FC Thun

FC Thun
	FC Thun
Basic data
Surname	Football Club Thun 1898
Seat	Thun , Canton of Bern
founding	May 1, 1898
Colours	Red White
president	Markus Lüthi
Website	fcthun.ch
First soccer team
Head coach	Marc Schneider
Venue	Stockhorn Arena
Places	10,398
league	Challenge League
2019/20	9th place (Super League)

The FC Thun 1898 is a football club from the Swiss town of Thun . The club plays in the Super League , the highest Swiss division. Thun was the Swiss Cup finalist in 1955 and 2019. The club celebrated one of its greatest successes to date in 2005/06 with qualifying for the Champions League group stage and the Europa League sixteenth-finals.

history

FC Thun share certificate dated July 20, 1936

The club played 1954/55 , 2002 - 2008 and from 2010 in the NLA resp. Super League . 1946 - 1950 , 1953/54 , 1955 - 1970 , 1997 - 2002 , 2008 - 2010 one played in the NLB resp. Challenge League . In 1955 , FC Thun played the Cup final against La Chaux de Fonds , and in 2005 they were runner- up behind FC Basel and qualified for the UEFA Champions League

Andy Egli became the coach of Thun in 1995. The 1995/96 season concluded Thun with sixth place in the first division . A season later they rose to the NLB. 1997/98 they had to deny the relegation round. Andy Egli went to FC Luzern . Georges Bregy became the new coach . With him, Thun managed to participate in the promotion / relegation round in the NLA in 1999/2000 , but had to remain in the NLB.

The club's coach from July 2001 to December 2004 was Hanspeter Latour , who became the club's real identification figure. With him in 2002 the promotion to the National League A, which was later renamed the Super League. At the beginning of 2005 he switched to GC ; The new coach was Urs Schönenberger , who was dismissed in February 2006 due to differences with the club's management and was replaced by the Austrian Heinz Peischl . In March 2007 Peischl was dismissed due to continued unsuccessfulness; the previous assistant coach Jeff Saibene took over his position. This had to give up his office on the 2007/08 season because he did not have the required licenses (UEFA Pro). The Dutchman René Van Eck took over his office . However, he was not long in office, as you missed the league in the 2007/08 season. For the 2008/09 season , the former U-21 team coach Hansruedi Baumann took over the team and was replaced by Murat Yakin in June 2009 . This migrated to FC Luzern in the 2011/12 season and was then replaced by Bernard Challandes . During the winter break of the 2012/13 season , Challandes was replaced by former FC Zurich coach Urs Fischer . Shortly before the start of the 2015/16 season , Urs Fischer was poached from FC Basel. Ciriaco Sforza was signed as the new coach , from whom they separated on September 30, 2015. The next trainer was Jeff Saibene . At the start of the second half of the 2016/17 season, the separation was announced for the end of the season, and Marc Schneider was appointed as his successor . When Arminia Bielefeld was looking for a new coach, negotiations were held with Jeff Saibene, who said goodbye on March 19 in Thun and took over the team from Bielefeld. Mauro Lustrinelli was appointed as interim coach because the designated coach for the next season, Marc Schneider, did not yet have the required license (UEFA Pro).

Old logo (until 2011)

In 2005 , Thun qualified for the UEFA Champions League with victories against Dynamo Kiev and Malmö FF , causing a huge surprise and the greatest success in the club's history. This was achieved with a narrow squad and a budget of five million francs. In the group with Arsenal London , Ajax Amsterdam and Sparta Prague , FC Thun reached 3rd place and was thus qualified for the knockout round of the UEFA Cup in spring 2006. There the team was eliminated against Hamburger SV .

On November 13, 2007, the Bernese canton police announced that twelve players from FC Thun and nine other suspects had been questioned because they suspected they had committed sexual acts with a 15-year-old girl. The police believe that most of the actions were carried out with the girl's consent. However, this is a criminal offense because, under Swiss law, sexual contact with people under the age of 16 is only exempt from punishment if there is an age difference of up to 3 years. On November 20, 2007, almost the entire first team was relieved. In the same season, the club missed the league and thus played from the 2008/09 season in the Challenge League (second highest division). During the last season, the former U-21 coach Hansruedi Baumann was trusted. He was then replaced on an interim basis by Andres Gerber towards the end of the season due to poor results . For the 2009/10 season , Murat Yakin was introduced as the new coach , who surprisingly managed to get promoted to the Super League again with a young team and even led the newcomer to a European Cup place in the following season . In 2013, FC Thun qualified for the group stage of the 2013/14 Europa League .

Super League (since 2010)

season	league	space	Gates	Points	Swiss Cup
2010/11	Super League	5	48:43	49	Quarter finals
2011/12	Super League	5	38:41	43	2nd round
2012/13	Super League	5	44:46	48	Quarter finals
2013/14	Super League	6th	57:53	48	Semifinals
2014/15	Super League	4th	47:45	52	Round of 16
2015/16	Super League	6th	45:54	41	Quarter finals
2016/17	Super League	6th	58:63	45	1 round
2017/18	Super League	7th	53:68	42	Quarter finals
2018/19	Super League	4th	57:58	46	final
2019/20	Super League	9	45:67	38	Round of 16

Stadion

The club has been playing its home games in the new and ultra-modern Stockhorn Arena (formerly called Arena Thun), which has a total capacity of 10,000 seats, since the 2011/12 season . Previously, FC Thun played in the Lachen stadium , which actually no longer met the requirements of the highest league, but since the new venue was already being planned, FC Thun was granted a special permit.

