Swiss Football Championship 2008/09

	1st league 2008/09
master	SC Kriens
Climbers	SC Kriens ; FC Le Mont-sur-Lausanne
Relegated	SC Düdingen ; FC La Tour / Le Pâquier ; SV Muttenz ; FC Olten ; FC Kreuzlingen ; FC Red Star Zurich
Teams	48 (3 groups of 16 each)
Games	720 + 12 promotion games

	Challenge League 2008/09
master	FC St. Gallen
Climbers	FC St. Gallen
Relegation ↑	FC Lugano (1-0 and 0-5 against FC Luzern )
Relegated	FC Concordia Basel and FC La Chaux-de-Fonds (forced relegations, no athletic relegation this season)
Teams	16
Games	240 + 2 relegation games ;
Gates	740 (ø 3.08 per game)
spectator	484 315 (ø 2018 per game)
Top scorer	Vincenzo Rennella (20) ; ( FC Lugano )
	← Swiss Football Championship 2007/08 Challenge League 2009/10 →

	Axpo Super League 2008/09
master	FC Zurich
Champions League	FC Zurich
Europe League	BSC Young Boys ; FC Basel ; FC Sion
Cup winners	FC Sion
Relegation ↓	FC Luzern (0-1 and 5-0 against FC Lugano )
Relegated	FC Vaduz
Teams	10
Games	180 + 2 relegation games ;
Gates	540 (ø 3 per game)
spectator	1 614 089 (ø 8967 per game)
Top scorer	Seydou Doumbia (20) ; ( BSC Young Boys )
	← Swiss Football Championship 2007/08 Super League 2009/10 →

The 112th Swiss Men's Football Championship took place in 2008 and 2009 in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The champions became FC Zurich , which thus achieved its 12th championship title.

The Axpo Super League 2008/09 took place from July 18, 2008 to June 13, 2009. The Liechtenstein club FC Vaduz , which was the first foreign club to play in the Swiss Super League, the top division, was relegated to the top division after just one season. The FC Basel and the BSC Young Boys could for the Europa League qualifying. The penultimate place, which requires participation in the barrage games , was occupied by FC Luzern . In the Challenge League 2008/09, the second highest division, FC St. Gallen secured promotion and FC Lugano the barrague place. The SC Kriens and FC Le Mont won the play-offs of the first league , the third-highest division.

Super League

Clubs of the Super League, red dots indicate the clubs that played in the Super League last year, the promoted clubs are marked with green arrows

Season course

First round

On July 18, 2008, the first game of the season took place between BSC Young Boys and last year's champions FC Basel, which Basel won 2-1. The FC Aarau had four wins and a draw the best start to the season since 1980 and was available for the first five games in the first place in the table. Basel then took the lead after a 4-1 away win at FC Zurich , but Aarau was the only team to remain undefeated until the seventh round. The BSC Young Boys scored only one point in the first three games and then sacked their coach Martin Andermatt . On August 10, Vladimir Petković was introduced as the new coach of the Bernese, after the assistant coach Erminio Piserchia took over the team in the meantime. One day later, FC Luzern dismissed its coach Ciriaco Sforza due to the unsuccessful start to the season . The team had not won any of the first five games.

Roberto Morinini was the new coach at Lucerne . In the following rounds, Basel was able to maintain the lead, before Zurich took first place for the first time of the season thanks to the better goal difference. After Lucerne had still not won a game at the end of matchday 12, the board also dismissed the second coach and employed Rolf Fringer , after which Lucerne won its first game of the season 1-0 against Bellinzona. On the 15th matchday the top match between Basel and Zurich was played, which ended with a 1-1 draw; so Basel could maintain its championship lead. On the next matchday, however, Basel lost 2-0 at Neuchâtel Xamax , and since Zurich beat FC Sion 1-0, they moved back to first place. In the last game of the year there was an unexpected result, when the bottom of the table Lucerne beat FC Basel 5-1. As a result, FC Zürich was four points ahead of Basel and ten points ahead of third-placed BSC Young Boys winter champions.

Second half

Game operations, which had been inactive since December 15, were resumed on February 7, 2009. In the first round after the winter break, the table leaders played 2-2 in the Zurich city derby against Grasshopper Club Zurich , but was still able to build up their lead over Basel to five points, as the table runner-up lost 3-2 away from BSC Young Boys. However, this lead was reduced to two points on matchday 21 after Basel won the top game against Zurich 2-1. On the 23rd matchday Zurich was long behind in the game in Lucerne, equalized five minutes before the end and was able to turn the game to a 3-1 win. In the following round, the Young Boys from Bern were defeated 1: 3 in Vaduz and thus lost the connection to the top of the table. On matchday 25, FC Basel took the lead in the table. Zurich lost 4-2 in Bern, while Basel defeated Vaduz 5-0 at home. FC Luzern achieved success in the relegation battle when they defeated AC Bellinzona 4-2.

On the next matchday, Zurich regained the top of the table after a 2-1 win against Aarau, as Basel only played 1-1 in Bellinzona. In the next round, Lucerne won another victory, FC Vaduz were defeated 3-1. The two teams played against each other again a week later, Lucerne also won this game and thus advanced to the Barrageplatz. FC Basel won 3-2 in Neuchâtel and benefited from Zurich's draw against Sion and thus took the lead. On matchday 29, the leaders of the table Basel couldn't get past a draw against Bellinzona and because Zurich won their game in Aarau 3-0, they were able to move up to first place. In the relegation battle Lucerne defeated Sion 1-0, which Lucerne gave up the Barrageplatz to Sion. A round later the two teams swapped places again, Lucerne lost in Bellinzona, Sion won against Aarau. On matchday 32, none of the first three teams won their game: Zurich did not get more than 1-1 against Lucerne, but was able to extend its lead to four points because Basel lost 3-1 in Aarau, contrary to expectations. For Bern there was also a defeat, the game in Bellinzona was lost 2-1. Thus, in theory, Bern no longer had a chance of winning the championship. Zurich retained the lead on the next matchday after a 5-3 win in Vaduz.

The master scorer Alexandre Alphonse

One game day later, there was the top game between Zurich and Basel, which Basel won 3-1 and thus moved up to one point on Zurich. Vaduz lost 3-1 in Bellinzona, so the relegation of the Liechtenstein team was sealed. The decisions of the season were made on matchday 35. Basel lost 4-1 away to Grasshopper Club Zurich, Zurich won 1-0 in Bellinzona after a goal by Alexandre Alphonse in the 31st minute and thus won the championship. The place went to Lucerne, who lost 5-2 in Bern, while Sion won 5-1 in Vaduz and was thus able to secure the league. On the last match day, Basel was pushed back by Bern in the last game of Christian Gross as Basel's coach after a 3-0 defeat to third place. Bellinzona, the second climber, played a strong second half and ended up in sixth place. Aarau also played a good season and was placed fifth. Grasshopper Club Zurich, on the other hand, played a rather inconspicuous season and ended up in fourth place, but 22 points behind third place in the table. Seventh place was taken by Neuchâtel.

Transfers

AC Bellinzona and Neuchâtel Xamax were particularly active on the transfer market, with 15 and 14 new entries in summer 2008, respectively. 14 players left FC Luzern in summer 2008, Bellinzona had to post twelve departures. FC Vaduz was also particularly active in dealing with new signings, with twelve players signed. With AC Bellinzona and FC Sion, two of the ten teams relied on a new head coach at the start of the season. At the Ticino, Marco Schällibaum took over as the successor to Vladimir Petković , who had migrated to the BSC Young Boys, as coach, while the Valais hired Uli Stielike to replace the dismissed Alberto Bigon . The player additions in the summer included Behrang Safari , Marcos Gelabert , David Abraham , Federico Almerares (all to FC Basel), Seydou Doumbia (to BSC Young Boys), Olivier Monterrubio (to FC Sion), Nelson Ferreira , Milan Gajić , Elsad Zverotić (all with FC Luzern), Davide Callà and Senad Lulić (both with Grasshopper Club Zurich).

Among the departures were Hakan Yakin (to Al-Gharafa ), Kamil Zayatte (to Hull City ), Pascal Zuberbühler (to FC Fulham ), Frank Feltscher (to US Lecce ), Daniel Majstorović (to AEK Athens ) and Kōji Nakata (to Kashima Antlers ).

In the winter transfer period at the beginning of 2009, significantly fewer transactions were carried out. FC Vaduz signed seven players, while Grasshopper Club Zurich and AC Bellinzona signed five new players. FC Zurich, FC Vaduz and FC Luzern each announced six departures. Neuchâtel Xamax and FC Sion also tackled the rest of the season with a new head coach. Alain Geiger replaced the Argentine Néstor Clausen at the Neuchâtel team, while Umberto Barberis took over the coaching position in Sion as the successor to the dismissed Uli Stielike.

Player additions in winter included Emiliano Dudar (to AC Bellinzona), Roland Linz , Alain Schultz (both to Grasshopper Club Zurich), Xavier Margairaz (to FC Zurich), Mark Rudan and Thorsten Kirschbaum (both to FC Vaduz). The departures included Michel Morganella (to US Palermo ), Demba Touré (to Stade Reims ), Germano Vailati (to FC Metz ), Emra Tahirović (to Örebro SK ) and Beto (to Ergotelis ).

The championship team of FC Zurich

(Players with at least 5 appearances were considered; the games and goals are given in brackets)

1.	FC Zurich
	Goal: Johnny Leoni (34 / -) Defense: Heinz Barmettler (27 / -), Philippe Koch (11 / -), Veli Lampi (28 / -), Alain Rochat (29/4), Florian Stahel (27/1), Daniel Stucki (13 / -), Hannu Tihinen (29/2), Midfield: Almen Abdi (32/19), Silvan Aegerter (34/5), Martin Büchel (13 / -), Yassine Chikhaoui (6/1), Dusan Djuric (35/9), Xavier Margairaz (13/2), Adrian Nikci (34/4), Onyekachi Okonkwo (35/1), Marco Schönbächler (13 / -) Forward: Alexandre Alphonse (30/13), Eric Hassli (27/17), Luca Ladner (5 / -), Admir Mehmedi (11/2) Coach: Bernard Challandes

Tables

End table

rank	society	R.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01! 1.	Zurich! FC Zurich	36	24	07! 7th	05! 5	80:36	1! +44	79
02! 2.	BSC Young Boys	36	22nd	07! 7th	07! 7th	85:46	2! +39	73
03! 3.	Basel! FC Basel (M, C)	36	21st	07! 7th	08! 8th	72:44	3! +28	72
04! 4th	Grasshopper Club Zurich	36	12	14th	10	57:48	4! +9	50
05! 5.	Aarau! FC Aarau	36	11	11	14th	35:51	6! −16	44
06! 6th	Bellinzona! AC Bellinzona (N)	36	11	10	15th	44:51	5! −7	43
07! 7th	Neuchâtel Xamax	36	10	10	16	50:57	5! −7	40
08! 8th.	Sion! FC Sion	36	09! 9	10	17th	44:60	6! −16	37
09! 9.	Lucerne! FC Luzern	36	09! 9	08! 8th	19th	45:62	7! −17	35
10! 10.	Vaduz! Liechtenstein FC Vaduz (N)	36	05! 5	07! 7th	24	28:85	8th! −57	22nd

Legend
	Swiss champions, participation in the UEFA Champions League qualification (third qualifying round)
	Participation in the UEFA Europa League qualification (third qualifying round)
	Participation in the UEFA Europa League qualification (second qualifying round)
	Barrage games against the runner-up in the Challenge League
	Relegation to the Challenge League
(M)	reigning Swiss champion
(N)	Newcomers last season
(C)	Swiss cup winner last season
R.	Rounds completed
S.	Victories
U	draw
N	Defeats

Crosstabs

First round
2008
1.	FC Aarau		0: 2	0: 1	0: 3	1-0	2: 1	3: 1	4-0	1: 1	2: 1
2.	FC Basel	3: 1		2-0	1-0	2-0	4: 3	3-0	4-0	1: 2	1: 1
3.	AC Bellinzona	1: 1	2: 3		1: 1	2: 2	1: 2	2: 1	1-0	1: 2	0: 3
4th	Grasshopper Club Zurich	0-0	1: 1	3: 1		4: 2	1-0	3: 1	3-0	0: 1	2: 2
5.	FC Luzern	3-0	5: 1	1-0	0: 3		0: 1	1: 1	1: 2	0: 3	0: 3
6th	Neuchâtel Xamax	0-0	2-0	3: 3	1: 1	1-0		3: 3	2: 2	2: 3	1: 2
7th	FC Sion	1: 1	2-0	0: 2	0-0	1: 1	0-0		3: 1	2: 1	1: 3
8th.	FC Vaduz	0: 2	0: 2	0-0	1: 1	1-0	1-0	1: 2		0-0	1: 7
9.	BSC Young Boys	3: 3	1: 2	3-0	1: 3	6: 1	2: 1	5-0	0-0		2: 2
10.	FC Zurich	4-0	1: 4	3-0	2: 1	1-0	3-0	1-0	5-0	2: 1

Second half
2009
1.	FC Aarau		3: 1	0-0	0: 3	0-0	0-0	1-0	2-0	0: 1	0: 3
2.	FC Basel	3: 1		1: 1	0-0	2-0	3-0	2: 2	5-0	0: 3	2: 1
3.	AC Bellinzona	1: 2	1: 1		6: 2	2-0	2-0	0: 1	3: 1	2: 1	0: 1
4th	Grasshopper Club Zurich	1: 1	4: 1	1: 3		1-0	1: 1	0: 2	2-0	3: 3	2: 2
5.	FC Luzern	4-0	1: 2	4: 2	1: 1		2: 1	1-0	3: 1	2: 3	1: 3
6th	Neuchâtel Xamax	3: 1	2: 3	1-0	4: 1	3: 3		3: 2	3: 1	2: 3	0: 1
7th	FC Sion	2-0	0: 4	2: 2	1: 4	1: 1	1-0		2: 1	2: 3	0: 1
8th.	FC Vaduz	1: 1	0: 1	1-0	2: 2	1: 2	2: 4	1: 5		3: 1	3: 5
9.	BSC Young Boys	4-0	3: 2	3-0	3: 1	5: 2	0-0	2: 1	6-0		4: 2
10.	FC Zurich	2: 1	1: 3	0-0	2: 1	1: 1	3-0	2: 2	5-0	3-0

List of goalscorers

List of goalscorers
Pl.	Nat.	player	society	Gates
1	Ivory Coast	Seydou Doumbia	BSC Young Boys	20th
2	Switzerland	Almen Abdi	FC Zurich	19th
3	France	Eric Hassli	FC Zurich	17th
4th	Ghana	Joe Tex Frimpong	FC Luzern	13
4th	France	Alexandre Alphonse	FC Zurich	13
6th	Switzerland	Mauro Lustrinelli	AC Bellinzona	12
6th	Australia	Scott Chipperfield	FC Basel	12
8th	Portugal	João Paiva	FC Luzern	11
8th	France	Olivier Monterrubio	FC Sion	11
10	Nigeria	Ideye Brown	Neuchâtel Xamax	10
	Switzerland	Benjamin Huggel	FC Basel	10
	Switzerland	Mario Raimondi	BSC Young Boys	10

Venues and spectators

society	city	Stadion	capacity	Average audience
FC Aarau	Aarau	Brügglifeld Stadium	09249!9,249	05583!5,583
FC Basel	Basel	St. Jakob Park	38512!38,512	21043!21,043
AC Bellinzona	Bellinzona	Stadio Comunale	10,000!10,000	04011!4,011
Grasshopper Club Zurich	Zurich	Letzigrund	25500!25,500	06497!6'497
FC Luzern	Lucerne	Allmend stadium	13000!13,000	08074!8,074
Neuchâtel Xamax	Neuchâtel	Stade de la Maladière	12500!12,500	05086!5,086
FC Sion	Sion	Tourbillon Stadium	20200!20'200	09383!9,383
FC Vaduz	Vaduz	Rheinpark Stadium	07838!7,838	02176!2,176
BSC Young Boys	Bern	Stade de Suisse	31783!31'783	17984!17,984
FC Zurich	Zurich	Letzigrund	25500!25,500	09829!9,829

The St. Jakob-Park in Basel had the highest occupancy with an average of 21,043 spectators

The Stade de Suisse in Bern was attended by an average of 17,984 spectators

Games were played in nine stadiums during the season. The largest stadium was the St. Jakob-Park in Basel with a capacity of 38,500 seats, it was also the most visited stadium with an average of 21,043 spectators per game and 378,791 spectators in total. Two stadiums had an artificial turf surface, namely the Stade de Suisse in Bern and the Stade de la Maladière in Neuchâtel. The Letzigrund in Zurich was used by two clubs, FC Zurich and the Grasshopper Club Zurich, because the Hardturm , the actual stadium of the Grasshopper Club, was demolished during the season due to its poor condition. Four of the stadiums had more than 20,000 seats, apart from the stadiums in Basel, Bern and Zurich, this was also the Stade de Tourbillon in Sion. The Allmend stadium in Lucerne completed its last season, in summer 2009 it was demolished. The Stadio Comunale in Bellinzona was a stadium with exactly 10,000 seats . Two stadiums, the Brügglifeld Stadium and the Rheinpark Stadium in Vaduz were below this capacity, the stadium in Vaduz was the smallest and least visited with a capacity of 7,838 seats, 2,178 spectators per game and 39,185 spectators in total Championship stadium. It was also the only stadium located abroad and the only national stadium.

The greatest number of spectators came on November 16, 2008 in the home game of FC Basel against FC Zurich, when 30,149 spectators attended the game. The audience record low was reached on May 24, 2009 in the game between FC Vaduz and FC Sion, which was attended by only 850 spectators. The Super League was attended by a total of 1,614,089 viewers, with an average of 8967 viewers for each game.

Kick-off times and broadcasts

In the 2008/09 season, the individual matches on a matchday were usually kicked off as follows:

Two encounters on Saturday at 5:45 p.m.
Three encounters on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

However, the kick-off times were handled very flexibly, with TV broadcasts the games sometimes already took place at 2:15 p.m. or at 8:15 p.m. A total of 145 out of 180 season games were broadcast on TV, but with a few exceptions these were only seen on pay TV on Teleclub and Bluewin TV . Selected individual matches such as the top match between FC Basel and FC Zurich were broadcast on free TV on SF Zwei and HD suisse . The barrage games between FC Luzern and FC Lugano were also broadcast live on free TV on SF Zwei, TSR 2 and TSI 2 .

Awards

On the occasion of the night of Swiss football, the Swiss Football Association and the Swiss Football League presented several awards relating to the Super League. Top scorer Seydou Doumbia won the audience rating as the best player in the Super League, ahead of Almen Abdi , Eric Hassli and Gürkan Sermeter . Fabian Frei won the goal of the season, also decided by the audience via internet voting, with his goal against Aarau on December 5, 2009. Three other Super League related awards were determined by a jury of experts. Bernard Challandes won the award for best coach, Valentin Stocker for best young player and Massimo Busacca for best referee.

Challenge League

In the Challenge League , the second highest division, only 16 teams played in 2008/09 instead of the previous 18. The season lasted from July 25, 2008 to June 13, 2009. The first league table of the season was jointly taken over by newly promoted FC Biel-Bienne and FC Lugano , who each won their games 4-1. One lap later, Lugano was the sole leader, but five other teams were tied. After the next game day there was already the third league leader; the relegated St. Gallen , who took this position after a 4-0 win at Yverdon-Sport FC after all other teams with the same points, with the exception of FC Winterthur, lost points. However, Winterthur lost the next game and thus St. Gallen was the only team still free of loss points after the fourth game day. The first point loss for St. Gallen was in lap seven after a 2: 4 in Thun , so Lugano was able to advance to first place. As a result, the two teams separated more and more from the other teams. The top match between St. Gallen and Lugano took place on matchday 14, which St. Gallen won 2-1. As a result, St. Gallen was back in first place and also spent the winter there.

At this point in time, St. Gallen and Lugano were the only candidates for promotion. Even after the winter break, which lasted from December 9, 2008 to February 20, 2009, things continued in a similar way. After the 19th round, St. Gallen was able to distance itself from Lugano because Lugano lost to Wil and St. Gallen won against FC Locarno . After St. Gallen's draw one match day later and the simultaneous victory of Lugano, this advantage shrank to one point, but one lap later it was again three points, because this time Lugano drew and St. Gallen won. On matchday 24, the lead increased to five points after Lugano's goalless game against Yverdon. This lead lasted and on matchday 28 it was definite after a 1-0 win at FC Concordia Basel . The 3-1 defeat in Lugano on the penultimate matchday was no longer relevant, St. Gallen only lost two games in total. Lugano was able to qualify for the barrage.

The season had no athletic relegation, the last-placed Gossau and the penultimate Locarno were allowed to stay in the league. Concordia Basel announced its exit from professional football due to the failed stadium project and financial problems. The license of FC La Chaux-de-Fonds was revoked for financial reasons. Both teams started the next season in the 2nd regional league , the fifth highest league in Switzerland.