FC Luzern

Full name

Fussball-Club Luzern

Nickname(s)

Die Leuchten (The Luminaries)

Founded

12 August 1901; 114 years ago

Ground

Swissporarena, Lucerne

Capacity

17,000

Chairman

Rudolf Stäger

Manager

Markus Babbel

League

Swiss Super League

2015–16

Swiss Super League, 3rd

Website

Club home page

Home colours

Away colours

Fussball-Club Luzern, commonly known as FC Luzern (German pronunciation: [ɛf ˈt͡seː luˈtsɛrn]), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne. It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, and has won the national title once and the national cup twice.^[1]^[2]

The club colours are blue and white, derived from the City of Lucerne and Canton of Lucerne coats of arms. The club plays its home games at Swissporarena which was newly built in 2011 at the place of the old Stadion Allmend.^[3]

FC Luzern was founded in 1901. It has non-professional departments for women's football, volleyball, boccia and gymnastics.^[4]

History

Chart of table positions of FC Luzern in the Swiss Football league system

FC Luzern was officially founded on 12 August 1901 in Lucerne. After two years, FCL joined the Swiss Football League and started its first championship season in the third division. In the following years, FC Luzern was playing in various leagues. After the introduction of a new league system in 1944 (consisting of Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B as the two top tiers) FCL was allotted into Nationalliga B. The club remained in the second division until it was promoted in 1953. In the following years, FCL mainly played in the Nationalliga A. In 2003, after several seasons with financial and sporting troubles, the club was relegated to the renamed Challenge League, the former Nationalliga B. In 2006, after three seasons in the second division, FC Luzern celebrated its return into the top division (Super League) of Swiss football. In 2012 the club finished second in the Super League, securing its best league finish in 23 years.

FC Luzern's greatest success was winning the Swiss Championship in 1989. FCL have also won the Swiss Cup twice (1960 and 1992) and finished runners-up four times (1997, 2005, 2007, 2012).

With a total of 17 'moves', FC Luzern has the highest number of promotions and relegations to and from the national first tier since the establishment of a single nationwide top division in 1933.^[5]

Promotions	Relegations
9x (1936, 1953, 1958, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1993, 2006)	8x (1944, 1955, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1992, 2003)

Fans and rivalries

Although the club has only won three important national trophies, FC Luzern is one of the traditional football clubs in the country with a strong local supporter base. The club draws its support predominantly from Central Switzerland, leading the number of sold season tickets in the cantons of Lucerne, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Uri, Zug as well as in some parts of Aargau and Schwyz.^[6] Since moving to the new stadium in 2011, FCL has always ranked within the top four in terms of average attendance in the Swiss Super League with an average crowd of 11,000 to 14,000.^[7]

The local derby is played with SC Kriens, whose stadium is located less than one kilometer from FC Luzern's facilities at Allmend. Due to the restructuring of the Swiss football league system in the past years, the two clubs are currently separated by two leagues and have not played each other in an official contest since 2006.

Although there are no traditional and deep rooted rivalries, periods of intensified sporting competition have sparked rivalries between FC Luzern and FC Basel in the mid-90s and with FC Sion in the mid-2000s. A majority of the fans, particularly Ultra groups, view FC St. Gallen as a major rival. Matches with FC Aarau are also by many considered as a local derby.

Stadium

Between 1934 and 2009, the club played its home games at the Stadion Allmend, which had a theoretical capacity of 25,000. For security reasons however, the Swiss Football Association did not allow more than 13,000 to attend in the final year of its existence in 2009. Until a new stadium was completed in 2011, FC Luzern temporarily played its home games in the Gersag Stadion located in Emmenbrücke.

In August 2011, the club moved into the newly built Swissporarena which is located at the place of the old ground. The opening game ended with a 0–0 draw against FC Thun.

