Austria Klagenfurt played successfully in the Kärntner Liga and in 1960 were promoted to the Austrian Regional League Central where they won the 1961–62 championship.

Though Austria Klagenfurt again gained the promotion to the Regional League Central in 1996, it seemed that the Carinthian Clubs would have to work together in order to send a team to the Bundesliga.

[2] After the hiring of manager Walter Schachner in 2001, the team won the Austrian Cup, the Supercup and became champions of the First League, resulting in promotion to the Bundesliga the following season.

The club, under the honorary presidency of Governor Jörg Haider, once again reached the finals of the Austrian Cup and the Supercup in 2003, which they both lost to FK Austria Wien.

Their decline continued, exacerbated by the resignation of Jörg Haider in 2006 and the foundation of rival club SK Austria Kärnten in June 2007, who assumed the Bundesliga licence of the defunct ASKÖ Pasching.