First Division. Too many outsiders, but at the top it was a battle between equals and no favourites. Thus, to some extend, the winner was a surprise.
FC Baden – not just an outsider, but an outsider compared to the other outsider. They earned only 8 points and won just 1 match! Last and relegated, of course.
FC Grenchen – 15th with 16 points, relegated.
Vevey-Sports – 14th with 17 points.
FC La Chaux-de-Fonds - 13th with 18 points.
FC Wettingen - 12th with 24 points.
FC St.-Gallen - 11th with 30 points. Way above the last 5 teams – that was the sad reality in the Swiss league.
Miserable season for FC Basel - 10th with 30 points. Never even in theoretical danger of relegation, but maybe their worst season in the last 20 years.
Servette FC – 9th with 31 points. Considering they won the 1984-85 championship... what a drop down.
Top row from left: Charles Andre, Lucien Favre, Laurent Jaccard, Alexandre Stefanovic, Mats Magnusson, Michel Decsatel, Silvano Bianchi, Alain Geiger, Eric Burri.
Middle row: Robert Kok, Rainer Hasler, Erich Burgener, Samuel Opoku N`Ti, Philippe de Choudens, Pascal Besnard, Bent Christensen.
Front: Robert Ley-Ravello, Michel Renquin, Paul Garbani, Jean-Marc Guillou, Marc Schnyder, Gilbert Castella.
FC Sion - 8th with 33 points.
FC Aarau - 7th with 34 points.
Lausanne-Sports - 6th with 35 points.
Grasshopper - 5th with 38 points.
FC Zürich - 4th with 39 points.
FC Luzern – 3rd with 41 points.
Xamax - 2nd with 42 points. Perhaps the only club ascending in the last 2-3 years and now a title contender.
BSC Young Boys (Berne) somewhat surprisingly won the championship with 44 points from 18 wins, 8 ties, and 4 losses. 72-28 goal-difference - 2nd best strikers, best defenders. To a point, Young Boys took advantage from the current weakness of Grasshopper, Basel, Servette, and even FC Zürich and won a race between more or less equals, which is alwaysa bit chancy. But they were persistent and consistent, so nothing to be said against them – the team was winning and not losing. A modest team... few players appeared briefly for Switzerland (Bregy, Weber), Polish striker Joachim Siwek had long, but not for big clubs, career in the West, The Egyptian midfielder Youssef Radi was naver called to play for his country, the young Danish striker Lars Lunde called attention to himself exactly this season – and went to play briefly for Bayern thanks to that. The only big name in the team was the Swedish midfielder Robert Prytz, who joined Young Boys in the beginning of 1986 and played in the spring half of the season. Success was achieved with remarkably modest squad.
It was a grand moment for the club and its supporters – Young Boys won its 11th title, but had to wait for it a quarter of a century! The 10th title came in 1960 and they were without a trophy for almost 10 years, lastly winning the Cup in 1977. Still, Young Boys was the third most successful club in Switzerland behind Grasshopper and Servette and the victory was perhaps a beginning of golden period - nothing like that was going to happen, but it was still wonderful to have a cuurent victory and not to be some old, but faded glory.