2011–12 Swiss Challenge League

The 2011–12 Swiss Challenge League was the ninth season of the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league pyramid. It began on 22 July 2011[1] and ended on 23 May 2012. The champions of this season, St. Gallen, earned promotion to the 2012–13 Super League. The runners-up Aarau lost the promotion/relegation playoff against the 9th-placed team of the 2011–12 Super League, FC Sion. The bottom five teams, Stade Nyonnais, Étoile Carouge, Delémont, Kriens and Brühl were all relegated to partly form the newly created 1. Liga Promotion.

Swiss Challenge League
Season2011–12
ChampionsSt. Gallen
PromotedSt. Gallen
RelegatedStade Nyonnais
Étoile Carouge
Delémont
Kriens
Brühl
Matches played240
Goals scored713 (2.97 per match)
Top goalscorerArmando Sadiku (19)
Biggest home winAarau 7–0 Biel-Bienne
Biggest away winBrühl 0–6 Locarno
Highest scoringKriens 7–1 Brühl / Biel-Bienne 3–5 Vaduz

Teams

edit

2010–11 Challenge League champions FC Lausanne-Sport were promoted to the 2011–12 Super League. They were replaced by St. Gallen, who were relegated after finishing the 2010–11 Super League in last place. 2010–11 Challenge League runners-up Servette had to compete in a promotion/relegation playoff against 9th-placed Super League team AC Bellinzona and were promoted (hence exchanging leagues) after winning 3–2 on aggregate.

FC Schaffhausen as 15th-placed team and last-placed Yverdon-Sport FC were relegated after the 2010–11 season. They were replaced by SC Brühl and Étoile Carouge FC, who were promoted from 1. Liga.

Club City Stadium 2010–11 season
FC Aarau Aarau Stadion Brügglifeld 11th in Challenge League
AC Bellinzona Bellinzona, Ticino Stadio Comunale 9th in Super League
FC Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne, Bern Gurzelen Stadion 9th in Challenge League
SC Brühl St. Gallen St. Gallen, St. Gallen Paul-Grüninger-Stadion 2010–11 1. Liga play-off winners
FC Chiasso Chiasso, Ticino Stadio Comunale 7th in Challenge League
SR Delémont Delémont, Jura La Blancherie 8th in Challenge League
Étoile Carouge FC Carouge, Geneva Stade de la Fontenette 2010–11 1. Liga play-off winners
SC Kriens Kriens, Lucerne Stadion Kleinfeld 12th in Challenge League
FC Locarno Locarno, Ticino Stadio del Lido 14th in Challenge League
FC Lugano Lugano, Ticino Cornaredo Stadium 3rd in Challenge League
FC St. Gallen St. Gallen, St. Gallen AFG Arena 10th in Super League
FC Stade Nyonnais Nyon, Vaud Centre sportif de Colovray Nyon 6th in Challenge League
FC Vaduz Vaduz, Liechtenstein Rheinpark Stadion 4th in Challenge League
FC Wil 1900 Wil, St. Gallen Stadion Bergholz 5th in Challenge League
FC Winterthur Winterthur, Zürich Stadion Schützenwiese 13th in Challenge League
FC Wohlen Wohlen, Aargau Stadion Niedermatten 10th in Challenge League

League table

edit
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 St. Gallen (C, P) 30 19 7 4 67 31 +36 64 Promoted to 2012–13 Swiss Super League
2 Aarau 30 18 5 7 64 34 +30 59 Qualification for Promotion play-off
3 Bellinzona 30 18 5 7 49 21 +28 59
4 Winterthur 30 15 8 7 44 29 +15 53
5 Lugano 30 14 7 9 44 38 +6 49
6 Wil 30 12 10 8 59 41 +18 46
7 Chiasso 30 11 12 7 34 23 +11 45
8 Vaduz 30 13 6 11 54 45 +9 45
9 Locarno 30 12 9 9 47 44 +3 45
10 Biel-Bienne 30 12 7 11 55 54 +1 43
11 Wohlen 30 9 9 12 39 44 −5 36
12 Stade Nyonnais (R) 30 8 10 12 41 49 −8 34 Relegation to 2012–13 1. Liga Promotion
13 Étoile Carouge (R) 30 8 6 16 25 56 −31 30
14 Delémont (R) 30 4 8 18 24 60 −36 20
15 Kriens (R) 30 4 5 21 37 66 −29 17
16 Brühl (R) 30 4 4 22 30 78 −48 16
Source: [1]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Results

edit

Teams played each other twice over the course of the season, home and away, for a total of 30 matches per team.

