| Football in Switzerland | |
|---|---|
 Swiss national team in 2006 | |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Governing body | Swiss Football Association |
| National team | men's national team |
| First played | 1895; 130 years ago (1895) |
| National competitions | |
| Club competitions | |
| International competitions | |
Football is the most popular sport inSwitzerland.[1][2][3][4] Approximately 65% of the people in Switzerland are interested in football.[5]
TheSwiss Football Association was formed in 1895 and was a founder member of the sport's international governing bodyFIFA in 1904. The Swiss cities ofZürich andNyon are home to FIFA and the European governing bodyUEFA respectively. The country played host to the1954 World Cup and2008 European Championship.
Switzerland has an extensiveleague system, with theSwiss Super League as the country's premier men's competition. There are also several cup competitions, most notably the nationalSwiss Cup.[6][7]
TheSwiss national team participated in the2006 FIFA World Cup inGermany and were narrowly beaten byUkraine on penalties in the round of 16. Switzerland co-hosted theUEFA Euro 2008 tournament together withAustria. They were eliminated in the group stage, although they did record a win againstPortugal. The best international result was in 1954 when Switzerland, as the host, reached the quarter-finals of theWorld Cup. They also reached the World Cup quarter-finals in1934 as well as1938.[8]
The first football matches, played in various forms, are documented in Switzerland from the 1850s-1860s on the shores ofLake Geneva. Some sources even testify to the existence of similar activities inGeneva in the first half of the 19th century. The main vectors of cultural transfer fromGreat Britain were boarding schools inspired by English public schools, with international teaching staff and students, British students and businessmen established in Switzerland, and Swiss people educated in schools across the English Channel.[9]
The first football club in Switzerland was theLausanne Football and Cricket Club, founded in 1860 by English students. It was also the first football club created outside of England. Several other clubs, with a majority ofAnglo-Saxon players, emerged in the 1870s. From the 1880s, the sport entered physical education programs for primary and secondary school boys, though it faced decades of resistance from pedagogical circles. In cities, the number of new teams (often short-lived) increased. In 1895, 12 clubs founded theSwiss Football Association.[9]
The first unofficial Swiss championship was won in 1898 byGrasshopper Club Zürich. The following year, theAnglo-American Club Zürich, composed mainly of Anglo-Saxon chemistry students from theFederal Polytechnic School, won the first official title. At the turn of the century, the first signs of supporter culture appeared, such as team-colored lanterns and victory celebrations. Only a few hundred people attended championship matches and a few thousand watched final phase encounters.[9]
The first matches of a Swiss selection (composed mainly of foreign players) against teams from neighboring countries were organized from 1897, with the national team playing its first official international match in 1905. Some clubs also participated in international encounters and tournaments abroad, such asFC Winterthur (1909) andFC Zürich (1911) at theSir Thomas Lipton Trophy inTurin.[9]
Switzerland was a crossroads for football's spread: Swiss club founders and foreign pioneers who had discovered the sport in Swiss schools contributed to its propagation inItaly,France,Germany,Spain,Russia, southeastern Europe,North Africa, andBrazil.Hans Gamper fromWinterthur foundedFC Barcelona (1899), andWalther Bensemann, who had attended school inMontreux, was behind several German clubs and the football magazineKicker (1920).[9]
In 1904, Switzerland co-foundedFIFA with six other continental European countries. FIFA's headquarters has been inZurich since 1932, and it has been led by Swiss presidents since 1998 (Sepp Blatter, 1998-2015;Gianni Infantino from 2016). Switzerland also participated in creatingUEFA in 1954 inBasel. UEFA's headquarters was inBern from 1959 before moving toNyon in 1995. SwissGustav Wiederkehr served as UEFA president from 1962 to 1972.[9]
A geographical and social expansion of men's football began early in Switzerland. After the turn of the century, teams also emerged in rural regions. While the ASF had 26 clubs in 1902, it already had 115 in 1914, with about 15,000 members. Until 1918, almost all regions of the country were represented in the first division championship, except for southern and southeastern Switzerland (FC Chiasso was part of the Italian first category from 1914-1915).[9]
