In the final round, AC Bellinzona also secured a sporting promotion for the Challenge League. But the promotion race is a farce because the Swiss Football League has not licensed anyone else in the Promotion League. Not even FC Breitenrain, who is writing a little football fairy tale.
Football games as family celebrations: FC Breitenrain celebrates the 1-1 draw against Bellinzona in mid-May.
Footballer Marko Basic, 34, was a GC promise a few years ago. Serious injuries stopped him. Basic on the lawn is still the calm itself.
He now plays for AC Bellinzona in the Promotion League, in the third division of Swiss club football. Basic is now promoted to the Challenge League. On Pentecost Saturday, Bellinzona (2-1 win in Nyon) dethroned the month-long leaders FC Breitenrain (2-3 defeat at FC Zürich II) in the final round.
It’s a gift of advancement. But more on that later.
The Bellinzona coach is called Marco Schällibaum. When the Tessiners fought for points in the promotion race for the Challenge League in Bern’s Breitenrain district in May, Schällibaum’s face was red as always. He remains a firehead. There was even a brief tumult in front of the players’ bench.
2500 spectators wanted to see Bellinzona and Schällibaum on the Spitalacker sports field of FC Breitenrain. The district club dominated the Promotion League until almost the very end. He writes a football fairy tale based on Swiss club football. With the trainer Martin Lengen, the former YB player; a team that has grown together, a city district, a wooden grandstand, a mini stadium, a cafe, wooden boards. And an artificial turf that doesn’t quite fit the atmosphere, but gives the team advantages.
Swiss television also reports
Even the Swiss television reported about the wondrous FC Breitenrain. All together. Before everyone else. Until almost the very end. That works if everything is right.
The game against Bellinzona was a highlight. Breitenrain equalized to 1:1 in stoppage time. The mood in the stadium spilled over. Schällibaum trudged away.
But from Ticino optics everything is not so bad. It was already clear at that point that a competition was being feigned that was not a competition at all. Only Bellinzona can rise because only Bellinzona gets the license for the Challenge League. The competition has to do without because the league’s license requirements are too strict for them. With three laps to go, the fear became a fact. The energy levels off.
Previously, Breitenrain had tried to artificially keep hopes of promotion alive, but it is clear to many that this would rip the heart out of the local club. His stadium is owned by the city of Bern and is not modern enough for the Challenge League. Only the light would have to be strengthened. That costs a lot, too much. In addition, some apartments adjacent to the Spitalacker sports field would be brightly lit for football games in the future. There are also security issues. The requirements are strict. Too strict?
Breiterain has to forget the Challenge League. The club has already had the most absurd legal disputes with the residents about decibel levels. At best, the transfer to the nearby Wankdorf Stadium would be possible. But there the football family would lose itself. It draws strength from emotional closeness, not from size. FC Breitenrain games are also family and children’s festivals.
FC Breitenrain is not alone with the one way or another denied promotion. The aspirants Nyon and Chiasso also do not receive a license for the Challenge League from the Swiss Football League.
Without a license, the (ascension) energy escapes
That leaves AC Bellinzona. She receives the license in the second instance. Maybe someone turned a blind eye so at least someone can climb up. After all, in the end, the Ticino were just promoted in terms of sport. Elsewhere the (ascension) energy escaped.
According to Adam Riese, this means that only one club can currently be admitted to the Challenge League. That is not much. The Challenge League will lose two clubs next season as the top division expands from 10 to 12 teams in 2023/24.
This is possible because Lausanne, Aarau, Xamax, Schaffhausen and Thun would like to be at the top. Only: At the same time, the Challenge League, which has been decimated by two clubs, is running out of clubs. Nobody can move up from the Promotion League, nothing works without a license. After the Swiss Football League decided to expand the Super League, not everyone forgot the Challenge League. “Maybe we have to relax the conditions for the Challenge League,” said Claudius Schäfer, the league’s CEO.
Something doesn’t work there. Which doesn’t change the fact that Basic and Schällibaum have risen. And that FC Breitenrain is the Leicester City of the Swiss Promotion League. Only without coronation. Leicester City became English champions in 2016 as an underdog.
