Now the great football revolution is taking place
Despite huge resistance from the fans: the clubs of the Swiss Football League are turning Swiss football upside down and giving it a completely new mode.
– Posted today at 11:51 am—
–From summer 2023, the Swiss Football League will reinvent itself.
Photo: Claudio Thoma (Freshfocus)
The Swiss football championship will have a new look from summer 2023. Not visually, but in terms of the number of teams and the mode. Instead of the previous 10 teams, 12 teams now play in the Super League. These carry out 32 rounds before various decisive games are pending: playoffs for the championship title, for the European starting places and against relegation.
These changes were approved by the majority of the 20 club presidents of the Swiss Football League at an extraordinary meeting on Friday. A two-thirds majority was necessary for the increase, for the introduction of playoffs a simple majority was enough.
From spring it gets complicated
The new mode divides the season into three sections. First, the twelve teams play a simple first and second half of the season with 22 games each. The field is then divided between ranks 6 and 7 and another first and second round is completed. Then, after a total of 32 games each, the playoffs begin: 1st and 2nd place play against each other for the title, 3rd to 10th place the European Cup places. The last one is relegated, and the penultimate contests the barrage against the second in the Challenge League.
The final for the title is played in best-of-3 format (whoever wins two games first is champion), the playoff for the European Cup and the relegation barrage with a return leg (exception: final for the European Cup).
–This is what the mode will look like in the Super League from summer 2023.
Infographic: Jürg Candrian
The proposed changes were and are highly controversial, especially among fans. A petition to prevent the format has been signed by over 4,000 people in the past few days. The reactions to the decision on Friday afternoon in the social media are correspondingly negative. Even some clubs could not make friends with it. Among other things, because of security concerns. YB sports director Christoph Spycher but also from the point of view of sporting fairness.
The president of the new champions FC Zurich, Ancillo Canepa, was a critic from the start, he already didn’t believe in the playoff plans, when these became known at the beginning of April. A playoff is “sportingly unfair” because injuries, suspensions or individual referee whistles could decide: “For this kind of title win we have the cup with a final game.” However, like most of his counterparts, he supported the increase.
A dilemma for the clubs
The clubs and the Swiss Football League could have expanded the league to twelve teams without introducing playoffs. But: With twelve teams, it was apparently not possible to find a mode that found a majority at the extraordinary general assembly. This resulted either in too few games (2×11 with first and second half), too many games (4×11 with double first and second half as in the current mode) or with 3×11 games in an unequal distribution of home games.
The new mode will apply from the 2023/24 season, but the reform will already have an impact on 2022/23: Because of the increase, there will be no direct relegation from the Super League. The last one only has to contest a barrage against the third in the Challenge League. The first two in the second highest class are promoted.
Herbie He has been an editor in sports with a focus on online since 2018. In addition to general reporting, cycling and alpine skiing are his specialties.
More info
–David Wiederkehr is deputy head of the Tamedia sports department and has been writing about sports since 2000. His areas of expertise are soccer, gymnastics and US sports.
More info
–Posted today at 11:51 amFound a mistake?Report now.
–
