Switzerland

First Division Second Stage. Teams started with half the points earned in the first stage, final places in the first stage given in brackets. Five teams had more or less equal chances to win the title, which was quite exciting.
FC Luzern won the 12-team first stage with 28 points – a fragile lead by a point placed them on top and
the real battle for the title was going to begin in the final stage.
Servette FC (Geneve, 8th in the first stage) ended 8th with 21 points. Top row from left: Cacciapalia, Hasler, Bonvin, Grossenbacher, Schällibaum, Rummenigge, Eriksen
Middle row: Donzé (Trainer), Favre, Bamert, Colletti, Hertig, Epars, Burri
Sitting: Kok, Fargeon, Liniger, Kobel, Sinval, Besnard
Well, the presence of Karl-Heinz Rummenige did not help… except for the novelty of continuing the tradition of famous German players ending their carriers in Switzerland – but unlike Netzer and Stielike, Rummenige did not win in Switzerland.
AC Bellinzona (3rd in the first stage) – 7th with 21 points. A big drop from top position to the bottom – only better goal-difference placed them above Servette. May be their only aim was to secure place in the champions group, who knows… and once out of danger of possible relegation, no worry. Maybe… yet, the team – by Swiss measures – was not so bad: respected foreigners (Jacubec and Rufer) and the Swiss player bound the be the most famous player of the country in the next decade – Turkyilmaz.
Xamax (Neuchatel, 7th in the first stage) – 6th with 23 points. Could not stay strong for long…
BSC Young Boys (Bern, 6th in the first stage) – 5th with 27 points. Anders Limpar was the big star, but…
FC Wettingen (5th in the first stage) – 4th with 28 points. A success of a kind – Wettingen was more often found in the Second Division, not at the top of the First Division. Great season.
FC Sion (4th in the first stage) – 3rd with 29 points. Solid season, but the title was not up to them.
Grasshopper (Zurich, 2nd in the first stage) – 2nd with 30 points. Frankly, Grasshopper was the likeliest team to win the title – they finished a point behind Luzern in the opening stage, but with the best goal-difference and outscoring Luzern by far. But… they were shaky in the final stage, losing too many games – 5 out of 14 total.
And FC Luzern triumphed at the end with 33 points. They prevailed in the first stage with 10 wins, 8 ties and 4 losses. But their strange goal-difference – 27-25 – put great doubts of their ability to win the title. The 1-point lead was reduced to zero for the final stage: their big rivals also started the final stage with 14 points – half of 27 went to the bigger number by the rules. But Luzern persisted and Grasshopper for some reason was shaky when really mattered: Luzern won 7 games, tied 5 and lost only 2 matches in the final stage – that placed them 3-points ahead of Grasshopper at the end. The team was not scoring much – 17 goals, which put them at the bottom of scorers in the final stage (only Bellinzona scored less) and on top of it their record looked pitiful compared to Young Boys’ 36 goals, but unlike the first stage this time Luzern had best defense and better goal-difference than Grasshopper.
Surprising, but well deserved title, which also was historic: FC Luzern won the Swiss championship for the first time! And so far was unable to repeat this success, so that was the most important season of the club. What a joy!
The Cup final was the chance Grasshopper to win a trophy – FC Aarau was ambitious, but still a Second Division team… Like in the championship, Grasshopper was competing with an underdog and overwhelming favourite… unlike the championship, this time Grasshopper won – 2-1. With difficulty, but they prevailed. Thus, Grasshopper won its 16th Cup and managed to end the season with a trophy. Yet… instead of a double, only a Cup and with great difficulty.