Neuchâtel Xamax

Neuchâtel Xamax
Basic data
Surname	Neuchâtel Xamax FCS
Seat	Neuchâtel
founding	1916 FC Xamax 1970 merger with FC Cantonal Neuchâtel 2012 Neuchâtel Xamax 1912 2013 merger with FC Serrières
Colours	Red Black
president	Christian Binggeli
Website	xamax.ch
First soccer team
Head coach	Stéphane Henchoz
Venue	Stade de la Maladière
Places	12,000
league	Super League
2018/19	9th rank
home Away

Neuchâtel Xamax FCS is a Swiss football club from Neuchâtel (French: Neuchâtel). The club colors are red and black.

In the 2018/19 season, the first team will play in the Super League , the highest league in Switzerland, for the first time since bankruptcy in January 2012 . She has won the Swiss championship three times and has also made it to the final of the Swiss Cup five times . Internationally, Neuchâtel Xamax celebrated successes in 1982 and 1986, when he reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup .

history

Master trainer Gilbert Gress

The club was formally founded in 1916 under the name FC Xamax after a group of football enthusiasts had organized games on two courts in Neuchâtel from 1912. The palindrome "Xamax" originated from the first name of the co-founder Max Abegglen , called "Xam". In 1970 he merged with city rivals FC Cantonal Neuchâtel, founded in 1906.

Neuchâtel had its most successful period to date in the 1980s under long-time coach Gilbert Gress . Xamax rose from the Super League to the Challenge League at the end of the 2005/06 season . The team lost the barrage against the Challenge League runner-up FC Sion . For Xamax, this defeat means the first relegation from the top Swiss league after promotion in 1973 . With the new coach Gérard Castella and the new goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbühler , who joined the team in the second half of the season, Xamax managed to get promoted again in 2007. For the 2007/08 season, Xamax sorted out 10 players, including Rainer Bieli , Massimo Lombardo and Javier Delgado. On July 11, 2007, Xamax announced that the former FC Basel player Julio Hernán Rossi was signed for the coming season.

Bankruptcy under Chagayev (2011-2012)

For the 2011/12 season , the management under the new owner Bulat Tschagajew gave the club a revised club logo. The owner also wanted to add “Vainach”, the historical name of today's Chechens and Ingushetes , to the club name Xamax . However, for formal reasons this was not approved by the league for the time being, as such an application would have to have been submitted with the licensing documents several months in advance.

In January 2012, the Axpo Super League revoked the club's license for the league after it had reported Xamax to its own disciplinary committee several times for outstanding salaries. On January 26, 2012, “Neuchâtel Xamax SA” therefore filed for bankruptcy. The statutes of the Swiss Football Association , which were revised due to the Wettingen case, allowed the championship operation of the junior and reserve teams of a bankrupt Swiss Football League club to continue. The "Fondation Gilbert Facchinetti", set up by loyal followers of the former Xamax President Gilbert Facchinetti, took over the financing of the top junior football teams in the Neuchâtel / Freiburg region based in Neuchâtel under the umbrella of Xamax. The Neuchâtel bankruptcy judge also did not add the funds from the Swiss Football League for the junior departments to the bankruptcy estate of Neuchâtel Xamax SA, so they could be blocked and transferred to the Facchinetti Foundation.

Start-up, merger and re-entry into professional business (since 2012)

The U21 team from Neuchâtel Xamax, which was playing interregionally in the 2nd league at that time , became the new 1st team and a little later was spun off into the "Neuchâtel Xamax 1912 SA", newly founded on April 14, 2012, in order to return to a later possible promotion in the Swiss Football League . Xamax was able to sign several players from the region with Challenge League experience and managed to move up to the 1st League Classic in the first year after the restructuring . At the same time, the "Neuchâtel Xamax 1912 SA" merged with local rivals FC Serrières, who are the top team in the 1st League Classic, to form "Neuchâtel Xamax FCS". In honor of the tradition of FC Serrières, Xamax's away jerseys are now green and white. The first two teams remained, but the new 2nd team was relegated to the 2nd regional league , since according to the statutes of the Swiss Football Association, the 1st and 2nd teams must have two leagues apart. The teams of top junior football remained with the "Fondation Gilbert Facchinetti".

