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The stadiums in Swiss football remain empty for some time. Image: KEYSTONE
Swiss football clubs in the crown crisis: everyone is looking at themselves
What’s next for the best Swiss football this spring? Is it happening at all? The next few days have to bring clarity.
With the easing measures promised on April 29, the Federal Council has created the conditions for operations in Swiss professional football to continue on June 8. If there is no other decision on May 27, nothing stands in the way. However, not everything is clear within football.
Heinrich Schifferle, president of the Swiss Football League (SFL), the professional department of SFV, has raised the alarm on the SFL website. The existence of Swiss football, the flagship of the Super League and Challenge League, would be threatened if it could not return to normal for a long time. Normality is a regular championship operation with half-full to full stages.
FCZ President Ancillo Canepa also complains that professional clubs, either without games or with ghost games, could face serious existential difficulties due to million-dollar losses. As he told SRF, he expects the federal government to provide a guarantee in the low three-digit million range, a guarantee based on the principle spoken by the Federal Council for the Swiss airline (1.5 trillion Swiss francs).
For now, however, it is a question of whether and in what form the operation of the national game will continue. For one thing, ghost games mean that clubs can significantly reduce spending in the security area in and around the stadium. There is still a costly organizing effort for each game.
Opinions differ as to whether the championship ends June 8 with the regular program or whether it is canceled and canceled without a title and without promotion and relegation regulations.
Risk of relegation: at the bottom of the Thun you are against restarting the game. Image: KEYSTONE
The last four Super League clubs, which are in danger of acute or latent descent, are all reportedly against the resumption of operations: Lugano, Sion, Thun in the background and Neuchâtel Xamax, which is linked with the Oberland. bernese. Everyone could lose with the direct descent or the descent on the barrage, but they hardly win anything, because the ranks that entitle them to participate in the European Cup are far away. They are all next to themselves.
However, there are good arguments that Lugano, Sion, Xamax and Thun would also have to vote for the continuation of the championship. TV rights revenue is tied to the product, and the product is games. The regular championship consists of 180 games, 36 rounds of 5 games. At the time of the break on February 28, 23 rounds had been completed, meaning 115 games. A final termination would lead to a substantial loss of income.
Sion’s smart president, Christian Constantin, wants to deal with the dilemma with a balancing act. Proposes to cancel the 2019/20 season.
For next season, however, the Super League will expand from ten to twelve teams. According to the decree, the promoted promoters would have to be Lausanne-Sport and Vaduz as the current first and second in the Challenge League. The twelve teams would complete a double round according to Constantin’s ideas. 44 times 6, that is, 264 games. The product to which the holder of the TV rights has a contractual right would be more than restored during the two seasons.
At first glance, it seems almost impossible that there is enough game data for 44 rounds on the 2020/21 (international) calendar. However, Constantin’s calculation could work.
Because before international competitions of all kinds are discussed, national associations must recover their businesses, with the rules that govern the handling of the coronavirus crisis in the respective countries.
Organizing international games is likely to be much more complicated. If UEFA wants to regularly hold the Champions League and the Europa League, the first and second stages of the first qualifying rounds would have to start in July, at a time when many national championships end with high pressure and deadlines. From today’s perspective, this is illusory.
UEFA’s decisions have a major impact on the national leagues. Image: EPA
UEFA is more likely to start the Champions League directly with the group stage, with the 24 teams being directly ranked and the eight teams being named according to the criteria to be determined. However, if the European Cup were to be removed entirely, much more in-game data would be free for national competitions. The same applies to the planned second Nations League as to the European Cup: whether it can be done depends on the stars.
In the coming days, the SFL under CEO Claudius Schäfer will have the difficult task of reconciling the particular interests of its two ten professional clubs. (abu / sda)
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