Honours

Swiss Super League
- Winners: 1988–89
Swiss Cup
- Winners: 1959–1960, 1991–1992
- Runners Up: 1996–1997, 2004–2005, 2006–2007, 2011–2012
Promotion to the top tier
- 1936, 1953, 1958, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1993, 2006

The greatest success in the club's history was winning the championship in 1989 under the management of German head coach Friedel Rausch. Furthermore, the club played in six Swiss Cup finals, winning two by beating FC Grenchen 1–0 in 1960 and FC Lugano 3–1 (aet) in 1992. Most recently however, the club lost four finals in a row: In 1997 against FC Sion (4–5 pen), in 2005 against FC Zurich (1–3), and twice against FC Basel in 2007 (0–1) and 2012 (2–4 pen). Reaching the cup final in 2005 as a second-tier club, the promotion back to the Super League in 2006 and the achievement of reaching the cup finals again in 2007 and 2012 rank as the club's most recent successes.^[8]

All-time league table

FC Luzern is currently ranked 10th in the all-time league table.^[9]

European appearances

Season	Competition	Round	Club	1st leg	2nd leg	Aggregate
1960–61	European Cup Winners' Cup	QF	ACF Fiorentina	0–3	2–6	2–9
1986–87	UEFA Cup	1R	FC Spartak Moscow	0–0	0–1	0–1
1989–90	European Cup	1R	PSV Eindhoven	0–3	0–2	0–5
1990–91	UEFA Cup	1R	MTK Budapest	1–1	2–1	3–2
1990–91	UEFA Cup	2R	VfB Admira Wacker Mödling	0–1	1–1	1–2
1992–93	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	PFC Levski Sofia	1–2	1–0	2–2
1992–93	European Cup Winners' Cup	2R	Feyenoord	1–0	1–4	2–4
1997–98	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Slavia Prague	2–4	0–2	2–6
2010–11	UEFA Europa League	3Q	FC Utrecht	0–1	1–3	1–4
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	PO	KRC Genk	2–1	0–2	2–3
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	2Q	St Johnstone	1–1	1–1(aet)	2–2(4–5 p.)
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	3Q	Sassuolo	1–1	0–3	1–4

Source:^[10]

Recent seasons

As of 21 November 2016.

The season-by-season performance of the club over the last eight years:^[11]

Season	Rank	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Cup	EL
2006–07	8	36	8	9	19	31	58	−27	33	2 !Runner-up	8 !—
2007–08	6	36	10	14	12	40	49	−9	44	5 !R16	8 !-
2008–09	9^*	36	9	8	19	45	62	−17	35	3 !SF	8 !—
2009–10	4	36	17	7	12	66	55	+11	58	4 !QF	9 !—
2010–11	6	36	13	9	14	62	57	+5	48	5 !R16	1 !3Q
2011–12	2	36	14	12	8	46	32	+14	54	2 !Runner-up	9 !—
2012–13	8	36	10	12	14	41	52	−11	42	7 !1R	2 !PO
2013–14	4	36	15	6	15	48	54	−6	51	3 !SF	8 !—
2014–15	5	36	12	11	13	54	46	+8	47	5 !R16	3 !2Q
2015–16	3	36	15	9	12	59	50	+9	54	5 !SF	9 !-

Rank = Rank in the Swiss Super League; P = Played; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points; Cup = Swiss Cup; EL = UEFA Europa League.
in = Still in competition; — = Not attended; 1R = 1st round; 2R = 2nd round; R16 = Round of sixteen; QF = Quarterfinals; SF = Semifinals; 2Q = 2nd qualifying round; 3Q = 3rd qualifying round; PO = play-off round.
^*Avoided relegation by beating FC Lugano 5 – 1 on aggregate in the relegation play-offs.

