Crime over promotion to the Challenge League

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There were voices warning against expansion of the Super League. Not out of traditionalism, but because they suspected what was about to happen: that not all 22 places in the Super League (12) and Challenge League (10) could be filled. And if they did, paragraphs would decide promotion and relegation rather than athletic achievement.

On Monday, the Swiss Football League announced which candidates will initially receive a license for the 2023/24 season. 21 licenses have been awarded, but there are 22 starting places, so that next season the Challenge League will consist of nine instead of ten teams. And taillight Xamax can be prepared to pass the competition without a detour via Barrage.

Background: Bellinzona is the only established professional club that has not been licensed. And of the six Promotion League clubs that submitted a promotion license at the beginning of March, only two received positive feedback: Étoile Carouge and Rapperswil-Jona. Ironically the two worst of the sextet in terms of sport, seventh and eighth in the Promotion Competition.

Stadiums do not meet the requirements

Stade Nyonnais, Baden, FC Breitenrain and Brühl St. Gallen are all further down the rankings – sometimes elusive. However, unlike Carouge and Rappi, they do not meet the permit requirements.

That should remain the case with Brühl and Breitenrain. For both, the home stadium does not meet the requirements. The board of directors of eastern Switzerland wants to talk again in the coming days, but the trend is clearly towards “withdrawal”. Breitenrain is certainly not going to appeals court. The Berners have indicated an alternative stadium with Neufeld, but the light is too dark there for a TV broadcast. And the owner, the city of Bern, has made it clear that it does not want to invest.

“We are sorry for our team that they are not rewarded for their outstanding performance for the second time in a row,” says general manager Andri Rüegsegger, who himself plays in the team that did not even apply for a license a year ago for the same reasons. “From the club’s point of view, we regret that the sports competition does not decide on promotion,” Rüegsegger continued.

Bathing as a lifesaver?

That should also be the case after the decision of the appeal body on 26 May. But the super meltdown, only nine instead of ten teams in the Challenge League, will probably be avoided. Thanks to FC Baden: the city council there gave the go-ahead for the upgrade of the lighting in the Esp stadium, which cost almost one million Swiss francs. President Heinz Gassmann is confident that he will get the license in second instance. Then you would be in the Super and Challenge League together with the necessary 22 clubs.

The Nyonnais case is probably more complicated. The Vaudois, currently second in the Promotion League behind the under-21s of FC Luzern, who are already ineligible for promotion, made their annoyance about the license refusal over the weekend clear: with a boycott of the away game in Brühl. If the license is refused, even at second instance, going to court on Lake Geneva will be considered. That would be perfect chaos. Especially if Nyonnais were proven right sometime in the fall, in the middle of next season.

Source : Blick