After a season in the 1st League Classic (2013/14 season) Neuchâtel Xamax FCS managed to play in promotional games against FC Friborg (2: 2/3: 0) and FC Baden (2: 0/1: 2 a.s.l.) ) promotion to the 1st division promotion, the third highest division in Switzerland. Since Xamax was the only aspirant for promotion to receive a license for the Challenge League , the renewed promotion was decided at the green table on April 27, 2015, after missing the early sporting promotion in the decisive game against Étoile Carouge in front of 8,000 spectators the day before . After three years, the club is back in professional football and achieved second place in each of the first two seasons in the Challenge League (2015/16 and 2016/17).

Presidents and owners

Historical club badges

• From 2005 to the end of the 2011 season: Sylvio Bernasconi; the building contractor from Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane was also the majority shareholder. From June 2011 to July 2011 Andrei Rudakow , Russian ex-professional footballer, was President of Spartak Moscow , among others .

• Since then: As of May 2011, the main shareholder has been the Chechen businessman Bulat Chagayev , who lives in Geneva and the son-in-law of the last Chechen Communist Party chief during the Soviet era. He has already appeared as a sponsor of the Chechen club Terek Grozny . Chagayev was arrested on January 26, 2012 for unfaithful business management and released on May 25 of the same year, with the investigation continuing.

• Dental technology entrepreneur Christian Binggeli is president of the newly founded Neuchâtel Xamax 1912 association.

Stadion

The home stadium of Neuchâtel Xamax is the Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel. After the old stadium was demolished in 2004, the first team played their "home games" temporarily in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Stade de la Charrière . The new Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel was inaugurated on February 18, 2007. The small stadium still bears the same name (Stade de la Maladière). The games are played on artificial turf .

The 1st team

As of May 31, 2018. Neuchâtel Xamax professional players on loan to another club are not listed.

number	player	nationality	In the team since	Last club
goalkeeper
1	Federico Nicastro		2017	FC Portalban / Gletterens
30th	Laurent Walthert		2013	FC Biel
32	Matthias Minder		2018	FC Winterthur
defense
3	Janick Kamber		2017	FC Wohlen
5	Mustafa Sejmenović		2015	FC Biel
23	Mike Gomes		2013	Servette FC
25th	Mārcis Ošs (loan)		2018	FK Spartaks Jūrmala
27	Arbenit Xhemajli		2017	FC Zurich
55	Igor Djuric		2016	Without Club
?	William Le Pogam		2018	Servette FC
midfield
4th	Pietro di Nardo		2014	FC Biel
7th	Thibault Corbaz		2016	FC Biel
8th	Samir Ramizi		2016	FC Wohlen
10	Charles-André Doudin		2013	FC Biel
12	Max Veloso		2015	FC Sion
17th	Geoffrey Tréand		2017	FC Aarau
21st	Dilan Qela		2016	Own youth
striker
11	Gaëtan Karlen		2016	FC Biel
14th	Raphaël Nuzzolo		2016	BSC Young Boys
88	Frédéric Nimani		2017	FC Friborg

successes

• Swiss champions : 1916 (Cantonal FC), 1987 , 1988
• Final participation in the Swiss Cup in 1975 , 1985 , 1990 , 2003 , 2011
• Swiss Supercup : 1987 , 1988 , 1990
• Round of 16 participation in the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1987/88 and 1988/89
• Participation in the quarter-finals in the 1981/82 and 1985/86 UEFA Cup
• Watch Cup : 1972 , 1977

Eternal table

Neuchâtel Xamax is currently 12th in the all-time Super League table .