Current squad

First team squad

As of 1 September 2016 ^[12]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	David Zibung
6	MF	Remo Arnold
7	DF	Claudio Lustenberger
8	MF	Jahmir Hyka
9	FW	Tomi Juric
13	DF	Tomislav Puljić
14	DF	Jérôme Thiesson
15	FW	Marco Schneuwly
16	DF	François Affolter
17	DF	Simon Grether
19	MF	Christian Schneuwly
20	DF	Ricardo Costa
21	GK	Jonas Omlin

No.	Position	Player
22	GK	Simon Enzler
23	DF	Sally Sarr
30	FW	Cedric Itten (on loan from Basel)
31	MF	Hekuran Kryeziu
32	MF	Nicolas Haas
33	DF	Stefan Knezevic
34	DF	Silvan Sidler
36	MF	Cendrim Kameraj
37	MF	João Oliveira
39	MF	Dario Ulrich
68	MF	Francisco Rodríguez (on loan from VfL Wolfsburg)
77	MF	Markus Neumayr

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.		Position	Player
		FW	Luka Sliskovic (at FC Winterthur until 30 June 2017)
		DF	Yannick Schmid (at FC Wohlen until 30 June 2017)

Source:^[13]

Personnel

As of 21 March 2016.

Current technical staff

Name	Function
Markus Babbel	Head coach
Patrick Rahmen	Assistant coach
Daniel Böbner	Goalkeeper coach
Christian Schmidt	Fitness coach
Norbert Fischer	Fitness coach
vacant	Director of football
Remo Gaugler	Chief scout
Dante Carecci	Team manager

Source:^[14]

Head coaches since 2006

No.	Coach	from	until	days	Points per game
1	Sforza, Ciriaco !Ciriaco Sforza	1 July 2006	10 August 2008	771	1.15
2	Gross, Jean-Daniel !Jean-Daniel Gross (interim)	11 August 2008	17 August 2008	6	-
3	Morinini, Roberto !Roberto Morinini	17 August 2008	27 October 2008	71	0.88
4	Fringer, Rolf !Rolf Fringer	27 October 2008	2 Mai 2011	917	1.51
5	Brand, Christian !Christian Brand (interim)	2 May 2011	30 June 2011	59	0.80
6	Yakin, Murat !Murat Yakin	1 July 2011	19 August 2012	415	1.57
7	Komornicki, Ryszard !Ryszard Komornicki	20 August 2012	2 April 2013	225	1.00
8	Seoane, Gerardo !Gerardo Seoane (interim)	4 April 2013	8 April 2013	4	-
9	Bernegger, Carlos !Carlos Bernegger	8 April 2013	6 October 2014	546	1.44
10	Babbel, Markus !Markus Babbel	13 October 2014	-	-	1.62^*

^* By the end of the 2014/15 Season

Head coaches until 2006

Dionys Schönecker (1921–24)
Franz Konya (July 1927 – Dec 29)
Otto Hamacek (Feb 1929 – June 29)
Albert Halter & Albert Mühleisen (1929)
Karoly "Dragan" Nemes (1930 – Sept 31)
Horace Williams (Oct 1931–33)
Josef Gerspach (1933–34)
Karl Heinlein (1934 – Nov 35)
Adolf Vögeli (Nov 1935–37)
Josef Uridil (1937–38)
Robert Lang (1938)
Erwin Moser (1938–39)
Wilhelm Szigmond (1939)
Josef Winkler (May 1942–45)
Gerhard Walter (Feb 1945 – May 46)
Werner Schaer (1946–49)
Fritz Hack (1949–51)

Hermann Stennull (1951–55)
Rudi Gutendorf (1955 – Aug 61)
Josef Brun & Josef Weber (Sept 1961–62)
Franz Linken (April 1962–64)
Ernst Wechselberger (1964–69)
Juan Schwanner (1970 – Oct 70)
Werner Schley & Josef Brun (Oct 1970–71)
Robert Meyer (1971 – Sept 71)
Egon Milder & Josef Vogel (Sept 1971 – Oct 71)
Josef Brun (Oct 1971 – Nov 71)
Albert Sing (Oct 31, 1971 – June 30, 1974)
Ilijas Pašić (1974 – April 75)
Paul Wolfisberg & Josef Vogel (April 1975–75)
Otto Luttrop (1975–76)
René Hüssy (1976)
Albert Sing (Dec 31, 1976 – June 30, 1978)
Paul Wolfisberg & Josef Vogel (July 1978 – June 82)

