Switzerland revealed great discrepancy, likely leading to new reformation of the championship – teams, unable to compete at top level, but also teams too weak to make sense in the second level. FC Rüti Zürich ended with only 5 points there. FC Ibach finished with 13 points. FC Bern, 14th, had 21. The extremely weak bottom was not compensated by few strong teams at the top – in fact, there was a single leader, dominating the championship and two teams kind of fought for second place. The rest was far behind.
FC La Chaux-de-Fonds won easily with 48 points.
FC Chiasso trailed behind with 43 points, building 3 points difference with their only rival, CS Chenois. So, these two teams were promoted. Both played First Division before, but their new return was hardly an optimistic point – the top league displayed big weaknesses.
Winterthur earned only 10 points this season, naturally finishing last. Above them was the other outsider with 12 points – FC Bulle. With teams taking the relegation spots firmly, the rest of the league was at least comfortable, if not competitive: FC Aarau was 14th, but hardly in real danger during the season – they were good enough for 20 points.
Vevey-Sports was 12th with 22 points. For them, it may have been a good season – just staying in the league, which did not happened often, was great. Otherwise it was worrisome: 5 teams, in safety just above relegation zone, hardly displayed any class.
Of this insignificant group the performance of FC Basel was actually alarming – traditionally one of the strongest Swiss clubs now was reduced to shambles, ending 11th with 25 points. Compared to them Young Boys appeared somewhat going up after years of shaky play.
Third row form left: Heinz Reinhard (superintendant), Jürg Arm, Michael Wagner, Mario Signer, Francois Mollard, Manfred Schmied, Charly Zwygart, Fredi Häner (Masseur)
Middle row: Walter Eichenberger, Franz Peterhans, Martin Weber, Bert Theunissen (Trainer), Bernard Brodard, Jörg Schmidlin, Rolf Rebholz.
Sitting: René Müller, Maurizio Jacobacci, Jean-Marie Conz, Roland Schönenberger, Marco Zbinden, Kurt Feuz, Bruno Buchli.
9th place with 30 points – solid mid-table. Nice… except that 7 teams could be described as ‘solid mid-table’ teams this year and none was able to come even close to the the favourites. Including the best of this group, which finished 3rd .
FC Luzern was 8th with 31 points.
FC Sion – 7th with 35 points.
Lausanne-Sports – 5th with 37 points.
St. Gallen was more than happy, winning bronze medals this season. Third row from left: Helmuth Johannes (Trainer), Gerhard Ritter, Christian Gross, Georg Rudics, Jerzy Gorgon, Beat Rietmann, Hanspeter Wirth (Trainer-Assistent).
Middle row: Manfred Braschler, Armin Bischofberger, Zdenek Urban, Modesto Haas, Peter Germann, Angelo Amonini, Renato Hächler, Cäsar Widmer (Masseur).
Sitting: Vladimir Yakovliek, Martin Gisinger, Bruno Hafner, Metin Stengör, Bruno Huwiler, Paul Friberg, Martin Frei.
Great season for a rarely finishing that high, but often playing in the lower division, but let not make mistake about it: not for a second they challenged the favourites. St. Gallen was rather more stable and may be a bit luckier than few other similar clubs. Unfortunate predicament – Switzerland had tiny pool of good players. A team with one or two foreigners, playing well at the moment, would propel itself above most league members. But whoever concentrated more Swiss good players in its roster would be far above and entirely out of reach. So, Basel and FC Zurich lost their competitive edge for whatever reasons and St. Gallen took advantage. Cannot blame them, but theirs was not a team to win a title. Not now, not tomorrow. Servette (Geneve) and Grasshopper (Zurich) were miles above the other clubs, practically reducing the season to fierce battle between themselves. The clashed at the Cup final – the game ended 2-2 after overtime and had to be replayed. This time Grasshopper won 3-0.
Both teams run shoulder to shoulder in the championship and at the end Grasshopper prevailed by a point.
Servette lost twice – it was dramatic failure, for they so close to winning. However, the only team had to worry about during this year was Grasshopper – St. Gallen and the rest of the league were left far behind. At the end the gap was 8 points.
As for Grasshopper, this could have been easily their best season in history. It was not only that they had the biggest group of Swiss finest players and aging, but still inspiring Austrian Jara – Raimondo Ponte came back from his brief and not particularly great spell with Nottingham Forest, adding more class. But Ponte was not world class – the other addition was world class: the great West German coach Hennes Weisweiler. May be getting too old and a bit behind the newest trends, but still famous and revered. May be not good enough for a big German or Spanish club, but just fine for smaller fry, like Grasshopper. And he quickly tuned the team and extracted the best of generally decent squad. A double. But there was more to it – Grasshopper did not win the Swiss Cup since 1956! Imagine the joy and the relief. This squad was clearly ready to stay on top for quite some time – so let correct a mistake the Czechoslovak editors made with the name of one player: Charly In-Albon, not Albon, as written. Unusual name to be sure, but this mistake is not mere trifle – In-Albon will pop up frequently as member of this strong squad, as Swiss national team member, finally – and more recently – as a good and respected coach.
Alloa Athletic was typical example – they finished 6th with 39 points. Not bad at all for a newcomer from Division 2, but otherwise nothing special. Local pride, at best.
