From Newsgroup: rec.sport.soccer
On 26/07/2026 01:07, MH wrote:
Checking through Bert Kassies's informative and up to date site, I
noticed that the five entries to the EC1 to EC3 from Switzerland were
Thun, Lugano, St. Gallen, and Sion.-a No Basel, Young Boys, FC Z|+rich, Grasshoppers, Servette or Lausanne (or even former champions Luzern and Neuchatel Xamax).-a So the 4 largest urban centres and some of the
richest cantons are not represented.-a I was wondering if something like this has ever happened before, and thought maybe Werner might know.
They were even lucky that St. Gallen won the cup final against 2nd-
division side Lausanne-Ouchy.
I'm not an expert on Swiss football, but I'm pretty sure absolutely
nobody expected Thun's run to the title. Basel have been up and down
for a while (this has actually been the second time in three years that
they've failed to qualify for Europe), having been dealt a pretty big
financial blow when Novartis stopped sponsoring them after twenty years.
Young Boys' season has been a full-fledged disaster and coach Gerardo
Seoane is under a lot of pressure. A throw-back to the thirty-two years
without a title between 1986 and 2018, during which time
"veryoungboysen" has entered the Swiss German lexicon as a synonym for
messing things up in the most painful way. You know, Leafs gonna Leafs.
Grasshoppers have been in trouble for close to a decade now, they
used to be owned by a Chinese group, then up to this summer by Los
Angeles FC (who also have a majority stake in neighbours to the east
Wacker Innsbruck), and that relationship ended a bit on a sour note:
https://www.watson.ch/imgdb/2a68/Qx,E,0,0,2549,1427,1062,594,424,237/2277810436677154
They've now been sold to a different Chinese consortium (one that
also owns FC Den Bosch and Pro Vercelli), and I guess it's right to be
a bit sceptical.
Lausanne surely expected more from being owned by INEOS, too, but then
Nice went through the same thing last season.
Ciao,
Werner
Looking back to 1944, it seems that at least one of Lausanne, Servette, Grasshopper, FCZ, Young Boys or Basel has always been in the top 3.
Until last year, nobody had won the Super LEague (started 2003-2004)
except Basel, Young Boys, and Z|+rich.
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