Switzerland – ranked 16th. There was new formula coming next season: the top league was going to be smaller, 12 teams instead of 16. Because of that, there was no direct promotion from Second Division, but promotion/relegation play-offs involving 8 teams – the top 4 in the Second Division and those taking 11-14th places in the top league. The last 2 teams were directly relegated.
FC Grenchen won the Second Division with 47 points, followed by FC Lugano with 42 points, FC Bulle – 3rd with 42 points, and ES Malley – 4th with 37 points.
Relatively unknown clubs on top, but as a whole the second level was made of similar clubs.
FC Winterthur was pretty much the best known club playing in the Second Division now and they were doing poorly: 10th with 25 points. Top row from left: Viktor Frank (President), Siegfried Thus, Rolf Müller, Vladimir Jakovljev, Ulrich Tschanz, Ernst Rief (Masseur).
Middle row: Hans Kodric (Coach), Roland Klein, Bruno Graf, Ota Danek, Marcel Rapp, Sepp Roth, Norbert Schneider, Dr. Bruno Peter (Arzt).
Sitting: Markus Schneider, Urs Egli, Wolfgang Vöge, André von Niederhäusern, Armin Bischofberger, Daniel Bernauer, Thomas Unseld.
Pretty much the reasons for reorganization of the championship was shown this way: smallish clubs in the second level and and not enough competitive teams in the top league. Anyhow, the top 4 went to the promotion/relegation play-offs, where they played against FC Wettingen, 14th with 19 points, FC Vevey-sports – 13th with 20 points, FC Basel – 12th with 24 points, and FC Aarau – 11th with 26 points.
The last two in the First Division went directly down: FC La Chaux-de-Fonds – 16th with 6 points and FC Locarno – 15th with 19 points. FC La Chaux-de-Fonds was another example of the need for change: they won only 1 match this season.
The 8 teams in the play-offs were combined by their final positions in the leagues in 2-legged direct eliminations. Only one of the second level teams went ahead in the first round – FC Lugano eliminated FC Vevey-sports 1-1 and 1-0. FC Bulle was pretty close to making a big sensation, but at the end FC Basel prevailed in penalty shoot-out – both legs ended 2-2. FC Aarau had no problem against ES Malley – 3-1 and 6-0, and FC Wettingen was without problems as well against FC Grenchen – 4-0 and 0-0. But the great supremacy of the top league clubs was mots evident in the final round: FC Basel destroyed FC Wettingen 7-0 and 1-2, and FC Aarau did the same to FC Lugano – 5-0 and 0-1.
Very poor season for FC Basel – 12th in the championship and almost eliminated in the first round of the promotion/relegation play-offs, but at the end – relief.
FC Aarau was slightly better than Basel in the regular season – 11th – but had no troubles in the promotion/relegation stage.
So, the best-placed top league clubs secured positions in the new reduced league of 1987-88.
BSC Young Boys (Bern) avoided the risk of relegation – 10th with 28 points.
AC Bellinzona – 9th with 31 points.
Lausanne Sports – 8th with 32 points.
FC St. Gallen – 7th with 34 points.
FC Zurich – 6th with 36 points.
FC Luzern – 5th with 36 points.
Servette (Geneve) – 4th with 36 points. Top row from left: Cacciapalia, Schnyder, Hasler, Bianchi, Genghini, Geiger
Middle row: Buri, Sinval, Kok, Guillou, Besnard, Favre, Trinchero
Sitting: Decastel, Erikson, Burgener, Mutter, Pavoni, Castella.
Not a bad squad on the surface. Yet, also an illustration of the need for reorganization – if one aging star (Genghini) is enough to keep a team at the top of the league, then the general level is quite low…
FC Sion – 3rd with 42 points. Great season for this club, usually well behind the best known clubs of the country.
Grasshopper (Zurich) – 2nd with 43 points. They managed to get ahead of FC Sion, but were not real runners for the title.
Thus, new and somewhat surprise winner – Xamax (Neuchatel). They won 21 games, tied 6, lost just 3. Scored 75 goals, allowed 27. 48 points at the end – 5 more than Grasshopper’s. The strong and confident season was not coming out of the blue – Xamax were having good period – but such a domination was surprising mostly in terms of the weakness of traditional leaders of Swiss football – Grasshopper, Zurich, Basel, Servette. Nevertheless, it was historic victory – the first title for Xamax. It was a testimony of the wonderful work done by their French coach Gilbert Gress. Two great names contributed on the field: the Irish striker Don Givens, whose peak was in the mid-1970s. Now he was 38 years old, but perhaps hos influence inspired his teammates to reach the top – he joined Xamax in 1981. And in 1985 arrived Uli Stielike directly from Real Madrid. Aging too and no longer the great world-class star, but at 33 he was still the top player of the Swiss team and his influence was strongly felt. Xamax was nice team, may be not very strong, but playing with great spirit and no one-time;wonder.
Well deserved first title,
Great triumph and joy.