It’s getting exciting in the Super League: finally we have a line battle again!

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Anyone who was socialized by football in the 1990s can still remember it wistfully. As soon as the new National League A season started, many things revolved around one question: who will cross the line and who won’t? And at the latest, when the leaves fell from the trees in the autumn and the spots were really deep and brown, the time had finally come: the legendary line fight.

For the youngsters: Before the introduction of the Super League in 2003, Switzerland had a mode that was unique in the world. There was a preliminary round with twelve teams, each of which played each other twice in the first half of the season. The teams above the line in places 1 to 8 then advanced to the final round (with halved points), the teams below the line in places 9 to 12 went to the promotion/relegation round with the four best from the NLB. in. They then had to tremble at relegation in the spring.

Sounds complicated, but it wasn’t. But it was a spectacle, because many clubs were involved in the pub fights at the time and were therefore worried about their future. Many stories, some unforgettable, would not have been possible without the rule.

Tragic stories of FCZ and GC

Things were legendary, especially in 1999. When FC Zurich drew 1-1 in the last match of the qualifying round in Neuenberg, the Zurichers were already celebrating the qualification for the final round. It is simply stupid that coach Raimondo Ponte’s team had eight foreigners on their scoresheet instead of only the permitted seven. That’s why the 1:1 after a Xamax protest became a 0:3 defeat and the FCZ was relegated to the promotion/relegation round. ‘I was completely exhausted. Looking back, that was the core of my career,” Ponte said years later.

The most prominent victim of a stroke was undoubtedly the WG of 1992. The basic group around world coach Leo Beenhakker and players such as Giovane Elber, Alain Sutter, Ciriaco Sforza and Co. ended unexpectedly at the bottom on December 6, the day of the EEA no, and therefore did not play for the title in the competition. spring, but against Bulle, Chenois and Locarno.

“The line must go”

But in those years the working method quickly went against the wishes of those directly involved. This is evident from a 1998 study.

Xamax president Gilbert Facchinetti: “This sentence is absolute nonsense. Basel boss René C. Jäggi: “If this mode is supposed to be so brilliant, why isn’t anyone copying it? In business it takes three months for something brilliant to be copied.” And FCZ chairman Sven Hotz: “The line has to go! The financial pressure is too great.”

It happened as it had to happen: the club bosses put an end to the spectacle in 2003 and buried the cult mode. The line fight, this globally unique event, was dead and the result: the tension in the autumn was gone. This only became apparent in the spring in the ten-man competition, especially in the years when the team had to enter the barrage in ninth place.

However, at some point the club representatives and those responsible for the Swiss football league no longer liked the ten-a-side competition. The tension during the championship race was missing. And almost every club threatened to be relegated or even relegated at some point. After long discussions, confusing modal proposals that would have required at least a PhD to understand, and much bickering, they agreed on… (drumroll)… the return of the line.

Championship or relegation round?

The mode isn’t the same as it used to be, but the line is finally back this season. And with it the line fight. That is why in the coming weeks – just like in the past – one question will be asked: Will my club reach the finish line (places 1 to 6) and thus the championship round or will it stay below the finish line (places 7 to 7) and therefore 12) and therefore ends up in the relegation round?

What’s left at the end of the day? Long live the line fight!

Source : Blick