ARRRRRRRRH!!!!! Two goals in the last few min 4 Dec Servette - Xamax 1-2 Xamax 43 - Control their destiny now. They could loose both matches against Servette in the spring, and still stay ahead. Servette 35 - The draws to Wil, Winterthur and Wohlen loom very large now. Schaffhausen - 33 Rapperswil-Jona 23 Vaduz 23 Chiasso 20 Aarau 18 Wohlen 13 Winterthur 12 Wil 11
Leading goalscorers 15 - Raphael Nuzzolo Xamax 10 - Tunahan Cicek - Schaffhausen 9 - Mychell Chagas - Rapperswil Jona 7 - Geoffrey Treand Xamax Leading Assists 9 - Charles-Andrew Doudin - Xamax 8 - Alexandre Alphonse - Servette 6 - Alain Schultz - Wohlen 6 - Mike Gomes - Xamax 6 - Mychell Chagas - Rapperwil-Jona 6 - Helios Sessolo - Schaffhausen Attendance 3,315 Xamax (8) 2,978 Winterthur (9) +15 2,873 Servette (9) +420 Great crowd for the Xamax match, but seem to lose the big match time after time. 2,652 Aarau (9) - 55 1,751 Schaffhausen (8) +65 1,736 Vaduz (9) -9 1,667 Rapperswil-Jona (8) -73 930 Wil (9) -25 687 Wohlen (7) -29 544 Chiasso (8) -23
8 Dec Xamax - Winterthur 9 Dec Chiasso - Vaduz 10 Dec Rappeswil-Jona - Aarau Wohlen - Servette 11 Dec Schaffhausen - Wil
8 Dec Xamax - Winterthur 2-1 9 Dec Chiasso - Vaduz 0-1 10 Dec Rappeswil-Jona - Aarau PPD Wohlen - Servette PPD 11 Dec Schaffhausen - Wi 2-1 The best possible result for Xamax, and the worst for Servette. With the postponed match, Xamax goes into the break with a 10 point lead on Schaffhausen and an 11 point lead over Servette. That is a long time to stew for both teams. Xamax 46 Schaffhausen 36 Servette 35* Vaduz 26 Rapperswil - Jona 23* Chiasso 20 Aarau 18* Wohlen 13 * Winterthur 12 Wil 11
Leading goalscorers 16 - Raphael Nuzzolo Xamax 11 - Tunahan Cicek - Schaffhausen 9 - Mychell Chagas - Rapperswil Jona 7 - Geoffrey Treand Xamax Leading Assists 10 - Charles-Andrew Doudin - Xamax 8 - Alexandre Alphonse - Servette 6 - Alain Schultz - Wohlen 6 - Mike Gomes - Xamax 6 - Mychell Chagas - Rapperwil-Jona 6 - Helios Sessolo - Schaffhausen Attendance 3,189 315 Xamax (9) - 126 2,978 Winterthur (9) 5 2,873 Servette (9) 2,652 Aarau (9) 1,736 Vaduz (9) 1,667 Rapperswil-Jona (8) 1,621 Schaffhausen (9) -130 930 Wil (9) 741 Wohlen (8) +56 522 Chiasso (9) -22 I wonder if Xamax and Schaffausen will be able to keep a hold on Nuzzolo, Cicek and Doudin. I will bet Xamax will try all that they can to keep their players in place.
Wohlen has announced that they will not seek a license for the 2018-2019 season. This means that no matter what happens on the field, they will be relegated. Wil lives to see another day in the BCL.
Read about this yesterday. This means that 5 of the last 6 relegations in the BCL have been for non-sporting reasons. Wohlen said that it takes nearly 3 million CHF to operate a team in the BCL, and while that may not seem like much in the grand scheme of world football, it's obviously too much for a club like Wohlen. These problems are compounded when you're expected to fix the stadium you play in when the town won't help out with costs, even though they may own the stadium and land. One article I read had the right perspective: Instead of being a place where a club can grow young players and be an exciting competition, or at least be a place to be proud to place, it's almost like a dead-end job where you're either praying to advance or simply leave. There's no joy in playing in the Challenge League. At the same time, what's the point of trying to compete if you know you won't be relegated or promoted? What's the point of the competition right now? It's either going to be Xamax or Servette being promoted, and the rest of the matches are a waste of valuable resources, especially for clubs who have very little money. There's no hope of battling for Europe or a playoff place. There's no dogfight to stay up. Since most of the games seem meaningless, attendance stagnates. The SFL doesn't care. The standards are ridiculously high. We might see a 7 team Challenge League in a few years. It's a really bad situation overall.
I thought the same the same thing. For the other 7 teams, there is no point to really try. There is no danger of being relegated, Servette will need a miracle to overtake Xamax. Boring.
