In Switzerland, attendance is up, for the 2007-’08 season. Last season (which this map depicts), the Swiss Super League averaged 9,763 per game. This season, the average, after half the season, is 11,063. Back-to-back champions FC Zurich boast the highest percentage increase, with a 34% rise in gate figures (from 10,871 to 14,594).
The Swiss Super League has 10 teams in it. [The clubs in the league, this season, happen to be numbers 1 through 10, on this attendance map.] The last place finisher each season is relegated to the second level, which is called the Challenge League. The ninth-place finisher in the Super League must play a playoff, with the second-place finisher in the Challenge League.
At the present time, FC Basel have a 6-point lead in the Super League, over FC Zurich, and BSC Young Boys. FC Aarau are in 4th, and newly promoted FC Xamax are 5th. FC Sankt Gallen are in danger of being relegated. They are in last, four points below the safety zone. Sankt Gallen is a rather large club to be playing in the second tier, so it should be interesting to see how the table ends up. **{See the Swiss Super League Table, here.}
Currently leading the Challenge League is the southern Swiss club AC Bellinzona. As you might surmise from their name, the club is in the Italian section of this multi-lingual nation. Italian clubs like to loan out players to this club, particularly AS Roma. **{Click here, for the Swiss Challenge League Table.}
Bellinzona only lead the league by 2 points, though. FC Wil, FC Wohlen, FC Winterthur, and the Liechtenstein-based FC Vaduz are all in touching distance. As my cut-off point for this map was 1,000 avg. gate, 3 of these 5 clubs didn’t make the map… FC Wohlen (989 avg. gate) are due east of Aarau. FC Wil (975 avg. gate) are just west of Sankt Gallen. FC Vaduz (904 avg.gate) are southeast of Sankt Gallen. {Click here to see where Liechtenstein is.} {Here is Wikipedia’s entry on FC Vaduz.}
Switzerland is joint-hosting, with Austria, Euro 2008. (The actual name of the competition, which no one uses, is the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship). Basel, Bern, Zurich, and Geneva will be the Swiss host cities. **{Click here for UEFA’s website, on Euro 2008. And/Or click here, for Wikipedia’s entry on Euro 2008 (there’s a good map, here)}.
{Swiss Super League website {translated}: (axposuperleague[dot]ch).}
This map was made in connection with The Home of Football/ Fussball-blog von Frau B. website (http://fraub.ch). {For the text-only, translated version, click here.}
My Swiss attendance map was first posted on http://fussballblog.espace.ch {Click here, for a translated version of the site.}
And a huge Thanks to Herr C. …Grasshopper-supporter, and West Bromwich Albion fan, for the opportunity to be in Swiss cyberspace.
