Conference trucks::football;1

Can anybody explain all the Graffiti on the pitch at Charmilles (Servette). I
caught a brief glimpse in the newspaper on Saturday, something to do with
property developers?, or did it just say "Wot a bunch of crap!". I was going
to watch the Sion game but it clashed with the fireworks, anyway they lost
2 nil, big suprise.

Tony

    It was indeed a property speculator being slagged off, Tony. It was
    either a ploy by the Servette board to remind les genevois that
    a)Geneva has a football team b) a stadium to play in and c)kicking a
    ball around in August when it's 35 degrees C is a bloody stupid thing
    to do, OR it was subliminal advertising for a choice bit of real estate
    close to the airport and suitable for development into a theme park.
    
    Whatever, Servette go from bad to worse.
    
    Peter

    Can anyone out there in Switzerland give me a progess report
    on F.C. Lucerne's new signing Arno Arts ? Arno played for my
    local team N.E.C. Nijmegen for several years before signing
    for Lucerne...Any regular updates will be greatly appreciated
    
    Tim

    
    GRASSOPPHERS are going to win the title.
    

    
    surprise!
    
    GRASSOPPHERS SION 0 1
    
    Sion now leads

    
    2 matches to te end
    
    SION
    XAMAX  -3
    GRASS. -4
    

    
    LUGANO won the cup:   Grassopphers Lugano 1 4
    
    AARAU is on the good way for the title: not so bad for a 
    city of 14000 people.
    

    
    The title this year is for SERVETTE 
    
    it's the 16th, the last one was 9 years ago.
    

    
    I'd just like to thank BIOTTI for coming into this note once a
    year to tell us who'll be Swiss Champions !
        
    Can you tell me who will Switzerland be sending into next seasons 
    UEFA Cup ? 
    
    Cheers,
    
    Andy

    
    2 Uefa spots  Grassopphers and Sion  
    
    Kriens and Yverdon are back to Div2 
    
    Basilea and San Gallo back to DIV 1
    

                       <<< Note 21.8 by VARESE::BIOTTI >>>
                                 -< champions >-
    The title this year is for SERVETTE 
    
>>> it's the 16th, the last one was 9 years ago.
    
    16 is all very well but Liverpool have 18 from a much tougher league. How
    about that.


     C U N N O

>	The title this year is for SERVETTE 
    
>	>>> it's the 16th, the last one was 9 years ago.
    
>	16 is all very well but Liverpool have 18 from a much tougher league. How
>	about that.
    
    

>> 16 is all very well but Liverpool have 18 from a much tougher league. How
>> about that.
   
    Well, Switzerland has managed to qualify for the world Cup where
    England failed. This is just a good example to show how tough 
    Swiss players are. 
    

    Sorry Martin,
    
    I'm afraid you have to face facts. The days when Liverpool were used as
    a yardstick to measure other teams are long since over. No right-minded
    manager would aspire to emulate the current Liverpool team.
    
    There are plenty of Swiss teams that would give Liverpool a proper
    thrashing on the football pitch.
    
    Jerry.

 Well I think this year I can anticipate that the winner 
 will be 

  GRASSOPPHERS

And Mr/Ms Biotti was exactly right - Grasshoppers champions (for the 23rd 
time, Martin) with 3 games to play. And last night they also broke the record 
for the number of points scored in the second half ("Final Round") part of the 
season.

About time this conference had a Swiss spectator (oh yes, it is) and as of 
last night it's me! I went to see FC Z�rich play Solothurn, along with all of 
1651 others. Well, yes, it was raining. Looking at the table, you'd expect FCZ 
to win 5-0, and that's exactly what they did. They played some lovely stuff, 
mostly on the ground, but Solothurn were pretty clueless. Z�rich are now safe 
from relegation, as are Young Boys.

Still 2 games to go, and with Sion already in the CWC (Cup Final against 
Grasshoppers still to be played), any 2 out of 5 can get the UEFA Cup spots. 
Current occupants are Lugano and Neuch�tel Xamax.

More interesting Swiss news follows . . .!

The Swiss FA is 100 this year (c.f. the English FA, where only the members are 
100), and they've organised a summer tournament, which should be worth 
watching:

Mon 19 Jun	Switzerland v Italy	@ Lausanne

Wed 21 Jun	Germany v Italy		@ Z�rich (Letzigrund)

Fri 23 Jun	Switzerland v Germany	@ Bern

All KO at 2030, and I think ARD and RAI are covering the games.

grahame

Respect is due to any league that includes a team called "Young Boys". 8-)

I can hardly wait for your next bulletin Grahame. Still, at least one of your
teams might be in Europe next year. 8-)

Mike

Cheers, Mike. Yes, I feel the interest in this note can only be heightened by 
replying only every year or so.