In the Lachen stadium , the entire standing area was covered with grass until the promotion to the then NLB in 1997. Even today there are hedges and trees inside the stadium. In 1997 the first adjustments had to be made. The standing room was gradually converted into gravel-covered steps. In sector D and in the guest sector, the standing areas were paved for safety reasons. The stadium also received a floodlight system. By the time it was promoted to the then NLA in 2002 , the construction work in the spectator area had been completed. After the promotion to the top league, the infrastructure was gradually adapted further:

New match watch with totomat
The old wooden benches in the stands have been replaced by red bucket seats
New, more powerful spotlights installed on the floodlight masts
The sector separation by means of grids was introduced
A small wooden grandstand for almost 100 people was created between the clubhouse and the Olympiator
The B-Club (Business Club), a sponsoring association of the FCT, is building its own VIP tents inside the stadium
In the guest sector, the steps were paved for safety reasons and the sector facing the playing field was provided with a grid
New tubular steel grandstand with 800 seats created.

Stadium record in the Lachen stadium

In the 2003/04 season , FC Basel had the opportunity to secure the championship title early on when they played in Thun. 10,200 laughing spectators witnessed a 0-2 victory for the Basel team, but also of the destructive excesses of the Basel appendix after they forced the game to be abandoned in the 90th minute.

New construction of the Stockhorn Arena

The construction of a new stadium in Thun-Süd with public funding was rejected in a referendum in February 2006. In March 2007, the investor group HRS / ARCO Real Estate was awarded the contract for a new project which, in addition to a stadium with a capacity of 10,000, also includes a shopping center. The necessary rezoning for the privately financed project was approved in December 2007 by the Thun voters. The building permit was granted in October 2009 after objections to the stadium and the associated Weststrasse expansion were withdrawn or rejected. The groundbreaking took place on February 17, 2010. The foundation stone was sunk into the ground on June 23, 2010. In the summer of 2011, the stadium, initially called “Arena Thun”, was completed and inaugurated on July 9, 2011 with an opening game against the German soccer club 1. FC Köln (2-2). In February 2014 Stockhornbahn AG acquired the naming rights to the FC Thun venue, which is why the stadium was renamed the Stockhorn Arena with immediate effect .

European Cup balance sheet

International matches in the UEFA Champions League were played at the Stade de Suisse in Bern. FC Thun played the games for the 2011/12 and 2013/14 UEFA Europa League qualification in the Stockhorn Arena.

season	competition	round	opponent	total	To	Back
2003	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2nd round	Czech Republic 1. FC Brno	3: 4	2: 3 (H)	1: 1 (A)
2004	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1 round	Romania Gloria Bistrița	2-0	2: 0 (H)	0: 0 (A)
		2nd round	Germany VfL Wolfsburg	7: 3	3: 2 (A)	4: 1 (H)
		3rd round	Germany Hamburger SV	3: 5	2: 2 (H)	1: 3 (A)
2005/06	UEFA Champions League	2nd qualifying round	Ukraine Dynamo Kiev	3: 2	2: 2 (A)	1: 0 (H)
		3rd qualifying round	Sweden Malmö FF	4-0	1: 0 (A)	3: 0 (H)
		Group stage	England Arsenal FC	1: 3	1: 2 (A)	0: 1 (H)
			Czech Republic Sparta Prague	1-0	1: 0 (H)	0: 0 (A)
			Netherlands Ajax Amsterdam	2: 6	0: 2 (A)	2: 4 (H)
2005/06	Uefa cup	Round of 16	Germany Hamburger SV	1: 2	1: 0 (H)	0: 2 (A)
2011/12	UEFA Europa League	2nd qualifying round	Albania KS Vllaznia Shkodra	2: 1	0: 0 (A)	2: 1 (H)
		3rd qualifying round	Italy US Palermo	( a ) 3: 3(a)	2: 2 (A)	1: 1 (H)
		Play-offs	England Stoke City	1: 5	0: 1 (H)	1: 4 (A)
2013/14	UEFA Europa League	2nd qualifying round	Georgia Tschichura Satschere	5: 1	2: 0 (H)	3: 1 (A)
		3rd qualifying round	Sweden BK hooks	3: 1	2: 1 (A)	1: 0 (H)
		Play-offs	Serbia FK Partizan Belgrade	3: 1	0: 1 (A)	3: 0 (H)
		Group stage	Austria SK Rapid Vienna	2: 2	1: 0 (H)	1: 2 (A)
			Belgium KRC Genk	1: 3	1: 2 (A)	0: 1 (H)
			Ukraine Dynamo Kiev	0: 5	0: 3 (A)	0: 2 (H)
2015/16	UEFA Europa League	2nd qualifying round	Israel Hapoel Beer Sheva	3: 2	1: 1 (A)	2: 1 (H)
		3rd qualifying round	Liechtenstein FC Vaduz	( a ) 2: 2(a)	0: 0 (H)	2: 2 (A)
		Play-offs	Czech Republic Sparta Prague	4: 6	1: 3 (A)	3: 3 (H)
2019/20	UEFA Europa League	3rd qualifying round	Russia Spartak Moscow	3: 5	2: 3 (H)	1: 2 (A)