Home \ Away AAR BEL BB BRU CHI DEL EC KRI LOC LUG STG SN VAD WIL WIN WOH
Aarau 2–3 1–3 1–0 1–4 5–0 7–0 3–1 4–1 1–0 2–2 2–1 2–1 1–2 2–1 2–0
Bellinzona 0–1 5–2 3–1 0–0 1–2 2–0 1–0 2–0 3–1 0–1 2–0 2–1 0–1 2–0 5–0
Biel-Bienne 0–3 0–0 3–0 2–1 4–1 0–0 4–1 1–1 1–2 3–2 0–2 3–5 0–4 1–2 0–0
Brühl 0–3 1–4 1–4 0–2 1–1 1–2 2–0 0–6 3–4 1–3 3–1 2–3 1–1 0–5 3–2
Chiasso 0–0 1–0 2–4 3–0 4–0 0–1 2–1 0–1 1–1 1–1 1–0 3–0 2–1 1–2 1–0
Delémont 2–2 1–3 1–2 3–0 0–0 0–1 1–1 2–1 0–1 0–2 2–2 1–1 4–0 0–1 0–1
Étoile Carouge 0–2 1–3 3–2 0–2 2–1 2–0 2–1 1–5 3–0 1–5 0–1 0–4 1–1 0–2 1–3
Kriens 0–2 0–1 2–4 7–1 1–1 2–0 1–1 2–3 2–2 0–2 3–4 0–3 1–4 0–2 4–1
Locarno 1–1 0–3 2–0 2–1 1–1 3–0 3–0 1–3 1–1 0–2 2–2 2–1 2–1 1–1 2–0
Lugano 3–1 2–0 1–3 3–1 1–1 3–1 2–0 2–0 1–1 3–1 2–1 2–0 0–3 1–2 0–2
St. Gallen 1–2 1–1 4–1 3–1 0–1 6–0 2–1 3–2 5–0 1–0 2–2 4–2 3–2 1–1 0–0
Stade Nyonnais 2–2 1–2 0–0 2–2 0–0 1–0 1–1 3–0 1–1 3–2 0–3 1–0 2–2 0–2 0–1
Vaduz 3–2 0–0 3–3 1–0 1–0 3–0 3–1 3–0 2–0 1–1 1–2 3–4 3–2 2–2 1–1
Wil 3–2 1–1 1–2 3–0 1–1 6–1 2–0 1–1 1–2 1–1 2–2 3–1 1–2 1–1 2–1
Winterthur 1–2 1–0 2–1 2–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 4–1 0–0 1–2 0–1 2–1 2–0 1–4 1–2
Wohlen 1–3 0–1 2–2 1–1 1–1 1–1 0–0 3–0 5–2 0–1 1–2 4–2 2–1 2–2 2–3
Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

edit

The ninth-placed team in the 2011–12 Swiss Super League, Sion, played a two-legged play-off against the Challenge League runners-up, Aarau, for a spot in the 2012–13 Super League.

Sion2–0Aarau
Winter   58', 81' Report
Attendance: 10,800
Aarau1–0Sion
Gashi   55' Report
Attendance: 8,800
Referee: Patrick Graf

Sion won 2–1 on aggregate.

Top scorers

edit
Rank Player Club Goals
1   Armando Sadiku Locarno 19
2   Shkëlzen Gashi Aarau 17
  Moreno Merenda Vaduz 17
  Igor Tadić Kriens 17
5   Adis Jahović Wil 16
6   Ezequiel Scarione St. Gallen 15
7   Alessandro Ciarrocchi Bellinzona 14
  Odirlei de Souza Gaspar Wohlen 14
  Giuseppe Morello Biel-Bienne 14
10   Džengis Čavušević Wil 13
11   Frédéric Besseyre Stade Nyonnais 11
  Remo Staubli Aarau 11
13   Franck Etoundi St. Gallen 10
  Gastón Magnetti Bellinzona 10
  Marco Mathys St. Gallen 10

References

edit
  1. ^ "Challenge League – Results and fixtures". Soccerway. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
edit