It's not just that it's boring, but there's really no incentive to get better as players, either, because the gulf between the RSL and BCL is so wide that it takes a really great talent to break through and get picked up by an RSL team. In the end, you just wind up kicking around mediocre teams who never go anywhere. It's a death spiral. And if you're an owner and you don't have the resources to go up, you're thinking that it would just be easier and cheaper to be an amateur or semipro club. We're going to keep seeing this year after year until something is done. Next year, it'll either be Wil or Chiasso, and the cycle will continue until we're left with almost nobody left to have a league. This is what happens when the rich clubs become too powerful and the small clubs can't afford to even remain afloat.
Now am not advocating this, but a 14-16 top league would include just about all of the teams that are committed. If the SFL is going to impose very strict rules on clubs, and make it a de facto closed league, they might as well just create that. I agree that there is very little incentive for Rappeswil-Jona to invest in the club. They are having a good season, but do they really stand a chance at being promoted? Their stadium does not work, Chiasso is the same. Why should they go after expensive talent when they could not make in the RSL. I think the SFL will need to talk a long look at this sooner than later.
When the SFL was discussing changes, they involved all of the clubs from the SFL, and the Big 4 (FCB, YB, FCZ, GCZ) all basically said that they didn't want changes to be made because then they would have to share more revenue with more clubs who are all smaller who they felt wouldn't pull their weight in the league, so the SFL basically threw all changes out the window.
While I see what the Big 4 are saying (as an aside it is funny to note that FCZ was in the BCL last season and GCZ have flirted with relegation the past few seasons) one of the largest markets in the country is still out of the league. There was a really good article on Blick about the BCL and how it s becoming an untenable league.
Matches restart this weekend 2 Feb Vaduz - Xamax 3 Feb Servette - Chiasso Wil - Wohlen 4 Feb Winterthur - Rapperswil-Jona 5 Feb Aarau - Schaffhaunse Xamax has a stretch of 4 games that they can really put promotion out of reach in the 1st month. @ Vaduz vs Aarau vs Servette @ Chiasso Servette's first 4 matches likely to determine who gets promoted vs Chiasso @Schaffhausen @Xamax vs Aarau Schaffhausen @Aarau vs Servette @ Rapperswil-Jona vs Wil If Xamax wins in Round 21 vs Servette, settle in for an even more boring spring than we are already in for.
2 Feb Vaduz - Xamax 3-3 Vaduz was up 3-0, but let Xamax score three in a row, including one in the 95'. 3 Feb Servette - Chiasso 1-1 Servette missed a massive chance to close the gap and make the BCL competitive this spring. Wil - Wohlen 1-1 4 Feb Winterthur - Rapperswil-Jona 1-1 5 Feb Aarau - Schaffhausen 2-1 Xamax 47 Servette 36 Schaffhausen 36 Vaduz 27 Rappeswil-Jona 24 Chiasso 21 Aarau 21 Wohlen 14 Winterthur 13 Wil 12
Leading goalscorers 16 - Raphael Nuzzolo Xamax 11 - Tunahan Cicek - Schaffhausen 10 - Mychell Chagas - Servette 8 - Patrick Rossini - Aarau Leading Assists 12 - Charles-Andrew Doudin - Xamax 8 - Alexandre Alphonse - Servette 6 - Alain Schultz - Wohlen 6 - Mike Gomes - Xamax 6 - Mychell Chagas - Rapperwil-Jona 6 - Helios Sessolo - Schaffhausen 6 - Milan Gajic - Vaduz Attendance 3,189 315 Xamax (9) 2,910 Winterthur (10) -68 2,873 Servette (10) -99 2,652 Aarau (10) -35 1,736 Vaduz (10) -21 1,667 Rapperswil-Jona (8) 1,621 Schaffhausen (9) 905 Wil (10) -25 741 Wohlen (8) 522 Chiasso (9)
9 Feb Xamax - Aarau Come on Aarau! 10 Feb Wohlen - Winterthur 11 Feb Chiasso - Wil Rapperswil-Jona vs Vaduz 12 Feb Schaffhausen - Servette
I just thought I would drop a quick note to say how much I appreciate this forum and especially the contributions from RobtheAggie and KensingtonSC that make supporting Swiss football in English a lot easier. I live in a footballing wasteland where locally I don't even know anyone who follows football even though the EPL and Bundesliga are on TV all the time sure you hear a few people talking about Man Utd and Chelsea and Bayern and Arsenal... sorry but no true football fanatics...just my luck that I'm in Canada!
Well it started off well for Aarau but their inability to defend corners did them in. Xamax is too good it's like men v. boys. We really need a play-off for 2 in the BCL against 9 in the RSL... teams like Zurich and Xamax just run away with things.
9 Feb Xamax - Aarau 3-1 10 Feb Wohlen - Winterthur 1-4 11 Feb Chiasso - Wil 0-1 Rapperwsil-Jona - Vaduz 1-2 12 Feb Schaffhausen - Servette 0-1 Xamax 50 Servette 39* Schaffhausen 36 Vaduz 30 Rapperwswil - Jona 24* Chiasso 21 Aarau 21* Winterthur 16 Wil 15 Wohlen 14*