Originally practiced mainly by merchants and university graduates, football then spread among men of other social classes and, from around 1900, also within theworking class. Several matches were played during the1914 Swiss National Exhibition. DuringWorld War I, national and international competitions continued, and football was integrated into army activities.[9]
In the interwar period, male youth was gripped by "football fever" repeatedly criticized by pedagogical circles. Althoughhandball was promoted as an alternative in schools, unorganized football, played by boys in streets, squares, and meadows since the 1880s, gained popularity. The sport's notoriety experienced new growth when Switzerland reached the final of theOlympic tournament in 1924. Organized football also developed: in 1945, the ASFA had 80,000 active players in its ranks.[9]
Competitive activities were also offered by theSwiss Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation (Satus), which launched its own championship in 1921, by the Swiss Catholic Gymnastics and Sports Federation, and by the ephemeral communist sports association Rotsport-Verband. Corporate football, after regional beginnings in the interwar period, designated a national champion from 1943 and experienced its peak in the immediate post-war period. Jewish football, represented by football sections of various Jewish gymnastics societies, byFC Hakoah Zürich (founded in 1922), and from 1950 by Swiss selections participating in international tournaments of theMaccabi movement, was integrated into the ASFA.[9]
Simultaneously, football became an element of new mass culture. Its media coverage increased with the emergence of press photography, radio, theSwiss Newsreel, and specialized sports press. Players became advertising vehicles. Twelve stadiums with a capacity of more than 10,000 people each were built between 1922 and 1934. In 1925, the ASFA launched a second national competition, the Swiss Cup (laterSwiss Cup). A national league was created in 1931 with sometimes professional players. However, the public was not responsive, and professionalism was criticized by various political and sporting circles. In 1941, due notably to financial problems encountered by clubs, the ASFA completely banned the use of professional footballers.[9]
Switzerland's victory against "Greater Germany" during the1938 FIFA World Cup, which triggered general euphoria in the country, made football, as a male sport, an element ofspiritual defense. Gala matches between the Swiss national team and selections from neighboring countries, as well as an international junior tournament, were organized during the1939 Swiss National Exhibition. DuringWorld War II, activities continued at national and, until 1943, international levels. Matches attracting large audiences opposed selections from military units. Four friendly matches played against Germany in 1941 and 1942, attended by political, military, and diplomatic personalities from both countries, caused a sensation.[9]
The return to amateurism after 1941, followed by a timid transition to semi-professionalism in the late 1950s, led to the decline of high-level Swiss football on the international scene. The national team nevertheless still achieved good performances during the World Cups inBrazil (1950) andat home (1954). Despite the symbiosis between football and television, which stimulated the sport's commercialization, and the transition to full professionalism in the late 1970s, Switzerland never managed to qualify in the 1970s and 1980s for a final phase of the World Cup orUEFA European Championship.[9]
Even in European competitions reserved for clubs, contested from 1955, Swiss teams were often eliminated very quickly. The only exceptions were the semi-finals reached byBSC Young Boys (1959) andFC Zürich (1964 and 1977) in theEuropean Cup and byGrasshopper Club Zürich (1978) in theUEFA Cup. During these years, attendance at championship matches remained modest and stadium infrastructure became obsolete.[9]
Supporter culture nevertheless continued to develop. British elements, such as chants, appeared around Swiss stadiums, and supporters of various teams organized into fan clubs and support groups. In 1951, disturbances were recorded during the Swiss Cup final. From the late 1960s, the use of pyrotechnic devices became increasingly frequent, as did pitch invasions by the public, which led to the installation of fences around the pitches in the 1970s. The international wave offootball hooliganism, sometimes influenced by thefar-right, reached Switzerland during the following decade.[9]