And as for that 'team in Europe' stuff, so you've been a Newcastle fan for a 
day (13 May) and now you can afford to sneer can you? Perhaps we can see Villa 
in whatever comp you get into if you don't quailfy for the Intertotototo? Er, 
I see we didn't either!

g

Villa's season was an aberration, but I'm pleased that we escaped relegation. In
the end, we got just as much out of the season as you did, and threw away far
less. I remember when people were giving up on anyone being able to catch
Newcastle after their start to the season. 8-)

At least we'll be back to decent shirts again next season. It's just a shame I
won't be there to see them. 8-)

Mike

    
    So as not to be outdone by Grahame in Z�rich.....
    
    	Sion beat Grasshoppers here in Bern in the Swiss Cup Final
    yesterday. There were a number of arrests before the game after a group
    of Sion "fans" ransacked Bern's main station.....we got into the
    station a few hours after the event on the way back from a long weekend
    Wales (don't mention Ireland please 8-) and the station was like a bomb
    site.
    
    JBG
    
    Ps. Grahame, interested in Switzerland vs Germany?

>    Ps. Grahame, interested in Switzerland vs Germany?

Hi Jon,

I'm going to try to get to the game here, so I'm not sure I can stand the 
excitement of seeing Herr Klinsmann twice in 3 days . . . but if the SBB can 
take the strain, yeah why not?!

g

    
    Grahame
    
    	let me know when you've decided. There are a few chaps here that
    are interested so I can see me trying to pick up a few tickets anyway.
    
    JBG

One game I've always wanted to see in Switzerland is FC Basel (the best 
supported club over here) against one of the Zurich clubs.

Anyone fancy going next season.

P

Hi Paul,

Didn't GC beat Basel on the day they won the title?

But yes, let's get to a game and some of that hurling beer next season. 

g

For everyone breathlessly awaiting the final table:

GC	37pts
Lugano	30
Xamax	28
Aarau	27
Luzern	25
Sion	24	Cup Winners
Basel	24
Lausanne 15

(yes, that's it!)

In the Promotion/Relegation League - no one did.

grahame

Lots of tears all over Switzerland today as Roy Hodgson finishes as Swiss 
national coach and heads off to a much higher salary and lower cost of living 
at Inter Milan. The Swiss FA are expected to release him from his contract 
today, and not insist he takes the side to England next year - however, his 
last game will be the game in England next month.

It's very reminiscent of Jack Charlton's story. Since Hodgson took over they 
qualified for the World Cup (first time for yonks I believe), and now for 
their first-ever European Championships. He's really popular, and will be a 
hard act to follow. Especially as the team isn't really all that good - I 
can't see them doing much next summer!

grahame

  Name                GP   W  D  L   GF-GA   Pts  --
-----------------------------------------------------------
 1. Grasshoppers        15  11  2  2   29-12   35
 2. NE Xamax            16  10  2  4   30-17   32
 3. Sion                16  10  1  5   26-21   31
 4. Luzern              16   8  5  3   26-19   29
 5. St.Gallen           16   6  6  4   24-17   24
 6. Lausanne            16   5  6  5   20-16   21
 7. Aarau               16   5  4  7   24-21   19
 8. Basel               16   6  1  9   16-24   19
-----------------------------------------------------------
 9. Lugano              15   4  4  7   15-25   16
10. Servette            16   3  5  8   19-24   14
11. Zuerich             16   2  5  9   11-26   11
12. Young Boys          16   2  5  9    8-26   11
-----------------------------------------------------------

The first half of the season finished on Saturday, with the league neatly 
divided into 3 - the half-decent, the phew-we-just-made-it, and the bottom 
4 who now play in a Promotion-RElegation League with the top 4 from 
National League B (Kriens, Delemont, Etoile Carrouge, Yverdon). On the last 
day, it was 1 from 5 to go down, and Lausanne drew the short straw.

The Top 8 now play on for the Championship and Euro-places - the worst that 
can happen to them is finishing 8th.

From 22 games:

Grasshoppers	43
Sion		42
Xamax Neuchatel	41
Luzern		40
Basel		30
Servette Geneva	28
Aarau		27 (Goals 36-27)
St Gallen	27 (Goals 26-24)
------------------
Lausanne	27 (Goals 25-25)
Lugano		21 (second last season)
Z�rich		18
Young Boys Bern	17

This time last week there was the prospect of 2 English managers leading their 
teams out to play England at Wembley next summer - now there are none.

The Swiss FA have announced that Roy Hodgson will be replaced by Artur Jorge 
as from 1 January 1996.

