 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Switzerland |
| Dates | 10–14 July |
| Teams | 4 (from 3 confederations) |
| Venue | 2 (in 2 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Wolverhampton Wanderers (1st title) |
| Runners-up |  Feyenoord |
| Third place |  Young Boys |
| Fourth place | FC Basel |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 4 |
| Goals scored | 15 (3.75 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Bonatini,Mir,van Persie (2 goals each) |
TheUhrencup is aclub football tournament, held annually inGrenchen andBiel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the localwatchmaking industry on the cultural lives of the area's residents (Uhren is German for "watches"). The tournament usually features four teams (sometimes more), each playing two matches, and is held in July as afriendly tournament, the format of which tends to be fluid. For the teams taking part, the tournament is a welcome opportunity to prepare for the upcoming football season.
Founded in 1962 by representatives of Grenchen's watchmaking industry, the first Uhrencup was held to celebrate the inauguration of the new grandstand at the localBrühl stadium. Due to the tournament's reverberating success it was repeated the following year and, thanks to the sponsoring from the local watch industry, it continues to be held annually (with the exception of 1967, 1974 and 2012).
The first Uhrencup in 1962 already featured an international line-up. Together with the two local clubsFC Grenchen andFC Biel-Bienne, the Belgian teamCercle Brügge and Italian teamAC Como also took part in the tournament. Due to its success and because it attracted about 20,000 spectators, it was repeated the following year.
The English sideIpswich Town won the tournament in 1963 and the Dutch teamSparta Rotterdam was the second international representative. A year later German clubKarlsruher SC and the French teamNîmes Olympique competed in the Uhrencup. In 1965Lanerossi Vicenza won the competition,Maccabi Tel Aviv also took part. In 1966 and again in 1968FC Sochaux took part, winning the first of the two competitions, but not being at all successful two years later. In 1967 the competition was not held.
At the end of the1967–68 Nationalliga A season Grenchen were relegated and therefore the tournament lost its international significance. From here on it was mainly Swiss sides that took part in the Uhrencup and it turned into a regional event.FC Basel took part for the first time in 1969 and won the cup 5–3 in the final againstBiel-Bienne, Wenger,Hauser (twice),Balmer andOdermatt scoring the Basel goals. A year later Basel defended the title with an 8–7 win after penalties following a 5–5 at full-time.
The next year the home team Grenchen won the cup for the second time, winning 3–1 against reigning Swiss Champions Basel, local boySerge Muhmenthaler scoring one of the Grenchen goals.Neuchâtel Xamax won the Uhrencup 1972.Young Boys won the title 1973, Serge Muhmenthaler scoring a goal and winning his second Uhrencup title this time with his new team. In 1974 the competition was not held. Young Boys (1975) and Zürich (1976) were the next two cup winners. Serge Muhmenthaler reached his third Uhrencup Final with his third club in 1977 but was unable to repeat the success, the final ended in a 6–1 defeat againstNeuchâtel Xamax. However reaching the final again in the next year Muhmenthaler won the 1978 Uhrencup withFC Basel 2–1 against the same finalists.
Basel won the title six times (1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988), Grenchen won it three times (1981, 1982, 1985),Servette (1984) and Young Boys (1987) during the following years. As international teams were again invited to participatePartizan Belgrade (1989),Górnik Zabrze (1990) and1. FC Köln (1991) competed and won the tournament.
During the following years (1992 to 2002) the Uhrencup returned to being a Swiss-Internal tournament. The winners beingFC Zürich (three times), Grenchen (twice) andFC Solothurn, Grasshoppers and Sevette each once. FC Subingen, a team from the2. Liga (then fourth tier of theSwiss Football League) won Uhrencup in 1997.
