While the wacky world of the Austrian Bundesliga manages to get itself dragged into a national arms scandal, the positive rumblings coming from the country’s unterligas are not going unnoticed.

National broadcaster ÖRF followed Austria Salzburg on last month’s invasion of picturesque Unken and, as if to underline the impact they have made on grassroots football, one fifth of the village of Schleedorf’s population made the trip to downtown Nonntal for Saturday’s fixture.

Awaiting them was the host’s most ambitious and bizarrely comical ‘choreo’ to date, which cast the home side as hunters – a crosshair tracking and dispatching it’s prey with a single bullet.

On the field, the men in violet weren’t quite so clinical, and required half-time re-adjustment before pot-shots from Mario Schleindl and Ivan Pecaranin bagged the spoils.

After thirteen straight wins, an eight-point cushion allows der meisters-in-waiting to pencil in their party plans, certainly with more conviction than those plotting next season’s Bundesliga fixtures.

Just as GAK finally accepted a 28-point deduction for a variety of financial misdemeanours, it emerged that Rapid Vienna’s name was on a list of recipients of cash donations from an arms firm controversially supplying the neutral country with two billion euros worth of fighter jets.

Meanwhile, in the Big Apple, Red Bull finally filled their second ‘designated player’ spot. While the new arrival is hardly the gift from the gods hotly anticipated over in Los Angeles, he is, nonetheless, an angel. Juan Pablo Angel.

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When cup semi-final wins for Mattersburg and Austria Vienna spared the embarrassment of an end-of-season showpiece between Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull Salzburg’s reserves, those responsible for the Austrian game’s well-being would’ve been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief.

But not for long, because the reality is that the country’s football faces collapse after bankrupt club GAK’s administrators gained an interim reprieve. Their docked points were handed back by a civil court, overturning Bundesliga and FIFA sanctions for breaches of financial regulations.

As the ÖFB (Austrian Football Association) table a €15m counter-claim against GAK which would close the Graz outfit down once and for all, rival clubs plan legal action of their own while FIFA consider banning Austrian sides from European competition little over a year prior to the country co-hosting Euro 2008.

In other words: chaos. The league’s credibility is shrouded in litigation as Red Bull Salzburg lead the way in a meaningless competition – just how meaningless is depressingly illustrated by Pasching’s current willingness to sell their Bundesliga spot to second division FC Kärnten.

Thankfully, down in Austria Salzburg’s neck of the woods, they let the football do the talking. An away win at nearby Unken by a couple of goals to one, was ample preparation for the visit of Michaelbeuern for a top-of-the-table clash before a season’s best congregation who were in a vengeful mood. It was Michaelbeuern, I’m sure you’ll recall, who inflicted Austria Salzburg’s solitary defeat back in…

But they’re are made of sterner stuff these days, and rebuffed this latest challenge with a fug of smoke and a goal in each half from leading scorer Mario Schleindl. Now six points clear, Austria Salzburg are gearing themselves towards a promotion which would be their first step towards Austrian football’s malfunctioning monopoly.

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