Challenge League

Challenge League
Full name	Brack.ch Challenge League
abbreviation	BCL
Association	Swiss Football Association
First edition	1898
hierarchy	2nd league
Teams	10
master	Lausanne
Current season	2019/20
Website	www.sfl.ch
^ Raiffeisen Super League ↓ Promotion League

The Brack.ch Challenge League is the second highest division in Swiss football . Brack.ch has been the new title sponsor since the 2013/14 season , after Dosenbach held this position for one season for the first time in 2009 .

history

Earlier names

Logo during the 2008/09 season

Old logo

Former names of the second highest Swiss football league:

• 1898 - 1922 : Series B
• 1922 - 1930 : Promotion series
• 1930 - 1931 : 2nd division
• 1931 - 1944 : 1. Liga
• 1944 - 2003 : National League B
• 2003 - 2008 : Challenge League
• 2008 - 2009 : Dosenbach Challenge League
• 2009 - 2013 : Challenge League
• since 2013 : Brack.ch Challenge League

Number of teams

At the beginning of the Challenge League in the 2003/04 season, 17 teams played in the league. In the following years the league was increased to 18 teams. In the 2008/09 season, the number of teams was reduced to 16 to make the league more attractive.

Reform of the league for the 2012/13 season

The Swiss Football Association and its Swiss Football League department decided on November 12, 2010 to reform the Challenge League, which was confirmed on May 21, 2011.

For the 2012/13 season, the number of teams was reduced from 16 to 10, and the relegated teams played in a new, Swiss-wide third division, which at the time of its introduction was called the 1st League Promotion and is now called the Promotion League .

TV situation

In order to give the Challenge League a higher priority in Swiss football, a package of measures was drawn up in three areas in the 2007/08 season. This includes the technical operation, communication and marketing of the league. For example, for the first time in the history of the second highest Swiss league, football matches were broadcast live on television ( Swiss sports television ) and on the Internet. This was also continued in the 2008/09 season. In 2008, a main sponsor analogous to the Super League was found, which, however, left after only one season. From the 2012/13 season onwards, the pay TV broadcaster Teleclub broadcast one game live in every round (Monday 7.45 p.m.). As of the 2017/18 season , two games will be broadcast live on the pay TV channel Teleclub and on free TV on Teleclub Zoom. The two encounters take place on Friday and Monday at 8 p.m. The highlights of all games are also shown on Teleclub Zoom in the form of the program "All games, all goals".

Game operation / training league

Since the 2013/14 season, the Challenge League clubs have been allowed to use a maximum of four foreigners in their first team at the same time. The number of non-locally trained players on the match card (with a maximum of 18 places) is limited to nine. The total number of players in each club who are eligible to play in the championship (contingent list) is limited to 21 players in the Brack.ch Challenge League, of which a maximum of 9 players who are not locally trained. The locally trained players under the age of 21 do not count towards the mentioned quota and therefore do not have to be listed on the quota list. Players are considered locally trained - regardless of their nationality or age - if they have been registered with a club of the Swiss Football Association (SFV) for three full seasons between the ages of 15 and 21 or for 36 months .

Game mode

With the new name, a modified mode was introduced in 2003 , according to which two teams played a home and away leg within a week and the results were added up as in the UEFA Cup . The winner of this face-to-face encounter also received two points. However, after only one season this innovation was abolished.

In the Challenge League, 10 teams play against each other in the current ( 2019/20 season ). At the end of the season, the first placed will be promoted to the Raiffeisen Super League , the bottom of the table relegated to the Promotion League . The Challenge League is played in the league system and a double round. Each club meets each opponent four times, twice in front of their home crowd, twice away. In total, each club plays 36 games per season.

Teams

FC Schaffhausen FC Winterthur FC Chiasso FC Wil SC Kriens Lausanne-Ouchy Grasshopper Club Zurich FC Aarau FC Thun Neuchâtel Xamax

The teams' venues in the 2020/21 season

The following 10 teams will play in the Challenge League in the 2020/21 season :

	team	Trainer	Stadion	capacity	Placement season 2019/20
	FC Aarau	Stephan Keller	Brügglifeld Stadium	08,000	8th.
	FC Chiasso	Alessandro Lupi	Stadio Comunale Riva IV	05,000	10th, no relegation
	SC Kriens	Bruno Berner	Kleinfeld Stadium	05,100	4th
	FC Stade Lausanne-Ouchy	Andrea Binotto	Center sportif de Colovray ( Nyon )	04,200	7th
	FC Schaffhausen	Murat Yakin	LIPO Park Schaffhausen	08,085	9.
	FC Thun	Marc Schneider	Stockhorn Arena	10,398	9. Super League , relegated
	FC Wil	Ciriaco Sforza	IPG Arena	06,010	6th
	FC Winterthur	Ralf Loose	Schützenwiese stadium	09'450	5.
	Grasshopper Club Zurich	João Carlos Pereira	Letzigrund	26,104	3.
	Neuchâtel Xamax	Stéphane Henchoz	Stade de la Maladière	12,000	10. Super League , relegated

Promoted to the Super League

year	Climbers	Barrage participant	Barrage result
2004	FC Schaffhausen	FC Vaduz	lost (0: 2, 2: 1) against Neuchâtel Xamax
2005	Yverdon-Sport FC	FC Vaduz	lost (1: 1, 0: 1) against FC Schaffhausen
2006	FC Luzern	FC Sion	promoted (0-0, 3-0) against Neuchâtel Xamax
2007	Neuchâtel Xamax	AC Bellinzona	lost (1: 2, 1: 3) against FC Aarau
2008	FC Vaduz	AC Bellinzona	promoted (3: 2, 2: 0) against FC St. Gallen
2009	FC St. Gallen	FC Lugano	lost (1: 0, 0: 5) against FC Luzern
2010	FC Thun	FC Lugano	lost (1: 2, 0: 0) against AC Bellinzona
2011	FC Lausanne Sports	Servette FC	promoted (0: 1, 3: 1) against AC Bellinzona
2012	FC St. Gallen	FC Aarau	lost (0: 3, 1: 0) against FC Sion
2013	FC Aarau	no barrage
2014	FC Vaduz	no barrage
2015	FC Lugano	no barrage
2016	FC Lausanne Sports	no barrage
2017	FC Zurich	no barrage
2018	Neuchâtel Xamax	no barrage
2019	Servette FC	FC Aarau	lost (4: 0, 0: 4 n.v., 4: 5 p. E.) against Neuchâtel Xamax
2020	FC Lausanne Sports	FC Vaduz	promoted (2: 0, 3: 4) against FC Thun

Web links

• Official website of the Challenge League

supporting documents

1. ↑ Dosenbach takes over the naming of the Challenge League  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 317 kB)  
2. ^ Swiss Football League: "Challenge League will be reduced" , media release of May 21, 2011
3. ↑ Swiss Football League: Challenge League on the offensive - for the first time a football game from the second highest league on television at the same time , media release from February 12, 2008
4. ↑ TV situation from 2017/18 sfl.ch
5. ↑ Teleclub Zoom - Teleclub's free TV channel - also via web player. Retrieved August 9, 2017 . 
6. ↑ REGULATIONS FOR THE GAME OPERATION OF THE SFL ( Memento from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )