Watch cup

The Uhrencup is an international football tournament in Switzerland. It has been held annually in July as a pre-season tournament in the Brühl stadium in Grenchen since 1962 and is considered the most important tournament in Switzerland. For a long time the host was the Swiss FC Grenchen . At that time Grenchen was still playing in the National League A , but now in the first division , the fourth-highest division in Switzerland. In 2003, Sascha Ruefer took over the event with an organizing committee, the watch cup was again an international one and is now one of the most traditional tournaments for club teams in Europe with over 50 events. The competition was not held in 1967 and 1974, and the tournament did not take place in 2014 and 2015, partly due to a legal dispute.

General

Grenchen is home to many well-known watch brands, from which the name Uhrencup can be traced back. Four teams each take part, with two Swiss teams competing against two international teams since 2003. Swiss starters have become the BSC Young Boys (outside of Switzerland also called Young Boys Bern) and FC Basel .

Until 2003 the game was played according to the cup system . Since 2004, two games per team have been played in league format . The winner is the team with the most points or, if there is a tie, the team with the better goal difference.

In addition to the tournament, international test matches are also organized as part of the watch cup.

history

Established as an international tournament (1962–1968)

When FC Grenchen inaugurated the new main grandstand in 1962, the local watch entrepreneurs of the city of Grenchen agreed to celebrate the new main grandstand in the Brühl stadium with a tournament. FC Grenchen, at that time one of the leading teams in Swiss football and well-known beyond the national borders, organized a large inauguration tournament with international teams. The response was great and the tournament was repeated annually.

Tournament regulations were requested from FIFA and the Swiss Football Association for the first Watch Cup . Because the watch cup was intended as a preparatory tournament in the preseason, the aim was not to weaken the players with repetitions. The tournament founder Kurt Weissbrodt finally found the solution together with Max Schneider, the then president of FC Grenchens , with a penalty shoot-out . The changes to the 1962 FIFA regulations were finally approved, and in 1962 a penalty shoot-out was carried out for the first time in an international tournament. The preliminary round match between RC Bruges and AC Como finally found a winner at 11:10. For the first few years, a shooter shot the first five penalties. In 1969, five penalties were executed twice in the preliminary round match between Biel and Lausanne-Sports. After the result was equal on both occasions, the tossing of a coin was finally used, with which the Bielers advanced to the final. In 1964, the coin toss even gave BSC Young Boys a final victory over Karlsruher SC.

Watch Cup as a mostly regional event (1969–2002)

After the season 1967/68 FC Grenchen rose in the National League B from. Afterwards, the watch cup lost its international importance and in future only Swiss teams took part in the tournament.

Between 1987 and 1991 several international teams could be signed again and in 1991 the German cup finalist at the time with 1. FC Köln with coach Christoph Daum and world champion Pierre Littbarski won the watch cup. However, the crisis in the Swiss watch industry in the 1980s also had financial consequences for FC Grenchen, which accumulated debts and was no longer able to sign international teams. Just six years after 1. FC Köln, a team from the then fourth-highest division ( 2nd division ), FC Subingen, won the 1997 watch cup.

New edition as an international tournament (since 2003)

In 2003 the watch cup was taken over by the Swiss TV presenter Sascha Ruefer and his watch cup & event GmbH. Since then, top European clubs have taken part in the Uhrencup time and again, including Celtic Glasgow , 1. FC Cologne , 1. FC Kaiserslautern , FC Red Bull Salzburg , FC Twente Enschede , FC Schalke 04 , Borussia Dortmund and Bayer 04 Leverkusen .

In 2009, Shakhtar Donetsk, the current UEFA Cup winner, took part in the watch cup. After a 2-1 defeat against BSC Young Boys and a 3-0 win against FC Basel , they won the tournament thanks to the best goal difference.

The field of participants in the 50th edition of the tournament in 2011 was made up of FC Basel , BSC Young Boys , Hertha BSC and West Ham United . The two Swiss teams won all four games and FC Basel won the tournament due to the better goal difference. For the anniversary edition, a test match between the Swiss runner-up FC Zurich and the German champions Borussia Dortmund took place, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Following the 50th anniversary edition, Sascha Ruefer resigned as tournament director after eight years, and with him the entire organizing committee.

After a one-year break, the 51st edition of the watch cup took place in 2013. FC Basel, Roter Stern Belgrade , Grasshopper Club Zurich and Fortuna Düsseldorf were signed up as participants .

mode

With the exception of 1990, when six clubs played for the watch cup, the tournament was played from 1962 to 2003 and also in 2010 in a knockout system with four participating clubs. The losers in the semi-finals played for third place, the winners for the watch cup. In the event of a tie there was a penalty shoot-out. Twice, in 1964 and 1969, the toss of the coin made the difference. In 1990 the six participants played in two groups of three. The last two of the group were eliminated, the runners-up contested the game for third place and the group winners the final. With the exception of 2010, the four participants have been playing in one round since 2004, but each club only had to compete against two of the other three. In 2006, FC Zurich and FC Basel took part together as one team; each of the two clubs only had to play one of the two games.

The placements of the participants each year

In the following table, the national flag is attached to all clubs outside Switzerland. The absence of the national flag at clubs in Switzerland provides a visual overview of the change in the tournament between national and international character.

year	Placements
	winner	2nd place	3rd place	4th Place
1962	FC Grenchen	Cercle Bruges	AC Como	FC Biel-Bienne
1963	Ipswich Town	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne	Sparta Rotterdam
1964	BSC Young Boys	Karlsruher SC	Olympique Nîmes	FC Grenchen
1965	Vicenza Calcio	FC Grenchen	BSC Young Boys	Maccabi Tel Aviv
1966	FC Sochaux	FC Grenchen	Lanerossi Vicenza	FC Biel-Bienne
1967	called off
1968	FC Biel-Bienne	BSC Young Boys	FC Sochaux	FC Grenchen
1969	FC Basel	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Grenchen	FC Lausanne Sports
1970	FC Basel	BSC Young Boys	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Grenchen
1971	FC Grenchen	FC Basel	FC Lausanne Sports	FC Biel-Bienne
1972	Neuchâtel Xamax	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Grenchen	FC Basel
1973	BSC Young Boys	FC Biel-Bienne	Neuchâtel Xamax	FC Grenchen
1974	called off
1975	BSC Young Boys	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne	FC La Chaux-de-Fonds
1976	FC Zurich	BSC Young Boys	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne
1977	Neuchâtel Xamax	FC Basel	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Grenchen
1978	FC Basel	Neuchâtel Xamax	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne
1979	FC Basel	FC Grenchen	FC La Chaux-de-Fonds	FC Luzern
1980	FC Basel	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Luzern
1981	FC Grenchen	FC Basel	FC Luzern	FC Biel-Bienne
1982	FC Grenchen	FC Basel	FC Aarau	FC Biel-Bienne
1983	FC Basel	FC Zurich	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne
1984	Servette Genève	FC Basel	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Grenchen
1985	FC Grenchen	FC Basel	FC Biel-Bienne	Servette Genève
1986	FC Basel	Grasshopper Club Zurich	FC Grenchen	FC Biel-Bienne
1987	BSC Young Boys	FC Grenchen	Górnik Zabrze	FC Basel
1988	FC Basel	FC Grenchen	Plastika Nitra	FC Twente Enschede
1989	FK Partizan Belgrade	FC Grenchen	FC Basel	FC Zurich
1990 0 0	Górnik Zabrze	FC Basel	FC Lugano	FC Aarau
	Eliminated (equal on points with the other two) as the last in Group 1: Zri FC Grenchen
	Eliminated as the last in group 2: Grene FC Zurich
1991	1. FC Cologne	FC Sion	Olimpia poses	FC Grenchen
1992	FC Zurich	SR Delémont	FC Basel	FC Grenchen
1993	FC Zurich	FC Basel	FC Grenchen	SR Delémont
1994	FC Zurich	SR Delémont	FC Grenchen	FC Schaffhausen
1995	FC Aarau	FC Solothurn	BSC Young Boys	FC Grenchen
1996	FC Grenchen	FC Solothurn	SV Lyss	FC Biel-Bienne
1997	FC Subingen	FC Biel-Bienne	FC Grenchen	SV Lyss
1998	FC Solothurn	SR Delémont	FC Subingen	FC Grenchen
1999	FC Grenchen	FC Solothurn	FC Langenthal	FC Thun
2000	BSC Young Boys	Neuchâtel Xamax	FC Solothurn	FC Grenchen
2001	Grasshopper Club Zurich	BSC Young Boys	FC Solothurn	FC Grenchen
2002	Servette Genève	BSC Young Boys	FC Aarau	FC Grenchen
2003	FC Basel	BSC Young Boys	Grasshopper Club Zurich	Casino SW Bregenz
2004	BSC Young Boys	1. FC Kaiserslautern	FC Basel	FC Schalke 04
2005	Trabzonspor	1. FC Kaiserslautern	BSC Young Boys	FC Basel
2006	FC Zurich & FC Basel	BSC Young Boys	Bayer 04 Leverkusen , 1. FC Köln (both third)
2007	BSC Young Boys	FC Basel	FC Red Bull Salzburg	Celtic Glasgow
2008	FC Basel	Borussia Dortmund	FC Luzern	Legia Warsaw
2009	Shakhtar Donetsk	BSC Young Boys	FC Basel	Panathinaikos Athens
2010	VfB Stuttgart	BSC Young Boys	FC Twente Enschede	Deportivo La Coruña
2011	FC Basel	BSC Young Boys	West Ham United	Hertha BSC
2012	no event
2013	FC Basel	Red Star Belgrade	Grasshopper Club Zurich	Fortuna Dusseldorf
2014	no event
2015	no event
2016	Galatasaray Istanbul	FC Zurich	BSC Young Boys	Borussia Monchengladbach
2017	Stoke City	BSC Young Boys	Neuchâtel Xamax	Benfica Lisbon
2018	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Feyenoord Rotterdam	BSC Young Boys	FC Basel
2019	BSC Young Boys	Eintracht Frankfurt	Crystal Palace	FC Luzern

All game results and, if applicable, tables can be viewed on WildStat.com. The results are also in the RSSSF archive, but only until 2009.

Ranking of the cup winners

• 13: FC Basel
• 8: BSC Young Boys
• 7: FC Grenchen
• 5: FC Zurich
• 2: Neuchâtel Xamax , Servette Genève
• 1: Stoke City , VfB Stuttgart , Ipswich Town , Lanerossi Vicenza , FC Sochaux , FC Biel-Bienne , Partizan Belgrad , Górnik Zabrze , 1. FC Cologne , FC Aarau , FC Subingen , FC Solothurn , Trabzonspor , Schachtar Donezk , Grasshopper Club Zurich , Galatasaray Istanbul , Wolverhampton Wanderers

Note: The joint victory of Zurich and Basel is counted for each of the clubs, FC Zurich and FC Basel.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ City of Grenchen regrets the end of the watch cup
2. ↑ Marco Sansoni: The proof of the German cheek . Grenchner Tagblatt . July 13, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
3. ↑ Erik Garin: Coupe Horlogère - Uhren Cup (Switzerland) 1962–2009: 1962 . RSSSF . November 6, 2009. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
4. ↑ Erik Garin: Coupe Horlogère - Uhren Cup (Switzerland) 1962–2009: 1969 . RSSSF . November 6, 2009. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
5. ^ AW: Winner by drawing lots . In: Solothurner Zeitung , August 8, 1969.
6. ↑ uhrencup.ch: History . Retrieved July 15, 2011
7. ↑ Oliver Menge (July 14, 2011): Will Boris Banga be the new "Mister Uhrencup"? . Retrieved July 15, 2011.
8. ↑ Uhrencup teams . bielertagblatt.ch. Archived from the original on June 10, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 6, 2013. 
9. ↑ WildStat.com - Uhrencup All results and tables of the Uhrencup since 1962 on demand

Web links

• Uhrcup homepage
• Results watch cup - official RSSSF statistics