The post-war social transformation was also manifested in football through the creation of numerous clubs reflecting the strongimmigration that characterized the period of high economic growth. Their founding dates allow tracing the chronology and geographical origin of the different waves of immigration that succeeded each other in Switzerland. This process continued into the 21st century, so that in urban regions nearly a third of clubs were founded by immigrants.[9]
In line with international trends, the commercialization of Swiss men's football experienced a new surge from the 1990s. At the same time, the national team's performances improved. In 1994, Switzerland qualified for the first time since 1966 for a World Cup final phase; from then on, it regularly participated in World Cups and European Championships. Players from immigrant backgrounds were often the architects of these successes and became emblematic of successful integration policy.[9]
Following past examples, some high-level clubs were transformed intojoint-stock companies. At the beginning of the 21st century, annual budgets sometimes exceeded 60 millionSwiss francs. Simultaneously, economic problems multiplied due to excessive transfer amounts, overly high player salaries, and financial speculation. They culminated with the spectacular bankruptcies of traditional clubs likeServette FC in 2005 andNeuchâtel Xamax in 2012.[9]
Stadium infrastructure was modernized in view of theUEFA Euro 2008 held in Switzerland andAustria. The international culture ofultras supporters, who support their team with elaborate choreographies while criticizing commercialization and the loss of football club identity, also manifested itself on Swiss pitches from the 1990s. At the same time, problems related to hooliganism remained current and reached their peak with violent disturbances inBasel in 2006 andZurich in 2011, as well as with the scandal caused by antisemitic ultras fromFC Luzern inSt. Gallen in 2015.[9]
In 2022, the ASF had 325,000 members (including 12% women), making it the largest sports federation in Switzerland. Football's popularity is also attested by the fact that various pressure groups organized outside official structures and were sometimes behind their own international competitions: these includeLGBT tournaments played during theEuroGames in Zurich (2000) and Bern (2023), or theEuropeada, a football championship for linguistic minorities first organized in 2008 inGrisons.[9]
In Switzerland, the beginnings of women's football are located in Geneva, like its male counterpart, where young women from the upper class and passionate about sports founded the club Les Sportives in 1923. In 1927, a girls' team existed withinFC Young Fellows Zürich. Women's teams also participated in village tournaments inAdliswil between 1939 and 1950. Subsequently, until the 1960s, no trace of women's football activities is attested in written sources.[9]
While the ASF did not prohibit women's football, unlike the English (1921-1971) or German (1955-1970) national federations, it hindered its practice under the pretext that this very physical team sport was unfeminine, unaesthetic, and medically harmful for girls and women. While sports practiced by thebourgeoisie andaristocracy, such astennis,golf, andequestrianism, were already accessible to women at the end of the 19th century, women's history in football is marked by harassment, malevolence, and marginalization.[9]
At the beginning of the 1960s, popularized by leisure tournaments and thanks to emerging social changes, football transformed into a mass sport. In 1963, Monika and Silvia Stahel as well as Theres Rüsch founded FC Goitschel inMurgenthal, the first women's football club in Switzerland. Additionally, the ASF trained the two sisters and their teammates to referee official junior matches. In 1965,Valaisanne Madeleine Boll was the first girl in the world to obtain a football license from a national federation, which also generated great media attention internationally. However, the ASF withdrew it shortly after, arguing it was an error; de facto, this amounted to prohibiting women from playing football.[9]
At the end of the 1960s, decisive steps were taken in terms of institutionalization. In 1968, DFC Zürich (Damenfussball-Club, literally "ladies' football club") was the first women's football club to emerge as an association under Article 60 of theSwiss Civil Code. In 1969, clubs fromFrench-speaking Switzerland grouped together within the Romance Association of Women's Football (ARFF). In 1970, the Swiss Women's Football League (LSFF) was founded in Bern as a national umbrella organization.[9]
