2. Liga

Organising body	Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga
Founded	1974; 50 years ago (1974)
Country	Austria
Number of teams	16
Level on pyramid	2
Promotion to	Austrian Bundesliga
Relegation to	Austrian Regionalliga
Domestic cup(s)	Austrian Cup
International cup(s)	Europa League (via Austrian Cup)
Current champions	Blau-Weiß Linz (2nd title) (2022–23)
Website	www.2liga.at
Current: 2023–24 Austrian Football Second League

The Austrian Football Second League (German: 2. Liga), commonly known as Admiral 2. Liga for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest professional division in Austrian football. It was formerly called the First League (Erste Liga), from 2002 to 2018.

The division currently contains 16 teams, and the champion of the league is promoted to the Df. The three last placed teams are directly relegated from the Second League into the regional leagues.

Teams

Starting in the 2018–19 season, the former First League changed its name to the Second League^[1] and expanded from ten teams to 16 teams.^[2]

Sixteen teams will participate in the 2023–24 season. The only added team is SV Guntamatic Ried, relegated from the 2022–23 Austrian Football Bundesliga, DSV Leoben, Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz and SV Stripfing, promoted from the 2022–23 Austrian Regionalliga.

Due to the suspension of the 2020–21 Austrian Regionalliga, no club was relegated from last season^[3]

DSV Leoben

Dornbirn

FAC

First Vienna

Flyeralarm Admira

Horn

Kapfenberg

Liefering

GAK
Sturm II

St. Pölten

Amstetten

Lafnitz

Ried

Stripfing

SW Bregenz

Location of teams in the 2023–24 Austrian 2. Liga

^[4]

Relegation

The destination of a club relegated from the Second League depends upon which Land (state) of the Federal Republic it is a member. The relegated clubs join one of the Regionalligen (regional leagues) in the east, centre or west of the country. The three regional league champions are promoted to the Second League. Participation in the professional Second League is conditional on their licensing by the fifth senate of the federal league. If the licence is refused for economic reasons, one team fewer will be relegated.

Past winners

Champions

Name history

The Austrian second division has had several different names and sponsors since 1974.

(Seasons below represent the first season when the name was used)

• 1974/75 Nationalliga
• 1975/76 2. Division
• 1993/94 2. Division der Bundesliga
• 1998/99 Erste Division
• 2002/03 Red Zac-Erste Liga
• 2008/09 ADEG Erste Liga
• 2010/11 „Heute für Morgen“ Erste Liga
• 2014/15 Sky Go Erste Liga
• 2018/19 2. Liga

The league was known as the Sky Go Erste Liga for sponsorship reasons from 2014/15 to 2017/18, but Sky is not mentioned on the official website 2liga.at, or in the ÖFB's 2018/19 preview articles.^[5]