Selection of former players

Petar Alexandrov Claude Andrey Javier Arizmendi Logan Bailly Vincent Bikana Christophe Bonvin Ideye Brown André Titi Buengo Henri Camara Frédéric Chassot Joël Corminboeuf Michel Decastel Lajos Détari Papa Bouba Diop Andy Egli

Karl Engel Lucien Favre Leandro Fonseca Mario Gavranović Alain Geiger Don Givens Gilbert Gress Ulrich Guggisberg Hossam Hassan Stéphane Henchoz Heinz Hermann Trifon Ivanov Maurizio Jacobacci Sébastien Jeanneret Stephan Keller

Patrick Koch Adrian Kunz Peter Küffer Robert Lüthi Xavier Margairaz Viorel Moldovan Patrice Mottiez Joseph N'Do Rolf Osterwalder Marco Pascolo Philippe Perret Hany Ramzy Alexandre Rey Martin Rueda Claude Ryf

Víctor Sánchez Mata Haris Seferovic Admir Smajic Augustine Simo Uli Stielike Hussein Suleimani Kalu Uche Charles Wittl Pascal Zuberbühler

Other players can be found in the category: Soccer players (Neuchâtel Xamax) .

Trainer history

1946–1948: Giovanni Ferrari 1948–1952: Fernand Jaccard 1961–1965: Josef Humpál 1968–1969: Milorad Milutinović 1969–1970: Josef Humpál 1970-1972: Paul Garbani 1972 -0000: Josef Artimovits 1972-1975: Lev Mantula 1975 -0000: Branko Rezuar 1975–1977: Gilbert Gress 1977-1978: Antonio Merlo 1978–1979: Erich Vogel 1979-1980: Lev Mantula 1980–1981: Jean-Marc Guillou

1981–1990: Gilbert Gress 1990-1992: Roy Hodgson 1992–1993: Uli Stielike 1993-1994: Don Givens 1994-1997: Gilbert Gress 1998–2002: Alain Geiger 2002-2004: Claude Ryf 2004 -0000: Christophe Moulin 2004-2005: Gianni Della Casa 2005 -0000: Alain Geiger 2005–2006: Miroslav Blaževic 2006–2008: Gérard Castella 2008–2009: Néstor Clausen 2009 -0000: Jean-Michel Aeby

2009 -0000: Alain Geiger 2009–2010: Pierre-André Schürmann 2010 -0000: Jean-Michel Aeby 2010 -0000: Radu Nunweiller 2010–2011: Didier Ollé-Nicolle 2011 -0000: Bernard Challandes 2011 -0000: Sonny Anderson 2011 -0000: François Ciccolini 2011 -0000: Joaquín Caparrós 2011–2012: Víctor Muñoz 2012–2015: Roberto Catillaz 2015–2019: Michel Decastel 2019 -0000: Stéphane Henchoz 2019– 0000: Joël Magnin

Web links

• Official website
• Neuchâtel Xamax on the Swiss Football League website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website Xamax, La Genèse , accessed on April 15, 2012 (French)
2. ^ Website Xamax, Actualités , accessed on April 15, 2012 (French)
3. ↑ Xamax: Chronology of decline on the Swiss television website of January 18, 2012
4. ↑ Xamax 2.0: a new club is being created ( memento of the original from December 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Kurzpass.ch, accessed on October 15, 2014 
5. ^ Website Xamax, Actualités , accessed on April 15, 2012 (French)
6. ↑ Xamax website , accessed on October 15, 2014 (French)
7. ↑ srf.ch: Xamax ascent at the green table
8. ↑ Xamax boss Tschagajew in custody on NZZ Online from January 26, 2012
9. ↑ Tschagajew no longer in custody on NZZ Online from May 25, 2012
10. ^ "Neuchâtel Xamax" becomes "Xamax 1912" on NZZ Online on April 14, 2012
11. ↑ Information on the stadium at xamax.ch