The LSFF had paved the way for regular matches. The first Swiss championship in 1970-1971 with 18 teams was won by DFC Aarau. During the 1975-1976 season, female footballers played for the first time for the Swiss Cup, won byFC Sion. Also in 1970, a selection of Swiss players participated in the first unofficial women's world championship inSalerno. In 1972, the Swiss national team made its official debut in Basel against France.[9]
The development of women's football coincided with the introduction ofwomen's suffrage in 1971 and with advances in gender equality, such as the constitutional article adopted in 1970 concerning the promotion of gymnastics and sports, which made sports practice mandatory at school for both boys and girls. However, female footballers were hardly perceived as representatives of the women's movement. Until the 1990s, the media generally held denigrating and sexist remarks about them, even hostile toward homosexuality, whether through words or images.[9]
The 1990s were characterized by worldwide success of women's football, established for the first time as an Olympic sport at theAtlanta Games in 1996. In Switzerland, the LSFF and ASF decided in 1993 to dissolve the women's football league and completely integrate the discipline into the ASF's regional associations; the designation "ladies' football club" (DFC) for women's teams was suppressed. Girls were authorized from 1995 to play with boys in mixed teams in all ASF clubs.[9]
Regular qualifications of the Swiss national team for final phases of world or European championships initiated a consolidation phase from 2015 in terms of sport and equality policy. This was accompanied by increased media attention and greater commercialization. Women sat for the first time in the ASF's central bodies, in 2020 in management (Tatjana Haenni) and in 2024 in the central committee. Between 2022 and 2024, certain bonuses for male and female national teams as well as remuneration for players' advertising revenue were harmonized.[9]
Despite these successes, women's football long remained trapped in an economic vicious circle: low attendance at top league matches (only a few hundred supporters in stadiums), broadcast on Swiss television since 2020, led to decreased revenue from sponsors and ticketing, as well as limited merchandising possibilities, which in turn harmed financial room for maneuver and public attention. Most professional players still earn little and must have paid employment outside football or be in training.[9]
Football for people with disabilities developed outside the media radar. As in disability sport in general, people with hearing impairments showed the way: the Taubstummen-Fussballklub Zürich was founded as early as 1916. Within the Swiss Deaf Sports Federation created in 1930 (Swiss Deaf Sport from 2020), football was practiced from the beginning, even internationally, notably with participation in the 1931 International Silent Games.[9]
Since the 1950s, sport for other forms of disability also organized. The Swiss Association for Invalid Sport (ASSI, Swiss Disabled Sports Federation in 1977,PluSport from 2000) and the Federation of Sports Groups of the Swiss Invalid Association (ASI, Procap Sport from 2002) emerged in 1960, the year of the firstParalympic Games. TheSpecial Olympics Switzerland foundation for people with intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities was created in 1995.[9]
With more than 800 players in 2023, football represents the main discipline within the association, and Swiss teams have participated several times in the Special Olympics. However, no Swiss participation has yet been recorded in the various categories of Paralympic men's football, present at the Games since 1984. Switzerland is nevertheless a member of international federations forwheelchair football (variants of this discipline have existed since the 1970s) and football for people withcerebral palsy.[9]
The Swiss football pyramid is divided into nine levels. The top two levels are operated by the Swiss Football League. Between the sixth and ninth levels, the leagues are operated by regional football associations. All other levels are operated by theSwiss Football Association.
The Swiss women's football championship is divided into 6 levels.[11]
Clubs of the Swiss Super League may qualify for UEFA competitions. Switzerland is currently ranked 14th in theUEFA ranking. As such, five teams are eligible to compete in European competitions, two each in theUEFA Champions League qualifier and theUEFA Europa Conference League qualifier, and the winner of theSwiss Cup enters qualification for theUEFA Europa League.
No Swiss team has ever won any major European trophy.
