Ried	22
	Hamdi Salihi	SC Wiener Neustadt
3	Zlatko Dedić	FC Wacker Innsbruck	19
4	Dario Tadić	TSV Hartberg	16
5	Ronivaldo	SC Austria Lustenau	12
	Milan Jurdík	WSG Wattens
7	Florian Jamnig	FC Wacker Innsbruck	11
	Roko Mišlov	TSV Hartberg
9	Thomas Fröschl	SV Ried	10
	Dominik Szoboszlai	FC Liefering

Top assists

Up to 25 May 2018.^[5]

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Dario Tadić	TSV Hartberg	14
2	Christopher Drazan	SC Austria Lustenau	11
3	Daniele Gabriele	FC Wacker Innsbruck	10
4	İlkay Durmuş	SV Ried	9
5	Mario Ebenhofer	SC Wiener Neustadt	8
6	Zlatko Dedić	FC Wacker Innsbruck	7
	Manfred Fischer	TSV Hartberg
	Zakaria Sanogo	TSV Hartberg
9	Thomas Mayer	SV Ried	6
	Christoph Kröpfl	TSV Hartberg
	Julian Wießmeier	SV Ried
	Manuel Kerhe	SV Ried

Discipline

Up to 25 May 2018.^[6]

Rank	Player	Club				Total
1	Peter Haring	SV Ried	15	0	0	15
2	Manuel Haas	Kapfenberger SV	10	3	0	13
3	Fabian Miesenböck	SC Wiener Neustadt	13	0	0	13
4	Florian Buchacher	WSG Wattens	12	0	0	12
5	Lucas Rangel	Kapfenberger SV	9	2	0	11
6	Daniel Kerschbaumer	FC Blau-Weiß Linz	9	1	0	10
7	Daniel Raischl	Floridsdorfer AC	10	0	0	10
8	David Gugganig	WSG Wattens	9	0	0	9
	Pesca	Kapfenberger SV	9	0	0	9
	Daniel Geissler	Kapfenberger SV	9	0	0	9
	Christopher Cvetko	FC Blau-Weiß Linz	9	0	0	9

See also

• 2017–18 Austrian Football Bundesliga
• 2017–18 Austrian Cup