Would anyone who has the knowledge share it with the rest of us? The basics, the teams, the links and the rivalries would be a great start.
Ok...here are some of the basics of the Swiss Super League: 10 teams, 36 rounds FC Basel Grasshopper Club Zurich FC Zurich BSC Young Boys (Bern) FC St. Gallen FC Thun Neuchatel Xamax Servette (Geneva) FC Schaffhausen FC Aarau Current Standings: http://www.football.ch/nl/start.asp?r=/nl/nis/ls/res.asp&sp=1&ls=4035&sg=12617 Last team gets relegated, 9th plays a series vs. the 2nd of the Challenge League (2nd Div) Grasshoppers are traditionally the strongest team with 27 Championships and 18 Cup titles. The last few years however FC Basel has risen to become the giant of the league. FCB enjoys the highest attendance (25,000 season ticket holders) and has a budget of 20 million Euros. As far as rivalries go, I would list the Zurich derby as well as Basel vs. the two Zurich teams as the most important...
I would say that Basel and Grasshopper rivalry has become a bit more fierce, considering they have been the two most dominant forces in recent championships..... Also don't forget the Winter-break which usually starts in early December/late November and then ends in Mid to Late February. The season will then be played out till Late-May (usually dependent on wether there is a European Championships or WC on, then it would be much earlier) with a new season starting in Early to Mid-July....
Thank you as well! My recent interest in Swiss soccer stemmed from playing the video game FIFA2002. I live in Canada so obviously we don't get much news about Swiss soccer. My knowledge of French and German is really limited so the internet is only really helpful for just stats and stuff like that. Cheers! P.S. Go Grasshoppers!
What percentage of the players are Swiss? Are there any other countries with substantial representations (EG, all of the Ivory Coast players in Belgium)? What percentage of the Swiss National Team plays in the league? Thanks.
Nice to see so many GC fans starting to appear! I nearly died when we lost 8-1 to FCB and had to endure the taunts of the Basel fan on here...
A fairly big one. We don't have a team like Beveren if that's what you're wondering. With that said, many teams have decided to pick up EU players recently since they no longer count as foreigners in Switzerland (and we don't count as foreigners in the EU leagues.) About half.
We all wish there were better outlets for multimedia of the matches. Some teams have radio deals, but to my knowledge there are no video streaming of the matches. tsr.ch has a good sunday evening video highlight program that can be watched.
You did get them, for 2 years maybe. Not lately though, the forum's been in a bit of a dip. Anyway, here is the link to the league section on the Swiss national television, just pick which round you'd like to see (next to the season selection) and watch the highlights.
Some of it is my fault. I got married recently. (believe me, that means a lot less personal time...haha)