| Founded | 1898; 127 years ago (1898) asSwiss Serie B[1] 1944; 81 years ago (1944) asNationalliga B[2] |
|---|---|
| Country |  Switzerland (9 teams) |
| Other club from |  Liechtenstein (1 team) |
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Number of clubs | 10 |
| Level on pyramid | 2 |
| Promotion to | Super League |
| Relegation to | Promotion League |
| Domestic cup | Swiss Cup |
| Current champions | Thun (2024–25) |
| Website | sfl.ch/challengeleague |
| Current:2025–26 Challenge League | |
TheChallenge League (known as theDieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of theSwiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country.[3] Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to theSuper League, while the bottom-placed team is relegated to thePromotion League.
The Challenge League is played over 36 rounds from the end of July to May, with a winter break from mid-December to the first week of February. Each team plays each other four times, twice at home and twice away, in around-robin.
The bottom team will be relegated to thePromotion League and replaced by the respective champion for the next season. The club finishing in 2nd place will compete against the ninth-placed team of the Super League in a promotion play-off over two games, home and away, for a spot in the succeeding tournament.
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| Years | German | French | Italian |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1898–1922 | Serie B | ||
| 1922–1930 | Serie Promotion | ||
| 1930–31 | Zweite Liga | 2e Ligue | Seconda Lega |
| 1931–1944 | Erste Liga | 1e Ligue | Prima Lega |
| 1944–2003 | Nationalliga B | Ligue Nationale B | Lega Nazionale B |
| 2003–present 2008–09 2012–2021 2021–present | Challenge League Dosenbach Challenge League brack.ch Challenge League dieci Challenge League | ||
TheSerie B was first carried out in 1898.[1] In the year before, Genevan newspaperLa Suisse Sportive organized the first unofficial Swiss Championship, where theCoupeRuinart was awarded toGrasshopper Club Zürich. The first Serie B was competed for this same cup. The final game was held betweenCantonal Lausanne,FC Bern, andVereinigte St. Gallen, with Cantonal Lausanne beating first FC Bern 2-0 and then Vereinigte St. Gallen 3-2 to win the championship. In the 1900-01 season, Serie B winnerFortuna Basel were the first team to be promoted to the Serie A. In the following two seasons, the second teams ofGrasshopper Club Zürich andFC Zürich won the Serie B and thus no teams were promoted. The Serie B was held under this name until 1922. However, records of these times are spotty at best.
In 1922, the league was renamed toSerie Promotion and was split into three regions East, West, and Central with each region further subdivided into two groups. The respective regional group winners played a final game and the three regional champions qualified for the final round. WhileSC Veltheim [de;es;fr;it;uk] won the first Serie Promotion, all three participants of the final round were promoted to the Serie A. In the following seasons, regional Serie B champions played relegation/promotion playoffs against the last placed of the regional leagues in the Serie A. This format would persist until the 1929–30 season.
Starting in 1930, both Serie A and B were renamed to First andSecond League, respectively, and in the season after the Second League become theFirst League (as the previous First League became known as the National League). These name changes came as a push to create the aforementioned National League, which no longer would be split into regional groups. This reorganization was finally realized for the 1933–34 season, however the First League maintained regional groups. The league was split into a western and eastern group, except in the 1939/40 season where five regional groups were created due to the World War.
Starting with the 1944–45 season, theNational League B (NLB) was created. Fourteen teams, the top seven teams of both groups in the 1943–44 season, minus championsAC Bellinzona, plus the relegatedFC Luzern, would participate in the inaugural season. Initially, the top two of the league were promoted, while the bottom two were relegated. In the 1976–77 season, the number of teams was increased to sixteen. After the number of teams was reverted in 1979, the number of teams was increased again in 1981. This increase was also mirrored by the National League A.
For the 1986–87 season, playoffs between the top four of the NLB and the bottom four of the NLA were played, with only two of them getting promoted, as the NLA would reduce the number of teams to twelve for the next season. At the same time the NLB was increased to 24 teams, split once again into two regional groups. Furthermore, the seasons were also split into two stages: a qualifying stage and promotion/relegation stage. During the promotion/relegation stage, the bottom four teams of the NLA would be joined by the top six of both groups. These sixteen teams were once again split into two groups and the top two of both groups would gain promotion to the NLA. For relegation, the bottom six teams of either group were shuffled into two groups, where the bottom two of both groups are relegated to theFirst League.
The number of teams in the NLB was reduced to 20 in 1993 and further reduced to 16 in 1994. Starting with the 1995–96 season, the NLB was once again reunited and slimmed down to twelve teams. The promotion/relegation and relegation playoffs would also no longer be split into two groups. Both playoffs would be played in a round-robin group with eight teams, with the top four promoted/remaining in the NLA and NLB, respectively. Bottom four would be relegated/remain in the NLB or First League, respectively.
At the beginning of the 20th century, further format changes to the top Swiss leagues were suggested. Starting with the2003-04 season, the league was renamed toChallenge League. Unlike the top league, theSuper League, the Challenge League did not have a title sponsor at first, until the2008-09 season which was named theDosenbach Challenge League. The league would again be without a title sponsor for the following four season. Between 2013 and 2021, it was namedbrack.ch Challenge League and since the2021–22 season it is called thedieci Challenge League.
The number of participants has fluctuated since the renaming of the league. Initially, the Challenge League had 17 participants, but in the following season it was increased to 18. To make the league more attractive to viewers, it was reduced again to 16 participants in2008 and then further down to ten in2012. This last reduction came as a result of the creation of thePromotion League. Similarly, the number of teams relegated and promoted to and from the former First League (later Promotion League) had also fluctuated. With the new Promotion League, it has been a simple 1-up 1-down promotion/relegation format between Challenge League and Promotion League.
Promotion to theSuper League had also been restructured along with the name changes. The old promotion/relegation playoffs were scrapped and replaced with the simpler 1-up 1-down format. Between 2003 and 2012, the second placed team of the Challenge League would also play a two-legged promotion/relegation playoff against the second-to-last team of the Super League. This playoff was dropped in2012 and later reintroduced for the2018–19 season.
| Team | Foundation | Hometown | Venue | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FC Aarau | 1902-05-26 | Aarau | Stadion Brügglifeld | 8,000 |
| AC Bellinzona | 1904 | Bellinzona | Stadio Comunale | 5,000 |
| Étoile Carouge | 1904-07-01 | Carouge | Stade de la Fontenette | 3,600 |
| Neuchâtel Xamax | 1912 | Neuchâtel | Stade de la Maladière | 12,000 |
| Rapperswil-Jona | 1928 | Rapperswil | Stadion Grünfeld | 2,500 |
| Stade Lausanne Ouchy | 1901 | Lausanne | Stade Olympique[a] | 15,850 |
| Stade Nyonnais | 1905 | Nyon | Stade de Colovray | 7,200 |
| FC Vaduz | 1932-02-14 | Vaduz | Rheinpark Stadion | 7,584 |
| FC Wil | 1900 | Wil | Sportpark Bergholz | 6,010 |
| Yverdon Sport | 1897 | Yverdon-les-Bains | Stade Municipal | 6,600 |
1FC Lugano andFC Lausanne-Sport went bankrupt which meant that no team was relegated due to their league position.FC Sion were not awarded a license for the 2003–04 season resulted in an extra team being promoted.
The league statistics of the Challenge League era:[5][6]
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