From the Rhine to the Alps: How the 2035/36 Swiss Season Found Its Shape

The Swiss football season rarely ends in a straight line. More often, it reveals itself in fragments – mini-leagues, play-outs, promotions earned far from the spotlight and relegations that cut deep in proud towns. The closing weeks of the 2035/36 campaign followed that familiar pattern, but taken together they offered a clear picture of a league system in motion, shaped by old certainties and quiet new forces.

For Chur, the final five matches of their debut Super League season became a final act of validation. A composed 2–0 victory over Grasshoppers – one of Swiss football’s oldest and most decorated clubs – set the tone, with Xabier Iriondo once again decisive and a rare strike from Carvalho reinforcing the sense that this side can spread responsibility when required. That confidence travelled with them to Rapperswil, where Chur produced their most emphatic performance of the season, dismantling their hosts 5–1 on the shores of Lake Zurich. Brian Farinas’ goal stood out not only for its quality, but for what it symbolised: a team comfortable expressing itself at the highest level.

Momentum carried into a narrow 1–0 win over Sion at the Obere Au, another statement against a club long synonymous with resilience and cup success. Defeats followed – away at Stade Lausanne-Ouchy and at home to Luzern – but they did little to dull the wider achievement. Second place in the mini-league was secured, and over the span of a full campaign Chur demonstrated something more valuable than individual results: consistency. In a league defined by fine margins, they proved themselves stronger, over time, than the teams immediately around them.

At the summit, familiarity prevailed. Basel, a club forged by decades of domestic dominance and European experience along the Rhine, claimed the title with a six-point cushion over Lausanne-Sport. Lausanne, based on the shores of Lake Geneva, emerged as the season’s great outliers – outperforming expectations and metrics alike to push a far richer rival deep into the spring. Young Boys and Servette, pillars of the game in Bern and Geneva, respectively, secured Europa League places, while Thun claimed a Conference League berth in fifth, aided by Basel’s Schweizer Cup triumph completing a domestic double.

Lower down, survival carried its own drama. Rapperswil slipped out of the Super League, while Grasshoppers once again leaned on experience to navigate the play-outs. Two years after denying Chur in the same arena, the Zurich club repeated the trick against Vaduz over two legs, reinforcing their reputation for endurance even as their grip on the top flight continues to loosen.

The Challenge League, meanwhile, delivered one of the season’s sharpest reversals. Wohlen, leaders at Christmas, endured a collapse in the second phase and finished seventh, unable to recover their early rhythm. Winterthur claimed the title, with Vaduz following them up in second. Perhaps most striking was the sight of St Gallen – one of Switzerland’s historic standard-bearers – finishing fourth, ahead of Aarau and Lugano but well short of their own ambitions. At the bottom, Delémont were cast adrift and relegated, their campaign unravelling long before the finish.

Below the second tier, the picture grew more fragmented but no less revealing. Neuchâtel Xamax continued their long road back by winning promotion to the Challenge League, finishing well clear of Martigny-Sports and Concordia. Eschen/Mauren, a feeder club for Chur, placed fifth and once again secured European qualification by overcoming Vaduz in the FL1 Aktiv Cup, underlining the effectiveness of their development model and cross-border identity. Bellinzona, by contrast, became the most prominent casualty, slipping into the fourth tier as the pyramid tightened its grip.

In the 1. Liga Classic, Graubünden’s influence deepened. Ems held off Wil to win Gruppe 3 and secure promotion, their rise under former Chur favourite Eder Lala marking another step forward for football in the canton. At the same level, Liechtenstein’s Balzers enjoyed a stable mid-table finish. Further down, the 2. Liga reflected the breadth of Swiss football’s social fabric. FC Chile Sport claimed their title, while Italien GE held their ground with a predominantly Italian squad. Historic names such as La Chaux-de-Fonds and Chiasso pushed for promotion but ultimately fell short.

Not all stories were of ascent. In Gruppe 4, Graubünden pair Schluein Ilanz finished a credible fourth, six points off the summit, while Landquart placed 11th but remained comfortably clear of relegation. Elsewhere, the season’s most sobering development came in Nyon, where Stade Nyonnais – a second-tier club little more than a decade ago – dropped into the sixth tier and will now operate as a fully amateur side. Even Basel was not immune to turbulence lower down the ladder, with Black Stars Basel slipping into the same tier.

Taken as a whole, the 2035/36 season left Swiss football looking both familiar and subtly transformed. Power remained concentrated at the top, but beneath it the map is slowly redrawing itself. From Chur’s consolidation in the Alps to Ems’ momentum, and from the resilience of old giants to the fragility of once-stable clubs, this was a campaign that ended not with closure, but with movement – and with the sense that the next shift may already be underway.