The Swiss soccer league started the 2023/24 season with a new mode at the weekend. There had been a long argument about it before – fan protests led to the end of a playoff mode.
“No to Playoffs!” – the announcement from many fan curves in Switzerland was clear. With posters in the stadiums and with online petitions, many fans mobilized against the plans of the Swiss Super League.
So far, all clubs have simply played four times against each other. In spring 2022, the league decided on a model with playoffs. The idea:
- The twelve teams were to play each other twice on 22 matchdays.
- After that, the league should be divided into two groups of six.
- After ten matchdays in each of the two groups, the first and second in a series best of three would have played out the championship title.
Proponents had argued that the league lacked excitement, FC Basel and Young Boys Bern were serial champions in Switzerland. In addition, playoffs are more appealing for young people, with the Swiss league currently only taking in just over 22 million euros per season with its TV contract. In May 2022, Super League officials voted in favor by a clear majority. But the criticism in the fan scenes was great.
“Extraordinary” – FC Basel fans with a choreography
FC Zurich submitted the application, playoffs were voted out
Many clubs would only have played one home game against the top teams, individual games would have had more weight than the performance of a season, wrote the sponsors of the campaign “Playoffs no!” and concluded: “This wouldn’t have much to do with fair competition and the idea of athletic performance.”. They collected more than 57,000 signatures and called on the club presidents to vote against the project.
Ancillo Canepa, President of FC Zurich, had submitted the application to overturn the playoffs that had actually been decided. “I’m glad I was able to convince most of my colleagues that the playoff model would not be good for our football”Canepa said at the time. “Thanks to the many fans who signed the petition, that was almost 60,000 and of course that’s a big number. My colleagues couldn’t ignore that.”
The President of FC Zurich, Ancillo Canepa
The “Röstigraben” in the mode thriller kept Swiss football in suspense
Before the second vote in November 2022, a mode crime was created, as the Swiss media called the vote. The clubs from German-speaking Switzerland in particular were against the playoffs, approval came from the west and Ticino – we were talking about the Swiss “Röstigraben”, which split the league.
Many clubs now swung around and voted against the playoffs. While the vote among the 20 Swiss professional clubs in the first two leagues in May 2022 was still 16:4 for the playoffs, the supporters of the playoffs now lost 8:12. The alliance “Playoffs no” announced the decision “It is with great pleasure and satisfaction to learn” gain weight.
The new mode is the same as in Scotland
A format similar to that of the Scottish Premier League was endorsed. The new mode now works as follows:
- Twelve teams are now playing in the Super League instead of the previous ten.
- All teams will initially play each other three times on 33 match days.
- After that, the league is divided into two groups of six. The top six play out the championship and the European Cup places in five match days, the bottom six determine a direct relegation team and a participant in the relegation in five match days.
- All points and goals from the first 33 matchdays will be carried over into this round.
- The champion is in the playoffs for the Champions League, the runners-up in the first qualifying round for the Champions League. The table third and the table fourth play in the 2nd qualifying round for the Conference League. The cup winner is in the 3rd qualifying round for the Europa League.
This addresses fundamental criticisms of the playoff mode: more games remain between all clubs, and the overall performance decides the placement. However, this mode has some special features: For example, it may be that the top teams from the relegation group have more points than the bottom teams from the champions group – but they cannot overtake these clubs in the rankings. For the critics, however, the worst has at least been prevented.
The first games should be the basis for a football thriller
The first Super League games in the new format took place on Saturday (07/22/2023). FC St. Gallen defeated FC Basel 2-1, Servette Geneva won 3-1 at Grashopper Zurich. The games should be a basis for a new crime mode – in a sporting sense.
FC St. Gallen celebrates a goal against FC Basel.