Swiss Super League

The Swiss Super League was formed in 1898 under the name of Swiss Serie A, and it currently represents the country’s premier football competition. Throughout the years, the league changed its name and format on various occasions, before being rebranded as the Raiffeisen Football League in 2012.

History

With the formation of the Swiss Football Association (SFV-ASF) in 1895, founding the first football league in the country seemed like a foregone conclusion. However, the first league wasn’t organized by the SFV-ASF, but by a prominent Geneva newspaper. This tournament took place in 1897-98, with Grasshopper emerging as the winner. The official league was formed next season, with the Anglo-American Club Zürich taking home the first trophy.

In 1901, the Serie A adopted a three-group format that remained in place until 1931. During this period, the teams were sorted into the East, West, and Central groups, with the winners qualifying for the final tournament. Young Boys was the only team that managed to claim three consecutive titles during this era, having done that between 1908 and 1911. Grasshopper and Servette were also fairly successful silverware-wise.

The National League era

From 1931 to 1944, the league was known as the National League (or Nationalliga). In its first two editions, the league included two separate groups. In 1933, however, the SFV-ASF introduced a single-group format and revamped the second division as the National League B. From that point onward, the Swiss League was always a single-group competition with a promotion and relegation system.

In 1944, the SFV-ASF changed the league’s name to the National League A in order to differentiate it from the second division, and this name stuck until 2003. These five decades saw the rise and fall of many Swiss clubs, with Grasshopper, Basel, and Young Boys all leading the pack on various occasions. From 1987 onward, the league was separated into two stages, with the best-ranked teams from the first stage qualifying for the championship round.

Basel’s dominance

By 2003, it was clear that Swiss football could use some consolidation of quality at the top. The SFV-ASF responded by revamping the National League A into the Swiss Super League. The new league consisted of just ten teams, and this format hasn’t changed to this day. In 2012, the Raiffeisen sponsorship led to the final name change, and the league became known as the Raiffeisen Super League.

Unlike the previous league formats, the Super League was all about Basel. Starting with the inaugural 2003-04 season, Basel claimed 11 out of 16 titles, with the remaining five going to Zürich (3) and Young Boys (2). Between 2009 and 2017, Basel won 8 straight championships, cementing its place as the dominant force in Swiss football. Since the formation of the Super League, its winner qualifies for the Champions League play-off round.

League system

The top tier of the Swiss football league system is is since 2003 named Super League (before that National League A, Nationalliga and Serie A; see above). The second football division in Switzerland is known as Swiss Challenge League (previously Nationalliga B, and before that Swiss Serie B). Swiss Promotion League is the third division (previously 1. Liga). The fourth tier, Swiss 1. Liga, is divided into several regional subdivisions. An overview of the current league system in Switzerland is presented in table 1.

Table 1. Swiss football tiers

Club	Tier
Super League	1
Challenge League	2
Promotion League	3
1. Liga	4

Below the fourth level follows the 2. Liga Interregional and 2. Liga, which are divided in several regional zones.

Stats

Teams with most titles

Statistics of all Swiss clubs that have won the top league more than once, concerning the period 1898-2020.

Table 2. Clubs and Super League titles

Club	Titles
Grasshopper	27
FC Basel	20
Servette FC	17
BSC Young Boys	17
FC Zürich	12
Lausanne-Sport	7

In addition, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Lugano, Winterthur, Aarau, Neuchâtel Xamax, St. Gallen, Anglo-American Club Zürich, Biel-Bienne, Luzern, Brühl, Étoile-Sporting and Bellinzona has all won the top league one, two or three times.

If only Super League titles are included, Basel has outstanding record with eleven titles between 2004 and 2019.

Teams with most league participation

Statistics of the Swiss clubs that have participated ten or more times in the top league during the period 2003-2019 (earlier records are missing).

Table 3. Clubs and league participation

Club	Participation
Basel	15
Young Boys	15
Grasshopper	15
Zürich	14
Thun	13
St. Gallen	13
Sion	12
Luzern	12

In total 18 clubs has participating in the top division during this period.

Audience

Capacity of Super League

Table 4 shows the capacity of all Super League club stadiums (based on the teams that participated in the league season 2018–2019). Basel and Young Boys has the biggest stadiums, with both capacities over 30,000.

Table 4. The stadium capacities in the Super League season 2018-2019

Team	Stadium name	Capacity
FC Basel	St. Jakob-Park	38,512
Grasshoppers	Letzigrund	26,104
FC Lugano	Stadio Cornaredo	6,330
FC Luzern	Swissporarena	16,490
FC Sion	Tourbillon	14,283
FC St. Gallen	Kybunpark	19,456
FC Thun	Stockhorn Arena	10,000
Neuchâtel Xamax	Stade de la Maladière	12,000
BSC Young Boys	Stade de Suisse	31,789
FC Zürich	Letzigrund	26,104

Players

Records

The all-time goalscorer in Swiss Super League is Marco Streller. He played for FC Basel between 2008 and 2015 and scored 111 times. Marco Streller has also the record for being part of the champion team eight times.

By Martin Wahl

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Super_League
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swiss_football_champions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Switzerland
https://www.sfl.ch/statistik-archiv/archiv/super-league/ewige-ranglisten/ewige-rangliste-super-league/
http://www.sfl.ch