This is no real surprise as negotiations for World Cup Qualifying start in 
January, and there will still be 3 games before June for Jorge to get to know 
the team. Also, as Inter have now slipped to 12th, Roy has problems of his 
own.

Artur Jorge is Portuguese and, as well as a distinguished playing career, has 
managed Porto (European Cup Winners Cup), Benfica, Paris SG (the team that 
lost to Arsenal a couple of years ago?) and the Portuguese national side. He
had a brief second spell back at Benfica earlier this season. 

grahame

Grahame,

Is it true that the press are in uproar about the decision?
They wanted to see Hodgson remain in charge?

Ian.

Hi Ian,

Well, the part of the press that would be most likely to be 'in uproar' would 
be the part I don't read I suspect! But there does seem to be a lot of sympathy 
for Roy. The paper I do read has been to ask him what he thinks - like a good 
pro he wasn't complaining ("the SFV (Swiss FA) have done nothing wrong"), but 
it seems he was led to believe that he could come to England, and he's clearly 
disappointed. Roy's back in the country tomorrow at an event with the head of 
the SFV, so there'll be more about this.

Also the morning radio programme (equivalent of Radio 1) had a telephone 
interview with someone from the SFV today, and gave him a good grilling. 
There's definitely a feeling he's been hard done by.

Of course, after last night's Ice Hockey (Switzerland 2 Great Britain 2 !!),
they've got even more to complain about. 

grahame

    
    GRASSOPPHERS    24 titles!
    

The Final Table of the Swiss Championship looks like:

1 Grasshoppers	-> Champions League Qualifying
2 Sion		-> Cup Winners' Cup
3 Xamax		-> UEFA Cup
4 Aarau		-> UEFA Cup
5 Luzern	-> UIC
6 Basel		-> UIC
7 Servette
8 St Gallen

Cup Final:

Servette 2 Sion 3

Two years in a row for Sion, and the 8th win in 8 finals.


Relegation/Promotion League

Also for the second year running, all of the A-League teams survived: Young 
Boys, Zurich, Lausanne, Lugano.

grahame

Only 7 weeks after the last entry, only 10 days after the European 
Championships Final, and the Swiss League kicks off again tonight. Apparently 
this is because the winter break starts at the beginning of December so the 
players can have a month off before the indoor competitions start. Presumably 
that's where the money is these days for the Swiss clubs.

Expectations are much the same as usual:

Grasshoppers: probable winners
Xamax, Sion: probable runners-up
Luzern, Arrau?: challenging for UEFA Cup spots.
Basel, Lugano, Servette, St Gallen, Lausanne, Zurich - desperately hoping to 
be in the Top 8 by December, thus avoiding the relegation playoffs.
Young Boys: desperately trying to survive.

Any surprise expected? Well, it would be nice if Zurich did well . . .

grahame

Last week the Swiss FA announced that Artur Jorge had left to take over the 
Portuguese national team, only 6 months after taking over the Swiss. So far, 
there's no sign of a replacement - presumably the FA are still trying to wipe 
the egg off their faces.

grahame

Lasr season's almost all-conquering Slavia Prague (UEFA Cup Semi, approx 6 
players in the European Championship final) discovered last night what happens 
when you sell all your best players - you lose 5-0 to Grasshoppers Club 
Zurich, and have almost no chance of making the Champions League.

The only sound in Zurich today is that of people trying to calculate how much 
money this will bring in (yes, a normal day in Zurich!)

g

The new Swiss coach is Rolf Fringer. Although he's Austrian, he grew up 
in Switzerland and all his playing career was here. After coaching Arrau to the 
championship, he left last year to manage VFB Stuttgart. And now the Swiss 
have stolen him back again.

grahame

	Grasshoppers Club 0 Xamax Neuch�tel 0

Of all the visiting dignitaries to this game last night, the Rangers and 
Auxerre managers must have had the most trouble keeping the smile off their 
faces. The Swiss National Manager would have had trouble finding anything 
to smile about.

Walter Smith is quoted as saying "We know GC can play better than this." Their 
only attacking ploy was the long hoof upfield. Presumably this has worked 
successfully in the past, leading to many goals for Turkyilmaz. Sadly, they 
didn't seem to notice he wasn't playing last night. (Picture Arsenal of 2 
seasons ago without Ian Wright).

Crowd was 4800, low even by GC's standards - presumably most people knew what 
to expect.

Xamax played nice tidy football, without ever looking too threatening - 
presumably they'll be happy with the draw. After 10 games, they lead from an 
unlikely trio:

Xamax	  23
Lausanne  17
GC	  17
St Gallen 17

grahame

    
    Sion   for the second time    BIGON like Trap waiting for Capello