First Division – final stage. The top 8 teams in the first stage of First Division started the final stage with half of the points earned in the opening stage – the usual problem with complicated championship formulas: the first stage hardly meant anything else than qualifying to the final. So, a strong enough team could play just enough to end among the top 8, preserving its real strength for later. A team spending its best in the first stage got nothing later… and there were also teams concerned only with avoiding the risk of relegation: playing as best as they could to end among the top 8 and than only going through the motions in the final round. To considerable degree, that was the Swiss case in the 1989-90 season.
FC Sion was 5th in the opening stage with 23 points, but cared little for the final stage and finished last with total 19 points (7+12 from the opening stage). They won just one match.
BSC Young Boys ended 8th in the opening stage with 21 points – better goal-difference elbowed Servette to the promotion/relegation group. Escaping the big danger of relegation, Young Boys took it easy in the final stage and finished 7th with 21 points (10 + 11 from the opening stage). Rather curious to see Swedish stars Anders Limpar, Roger Ljung, and Bjorn Nillson in such lowly position, but they were the best Young Boys had at the moment – the Swiss players were not at that level.
AC Lugano was perhaps the prime example of clubs only trying to reach the safety of the final stage: they were 7th in the opening stage and 6th in the final with 23 points (12 +11 from the opening stage). No well-known players here, quite a pedestrian squad perhaps playing overachievening a bit, at least in the opening stage of the season.
FC St. Gallen – 5th with 27 points (14 of them from the opening stage). A show-case of the danger of spending most of their strength early. They won the opening stage, but in the final stage were easily left behind by fresher squads, stepping at the pedals at the right moment. Ivan Zamorano was no longer great help and not because he was weak – it was generally weaker squad, now tired and inevitably dropping out.
FC Luzern – 4th at the end with 28 points. Even season – they were 4th with 24 points in the opening stage, apparently not able to go higher, but not going down either.
Xamax took 3rd place with 30 points. There were 2nd in the opening stage 27 points and although managed to play well in the final stage, seemingly, they spent most of their strength too early. Not quite up to really fight for the title – may be a little was missing, but this little was decisively missing.
Lausanne-Sport – well, they clearly preserved their strength for the final, finishing 6th with 22 points in the opening stage. But formidable they were in the final stage – starting with 11 points, they added 20! Lost only one match. Allowed just 9 goals in 14 games in their net. The strongest team in the final stage – and they had the squad for such performance – but were unlucky at the end. They lost dramatically the title – not on points, not on goal-difference, but only on head-to-head record. Tough luck – or lack of it. To a point, their season served as example of the risks teams were taking with preserving strength for the final stage in complicated championship formulas: if Lausanne-Sport got 1 more point in the opening stage, the title would have been theirs. But they played just enough to qualify to the final stage in the fall of 1989 – and paid the price for it.
Grasshoper clinched the title – like Lausanne-Sport, they finished with 31 points, but very different record: they won 9 games in the final stage and lost 5. They score more goals than Lausanne-Sport and received more too, ending with 28-15 – Lausanne finished with 23-9, which gave them +14 goal-difference to Grasshoper’s +13. Like Lausannne-Sport, Grasshopper preserved strength in the opening stage, but they finished 3rd in it with 25 points – better than Lausanne-Sport, so they started with 13 points the final stage and that was their luck in the long run: Laussane-Sport had wonderful final stage and was clearly the strongest team, but they started with 2 points less than Grasshopper and that was their undoing at the end. Plus the fact that Grasshopper prevailed in the head-to-head clash – at the end the rivals ended with 31 points each and Lausanne-Sport had better goal—difference, but the decisive factor was head-to-head record and Grasshopper came on top and won the championship.
For a good measure Grasshopper won the Swiss Cup as well – again, minimally: they prevailed 2-1 over Xamax. Hardly the most inspiring and memorable victories – rather a matter of ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ mixed with good luck, but the at the end Grasshopper won a double and very impressive totals: 21st title (and their first after 1983-84), 17th Cup (third consecutive Cup), 8th double. Very impressive numbers, yet… it looks like this squad did not leave great memory. As if fans and club historians recognize lucky season and not a great squad.