Grasshopper Club Zürich is the only Swiss team to have won theUEFA Intertoto Cup, doing so twice in2006 and2008, whileBasel were a runner-up in2001, before the competition was discontinued in 2009. Prior toUEFA's involvement in the Intertoto Cup in 1995, multiple Swiss teams had emerged victorious.
| Competition | Best Placement | Club | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Champions League/European Cup | Semi-Final | FC Zurich | 1963-64 |
| FC Zurich | 1976-77 | ||
| Europa League/UEFA Cup | Semi-final | Basel | 2012–13 |
| Grasshopper | 1977–78 | ||
| Conference League | Semi-final | Basel | 2022–23 |
| Cup Winners' Cup | Quarter-final | Grasshopper | 1989–90 |
| Zürich | 1973–74 | ||
| Luzern | 1960–61 |
| Year | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA coefficient | 0 | 4 | 2.67 | 10 | 0.33 | 1.75 | 2.25 | 1.67 | 2.5 | 3 | 1.75 | 2.25 | 2.75 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.25 | 1.5 | 2.25 | 4.25 | 2 | 1.5 | 5 | 4.4 | 4.75 | 2.75 | 4.75 | 5.5 | 4 | 1.25 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2.75 | 2.25 | 3.75 | 2.25 | 3.75 | 3.5 | 2.25 | 3.75 | 5 | 7 | 4.25 | 5.75 | 4.125 | 4.375 | 6.125 | 5.875 | 1.875 | 2.625 | 9.375 | 4.1 | 6.25 | 2.9 | 5.75 | 5.9 | 6 | 8.375 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 5.3 | 4.3 | 6.5 | 3.9 | 6.4 | 5.125 | 7.75 | 8.5 |
| 5 year total | 17 | 18.75 | 17 | 16 | 8.5 | 11.17 | 11.17 | 11.17 | 12.25 | 10.55 | 9.05 | 9.55 | 8.8 | 8.3 | 11.75 | 12.25 | 11.5 | 15 | 17.15 | 17.65 | 18.4 | 21.65 | 22.15 | 21.75 | 18.25 | 18.5 | 17.75 | 16.25 | 15 | 16 | 16.75 | 15 | 14.75 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 18.25 | 21.5 | 22.25 | 25.75 | 26.125 | 25.5 | 24.625 | 26.25 | 22.375 | 20.875 | 25.875 | 23.85 | 24.225 | 25.25 | 28.375 | 24.9 | 26.8 | 28.925 | 33.225 | 34.375 | 33.775 | 32.075 | 30.2 | 26.9 | 26.4 | 26.225 | 29.675 | 31.675 | ||||
| Year ranking | 15 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 24 | 19 | 14 | 21 | 19 | 16 | 19 | 20 | 16 | 29 | 22 | 17 | 24 | 22 | 13 | 20 | 22 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 20 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 23 | 19 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 23 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 27 | 22 | 13 | 8 | 24 | 9 | 17 | 18 | 11 | 13 | 27 | 26 | 8 | 19 | 11 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 17 | 20 | 12 | 26 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 13 |
| 5 year ranking | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 20 | 22 | 20 | 22 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 22 | 23 | 25 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 17 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 19 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 17 | 17 | 19 | 14 | 13 |
The Swiss national team, in its various categories, is controlled by the Swiss Football Association.
The Swiss team played their first official match on 12 February 1905 in Paris against France, with the French winning 1-0. Switzerland has managed to qualify for 11 FIFA World Cups and five European Championships, including Euro 2008, where they were co-hosts together with Austria.
The women's team debuted on 4 May 1972 against France in a match that ended 2-2 in Basel, and has qualified for the2015 FIFA Women's World Cup andUEFA Women's Euro 2017.
Stadiums with a capacity of 20,000 or higher are included.
| # | Stadium | Capacity | City | Home team(s) | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Jakob-Park | 38,512 | Basel | FC Basel |  |
| 2 | Stade de Suisse | 31,783 | Bern | BSC Young Boys |  |
| 3 | Stade de Genève | 30,084 | Lancy | Servette FC |  |
| 4 | Letzigrund | 26,104 | Zürich | FC Zürich,Grasshopper Club Zürich[15] |  |
This article incorporates text from afree content work. Licensed under CC-BY SA. Text taken fromFootball, Christian Koller; Marianne Meier, Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Translated by Laurence Margairaz, Boris Anelli.
| National teams |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League system |
| ||||
| Domestic cups |
| ||||
