In the mid to late 1980's with the increase in talent and professionalism throughout the league, a more formalized mechanism was put in place to recruit and fly in former college and free agent football players to play in Austria for pay (salary) as well as room and board.

Because homegrown players are one of the main focus points of the league, there are specific rule limitations for the numbers of foreigners.

Currently, each roster can have a maximum of 6 American, Canadian, Mexican or Japanese professional import players, with two allowed on the field at the same time.

The regular season currently consists of ten games and starts in mid-March; the playoffs continue through July.

The Austrian national team, whose players mostly play in the AFL (with a few also playing in the German Football League), won the final 28-0 over team Finland 2023 European Championship of American football to win the championship title.