Milan Nikolić (1982–83)
Bruno Rahmen (1983–85)
Friedel Rausch (March 28, 1985 – June 30, 1992)
Bertalan Bicskei (July 1992 – Dec 93)
Timo Konietzka (Dec 1993 – June 94)
Jean-Paul Brigger (July 1, 1994 – March 10, 1997)
Kurt Müller (March 1997 – Oct 97)
Martin Müller (Nov 1997 – Sept 98)
Egon Coordes (Sept 27, 1998 – Nov 1, 1998)
André "Bigi" Meyer (Nov 1998 – Dec 98)
Andy Egli (Jan 1, 1999 – June 30, 2001)
Ryszard Komornicki (July 1, 2001 – July 28, 2001)
Raimondo Ponte (Aug 3, 2001 – June 30, 2002)
Bidu Zaugg (July 1, 2002 – June 30, 2003)
Urs Schönenberger (July 1, 2003 – Nov 1, 2003)
René van Eck (July 1, 2003 – June 30, 2006)

Source:^[15]

Current board

Investor group
Name	Function
Philipp Studhalter	President
Josef Bieri	Vice-president
Bernhard Alpstäg	Board member
Samih Sawiris	Board member
Hans Schmid	Board member
Marco Sieber	Board member

Executive board
Name	Function
Rudolf Stäger	President
vacant	Executive board member (Sport)
Reto Mattmann	Executive board member (Stadium)
Thomas Ulrich	Executive board member (Marketing)
Sandro Wyss	Executive board member (Finance)

Source:^[16]

References

↑ "Die Meister in 83 Jahren National-Liga" (in German). Swiss Football League. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "Würth Schweizer Cup – Bisherige Cupsieger" (in German). Swiss Football Association. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "Swissporarena – Fakten & Zahlen" (in German). swissporarena events ag. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "FC Luzern – Sektionen" (in German). FC Luzern-Innerschweiz AG. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ Stokkermans, Karel. "Up and down!". The RSSSF Archive. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
↑ "Die Hochburgen des Schweizer Fussballs" (in German). Tamedia AG. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "Zuschauerzahlen Super League 2003 – 2014" (in German). Swiss Football League. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ van Haren, Hans. "Switzerland – List of final tables". The RSSSF Archive – Domestic League History. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ Kaufmann, Roger. "Switzerland 1st Level All-Time Table". The RSSSF Archive – Domestic League History. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "FC Luzern – History". Uefa. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ van Haren, Hans. "Switzerland – List of final tables". The RSSSF Archive – Domestic League History. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ https://www.fcl.ch/dynasite.cfm?dsmid=503912&allrecords=true&skipfurl=1
↑ "FC Luzern – 1. Mannschaft – Spieler" (in German). FC Luzern-Innerschweiz AG. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "FC Luzern – 1. Mannschaft – Staff" (in German). FC Luzern-Innerschweiz AG. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "FC Luzern – Trainerhistorie" (in German). e-quadrat communications gmbh. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
↑ "FC Luzern – Organisation – Menschen" (in German). FC Luzern-Innerschweiz AG. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

External links

FC Luzern official website (German)

Swiss Super League

2016–17 teams	Basel Grasshopper Lausanne-Sport Lugano Luzern Sion St. Gallen Thun Vaduz Young Boys

Former teams	Aarau Bellinzona Neuchâtel Xamax Schaffhausen Servette Wil Yverdon-Sport Zürich

Associated competitions	Swiss Cup Swiss Challenge League

Seasons	2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Seasons of the Swiss Football League

Serie A era, 1897–1931

Seasons	1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31

Nationalliga era, 1931–1944

Seasons	1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44

Nationalliga A era, 1944–2003

Seasons	1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03

Super League era, 2003–present

Seasons	2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

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