After Heusler’s rejection: who will send the league into the race for the SFV presidency?

The ex-FCB chairman is said to have met the requirements profile perfectly. A nationally known personality, eloquent, well connected in politics, business and football. Because the SFL candidate must, on the one hand, convince the other two chambers (amateur and first class) and, on the other hand, be able to meet the challenges of the future.

But who will the SFL send into the race to succeed Dominique Blanc, who is leaving in 2025, now that another potential candidate, Matthias Hüppi, has withdrawn from the race early? According to SFL, we are looking for “a visionary personality with strategic leadership qualities, ideally with entrepreneurial experience and an excellent network with politicians, authorities, national and international associations and the business community.”

Blick issues an interpretation order:

The Bernese Oberlander has been with UEFA for thirty years. The last eight years as CEO of UEFA Events SA. The biggest task of this company is the organization of the European Championship. Kallen was already responsible for the European Championships beforehand. The one in Germany is the sixth under his auspices! The Bernese Oberlander has a network in Europe that is unparalleled. It was addressed nine months ago by league CEO Schäfer. Kallen: “That was a separate request. I haven’t heard anything since. I hoped Bernhard Heusler would do that. That would have been great. It’s a shame he canceled.” And how will he react if another request comes? “I would listen to it, but it doesn’t bother me at the moment because it’s very far away. I feel very comfortable with the UEFA.”

The two were given the legitimacy by YB to be on this list. Spycher, 47-time international and ex-Bundesliga professional, was talent manager at YB after his playing career before being appointed sports director in 2016. With him a new era began with five championship titles, three cup victories and as many Champions League participations. Since 2022, he has been responsible for sports on the board of directors. For his part, Greuel worked in the sports marketing sector before becoming CEO at YB in 2016. He also sits on the committee of the Swiss Football League and has been a board member of the European Club Association since 2019. But the board of the SFV is not an issue for either of them.

The Lucerne resident has been Chief Executive at Bundesliga club VfL Bochum since 2018. This is the short version. He is officially the spokesperson for the management of VfL Bochum 1848 GmbH Co. KgaA… Previously he was director at Sochaux-Montbéliard in France and at YB. He took up this position after a short interlude as sports director of the Blick Group. Further on, he worked in senior positions for Hannover, Bayer Leverkusen and GC. Kaenzig on a possible candidacy: “The league is already indirectly responsible for the national team, while the president must devote himself to grassroots football. So he also has to come from that base.”

The lawyer worked for FIFA for sixteen years and was one of the closest associates of President Sepp Blatter and his successor Gianni Infantino before leaving the world association after the 2018 World Cup. He then founded MV Sports Consulting AG together with a partner. This offers its services on various topics in the field of sports, marketing, contracts, club and association law. The law firm advises the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and other national and international sports associations in one mandate. Villiger is considered very well connected in the international football and sports world and therefore covers an important part of the requirements profile. The SFL should have him on the roster.

The Lucerne native is another personality who would be interesting given his profile. He knows local football very well, both from his time as a professional and as an official. However, it is utopian that the former FCSG board of directors and the current president of Lucerne would be available. He is too involved in his heart club, FCL. And he has already invested too much energy in the grueling power struggle with shareholder Bernhard Alpstaeg, which has still not been decided. If Wolf were to resign prematurely, it would probably amount to a betrayal of himself, but also of the whole of Central Switzerland.

The Bernese lawyer was already president of the League from 2009 to 2011. In 2021 he stood for election to this office again, but had absolutely no chance. This is also because the current SFL leadership is not particularly well disposed towards him. Thomas Grimm (65), once YB boss and chairman of the Ukrainian football league from 2018 to 2020, would probably perfectly meet the requirement profile, also in terms of time burden, because the three current advisory mandates do not take up space the neo-retired excessively occupies. “I wasn’t asked,” he says, and he doesn’t expect that to happen.

Even though the list of candidates is thinning out: the SFL finally wants to reappoint the SFV president after the departure of Ralph Zloczower in 2009. Peter Gilliéron (2009 to 2019) and Blanc (since 2019) were candidates in the amateur league, which has almost twice as many electoral votes as the SFL and the 1st league. According to an unwritten law, it is now the turn of the professional league. Another problem is that the office, which corresponds to a workload of more than 50 percent, is not particularly financially lucrative and is carried out more in the clubhouses of Swiss village clubs than on the carpets of FIFA or UEFA. The spotlights of the World Cup and European Championships are an exception. No wonder the SFL is having such a hard time finding candidates.