In 2003 a new organising committee took over the marketing of the Uhrencup and with added financial help it was again possible to invite international teams.Casino SW Bregenz,FC Schalke 04,1. FC Kaiserslautern (twice), 1. FC Köln,Bayer Leverkusen,FC Red Bull Salzburg,Celtic Glasgow,Borussia Dortmund,Legia Warsaw andPanathinaikos Athens have participated during this period, but onlyTrabzonspor (2005) andShakhtar Donetsk (2009) were able to win the title.
2010 was a truly international affair, with only one club (Young Boys) originating from Switzerland. The remaining competitors wereDeportivo de La Coruña from Spain, the Dutch sideTwente Enschede and the eventual winnerVfB Stuttgart from Germany.
Basel won the competition for the twelfth time. In the 2011 event, they beatHertha Berlin 3–0, and then went on to defeatWest Ham 2–1 in their second game. The second Swiss team,Young Boys Bern, also won both matches against the international teams, but had a lower overall goal score with 6–3. To celebrate the 50th edition of the tournament, the current German championBorussia Dortmund played a friendly game against the Swiss vice championFC Zürich, which ended with a 1–1 tie.
In 2012 the tournament was not held, but was held in 2013 between 5 and 9 July with Basel andGrasshopper Club Zürich taking part.[1] For Basel it was the 29th time that they would take place; they have won the competition thirteen times. The tournament again took a hiatus, this time of two years before returning in2015.[2][3]
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basel | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 6 | 2011 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 | Young Boys | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 6 | |
| 3 | West Ham United | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 0 | |
| 4 |  Hertha Berlin | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | −5 | 0 |
| Young Boys | 4–2 | Hertha Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FC Basel | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 6 | 2013 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 |  Red Star Belgrade | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| 3 | Fortuna Düsseldorf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 2 | |
| 4 | Grasshopper Club Zürich | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Biel | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 3 | 2015 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 | B. Mönchengladbach | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 3 | |
| 3 | Sion | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 0 | |
| 4 |  A. Salzburg | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 0 |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | D | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Galatasaray | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 4 | 2016 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 | Zürich | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 3 | |
| 3 | Borussia Mönchengladbach | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | |
| 4 | Young Boys | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 2 |
| Young Boys | 1–1 | Galatasaray |
|---|---|---|
Lecjaks 84' | Report | Bruma 14' |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stoke City | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 5 | 2017 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 | BSC Young Boys | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 4 | |
| 3 |  S.L. Benfica | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 3 | |
| 4 | Neuchâtel Xamax | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 0 |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 6 | 2018 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 | Feyenoord | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 3 | |
| 3 | BSC Young Boys | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 | FC Basel | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 | −6 | 0 |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | WP | LP | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BSC Young Boys | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 6 | 2019 Uhrencup Champions |
| 2 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 | |
| 3 | Crystal Palace | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 2 | |
| 4 | FC Luzern | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 |
| Team | Years won | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| FC Basel | 1969, 1970, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013 | 13 |
| BSC Young Boys | 1964, 1973, 1975, 1987, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2019 | 8 |
| FC Grenchen | 1962, 1971, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1996, 1999 | 7 |
| FC Zurich | 1976, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2006 | 5 |
| FC Biel-Bienne | 1968, 2015 | 2 |
| Neuchâtel Xamax | 1972, 1977 | 2 |
| Servette FC | 1984, 2002 | 2 |
| 1. FC Köln | 1991 | 1 |
| FC Aarau | 1995 | 1 |
 FC Shakhtar Donetsk | 2009 | 1 |
 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard | 1966 | 1 |
| FC Solothurn | 1998 | 1 |
| FC Subingen | 1997 | 1 |
 FK Partizan | 1989 | 1 |
| Galatasaray | 2016 | 1 |
| Grasshopper Club Zürich | 2001 | 1 |
 Górnik Zabrze | 1990 | 1 |
| Ipswich Town | 1963 | 1 |
 Lanerossi Vicenza | 1965 | 1 |
| Stoke City | 2017 | 1 |
| Trabzonspor | 2005 | 1 |
| VfB Stuttgart | 2010 | 1 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | 2018 | 1 |
