Swiss Super League

Continuing on from the article down the page on Austrian football I felt a piece on Swiss football would be appropriate as

FC Thun are probably known to most people in England as the side who played in the Champions League against Arsenal a few years ago (2005). They acquitted themselves well, only losing by the odd goal in both ties to Arsenal and finishing above Ajax in 3rd place. The current season has ended in relegation, they now have a mountain to climb to get back into the Swiss elite... The oldest club in the country and the second oldest on continental Europe is FC St Gallen. They are managed by Krassimir Balakov who was a member of the Bulgarian national team who made the semi finals of the World Cup in 1994. They finished 2nd bottom of the Super League this season and lost out to Bellinzona of the second flight in a two legged playoff. Incidentally Bellinoza qualified for the UEFA Cup as losing finalists.

Bellinoza's marvellous change kit.

The exotically named Neuchatal Xamax won the league twice during the 1980s. Blackburn Rovers defender Stephane Henchoz played almost 100 matches for the club at the beginning of his career. Their major recent success was winning the Swiss Cup in 2003. The club is quite a breeding ground for African players, Papa Bouba Diop, Henri Camara and Thimothee Atouba all played for the Neuchatal club before moving on to the Premier League.

A little known fact is that the ex-Crystal Palace striker Mark Bright spent a few months at FC Sion in Switzerland near the end of his career, he made very little impact in his short time there! Like many Swiss sides they were founded very early in the 20th Century (in 1909). They were one of the Swiss entrants to the UEFA Cup this season, falling at the first hurdle against Turkish side Galatasaray. An exceptional 3-2 victory at home was followed by a disappointing 5-1 result in Turkey.

One of the more famous names in Swiss football Ciriaco Sforza is now managing midtable side FC Luzern. He played for the national team on 79 ocassions and spent most of his career in Germany (winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2001). [official site of Sforza here] "Supersub" David Fairclough played for FC Lu

zern during the mid-80s and scored a goal in the club's SRS Cup win in 1984 against Borussia Dortmund.



The first team in the dictionary: FC Aarau. They have a Wimbledon-esque badge. Last year they had a player by the name of Mark Fotheringham playing for them (he's currently at Norwich). He is famous for the "Fozzy Flick", it's not quite a Cruyff turn but is worth a look.


Probably the most famous Swiss club are Grasshoppers Zurich (their nickname apparently coming from the way their players celebrated in the early days of the club - but that's far from certain). They are also notable to many football fans in the UK as they shared a subbuteo side with Blackburn Rovers, or at least that's why they are notable to me.. They have won the Swiss title more than any other club (27). City rivals FC Zurich finished two points ahead of Grasshoppers, they ended the season in third and made the last 16 of the UEFA Cup this season where they lost to Hamburg.

The title was contested between FC Basel (who are managed by ex-Spurs boss Christian Gross - I believe this reference is obligatory when writing about Basel) and Young Boys of Berne (who really DO play at the Wankdorfstadion - or at least that's what it used to be called - it is also the largest solar power plant in the world incidentally).

FC Vaduz flying high

As mentioned earlier Bellinoza won the promotion playoff against St. Gallen and so will compete in the Swiss superleague next season. The team who won the second division were FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein. It's obviously quite odd for a team from a different country to play in the top flight of a league of a different country but there are examples ranging from Derry City, Monaco and Swansea City in the early 80s. What is less clear is European qualification. Vaduz currently enter the Liechtenstein cup and normally win it (as they are by far the strongest side in their country). It is likely that they wouldn't be allowed to represent Switzerland in European competition should they qualify. In 2006/2007 FC Vaduz were actually eliminated from the UEFA Cup by FC Basel (of Switzerland).