FC BW Linz

BW Linz go into this season having only just returned to the Bundesliga, promotion secured in 2022/23. That promotion followed a false start: the club had also topped the second division in 2020/21 but was refused a licence to go up, a setback that left the squad to try again from the same division two years later.

The club itself dates to 1997, formed as the successor to two Linz institutions that had drifted apart from the game's industrial roots in the city — SV Austria Tabak Linz, tied to the local tobacco works, and FC Linz, which traced back to SK Eisen und Stahl and later SK VOEST Linz, named for the steelmaker. It was VOEST Linz that gave the city its one league title, winning the Austrian championship in 1973/74.

Home now is the Hofmann Personal Stadion, opened in July 2023 on the site of the old Donauparkstadion, which was demolished in 2021. For two years in between, BW Linz played their home fixtures at the Linzer Gugl across town. The new stadium holds 5,595, with standing room for 2,800 behind the goals.