Swiss 36 No. 38: LIPO Park - FC Schaffhausen

FC Schaffhausen v FC Winterthur

21 September 2017

A midweek derby with Schaffhausen gave us the opportunity to tick off the one stadium that we have yet to visit in the Swiss Challenge League, FC Schaffhausen's new home, the LIPO park.  It's actually Schaffhausen's second season at the new stadium but sadly, illness prevented our trip out there last season.

I remember first visiting FCS' old Stadion Breite for the first time when our rivals were in the promotion league (I had to get that in).  They had architects sketches and impressions of the new stadium back then (it was March 2013).  It looked great!  Those sketches nearly always do.  I remember being skeptical about whether they would actually get the stadium but credit where credit is due, they have the new stadium.  But does it live up to those artist's impressions?

Points Time.

Getting There.

10 / 10.  I rather genourously gave Breite 9/10.  From Schaffhausen station, Breite was either a bus ride or quite an uphill hike.  Well, LIPO park couldn't really be closer to the station, but not Schaffhausen station, the stadium is in Herblingen.  But in any case it's a direct train from Winterthur or Zürich for that matter (the S24 to Thayngen).  Alternatively you can change in Schaffhausen.  So plenty of trains and the station is on the doorstep of the stadium.  10 points all the way!

Friendliness.

2 / 10.  OK, this was Schaffhausen v Winti and there is a rivalry between the clubs (putting it mildly) so there's going to be police and searching etc.  But frankly, the whole infrastructure makes visiting supporters unwelcome.  Once you are out of the station, you enter a caged walkway which leads to the turnstiles (two at the away end).  Scan your ticket barcode to get into the first area and your in security's territory.  I've had more thorough searches, in fact I wasn't patted down at all but they were interested in my bag.  Once through security you are allowed through a second turnstile.  For an inexplicable reason you go up some steps only to come down again on the other side until you're in the stadium concourse, and out of the cage.  WELCOME TO SCHAFFHAUSEN!  Awful, much like St. Gallen's AFG Arena.

So a generous 2.  The ladies in the refreshments were ok and I think the security guy wished me "viel Spass" (have fun).  

Safety

7 / 10.  Wait a minute, am I seriously trying to say a brand new stadium doesn't get full marks on safety? Allow me to explain.  The stadium is brand new and it's an all-seater. The capacity is 8200 and the seats are comfortably spaced.  That's the good news.  

We English fans believe emergency access to the pitch is an essential safety point.  The Taylor report recommended removal fences after the Hillsborough disaster.  But Swiss clubs and the SFA seem to like them and they are fully installed in at least the away end of the LIPO.  Not only that, but get over the fence and there's at least a 7 foot drop to pitch level.  Then there's that access to the away end, narrow and caged.  Of course, there is a large gate allowing mass exodus from the stadium, but you have to get there first.  

I suspect the way Swiss stadia (even the modern ones) are the way they are due to archaic beliefs within the SFA.  I hope they never end up commissioning their own judge to write a report.  The first question any judge will raise is "why didn't you read this?"

View

9 / 10.  Very good.  Remove / lower fences and get rid of the netting above the fences and it would get full marks.  

Atmosphere

8 / 10.  The Schaffhauser kop were wonderfully welcoming in moving from the stand behind the opposite goal just to be nearer to us Winti fans and we felt the love!  There must have been dissension in their ranks however, as half of them remained behind the goal.  

So why did we have half of the Schaffhauser kop next to us?  Well, I can think of three possible reasons:

• To drown out our singing - Failed!
• To improve the atmosphere on a derby night - Success! - it was bouncing.
• To provoke us - Sadly successful

Sadly, during the game we saw a Winti fan attempting to break a seat and after the game it all got ridiculous with both sets of fans provoking each other from their sides of the fence.  Some Winti fans had ski masks to hide their faces while they tried to get at the Schaffhauser.  Jeez guys!  You're such saddos unable to watch a football match without wanting a fight.  Consign that crap back to the 70s where it belongs.

Fortunately no harm was done.  Just unpleasantness, which we could have done without.

Refreshments.

3 / 10.  I'm absolutely certain home supporters will be better catered for than away fans.  Drinkswise it was beer or soft drinks for us.  The beer was the local brew, Falken Bier.  We call it f***in' beer so you can imagine how good it is.  Coffee? possibly.  Wine? certainly not.  The beer was served by caged-in servers who had two beer pumps for around 300 or so Winti fans.  Needless to say there were queues.  

As for food, there was Bratwurst or sandwiches.  

Overall

39 / 60.  Could be a great little stadium if it didn't make you feel as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit!

The Match

Wasn't a classic.  The defences of both sides dominated the strikers and there were few goal chances. In terms of chances Winti probably had more / better.  No chance was better than in the 25th minute when Schaffhausen's 'keeper Nikolic brought down Manu Sutter for a clear penalty.  Unfortunately, Silvio's spot kick was as weak as the beer and Nikolic saved easily.  Half time 0:0 and looking like staying that way.

Not so.  Ex Winti winger Tunahan Cicek put the home side 1-up with a deflected shot that found its way past Minder.  Unconverted half chances came in reply and matters got worse when Luca Radice became the third Winti player in as many games to see a red card.  In the 87th minute Dangubic was fouled in the area and Schaffhausen confounded Winti's misery as Sessola showed how a penalty should be taken.

2:0 and Schaffhausen win for the first time under their new coach while Winti find themselves in a very worrying lack of form.

Swiss 36 No. 37: Stade des Peupliers - FC Bavois

FC Bavois v FC Basel II

16 September 2017

Killing two birds with one stone (or, if you're German, two flies with one swat) that's what this weekend was all about.  It's also Swiss cup weekend and FC Winti have a tie with plenty of banana-skin potential in Delémont.  But we covered "La Blanchèrie" many moons ago so a different stadium was needed.  Why not promotion league newcomers, Bavois?  We'd actually planned this one as it also gave us the chance to meet up with our friends from Basel II.

Mrs Duck had the excellent idea of combining the Swiss 36 trip with Winti's match in Delémont, meaning we only came about a third of the way back to Winterthur and meaning that I'm writing this one propped up comfortably in a quiet hotel room.  

Strangely, with the rest of the organization, things weren't quite as well thought out.  I was hustled out of the house because we were only just going to make the 5:00 pm kick off before having to dash back for match tickets.  We then found that we did have more time than we thought because of a sudden inability to tell the time that had struck Mrs Duck (good news actually as we had time to get some food for the train).  

Even on the train, we soon saw we were still going to arrive 90 minutes before kick-off, a little unnecessary as we weren't anticipating a 50k plus crowd (nearer 50 plus actually).  So what do you do in Bavois for 90 minutes?

Absolutely nothing, it's only a village of a few thousand people.  Fortunately this piece of information was supplied to us by Schieri-Leroy, a referee who we met on the train.  He was on his way to Yverdon where he was running the line in Yverdon's match with Sion II.  He was good company on the long journey, which as a result went quickly.  To burn a bit more time, we went on to Lausanne before traveling back up to Bavois.

Leroy was actually wrong about Bavois.  The population is actually 946 according to the community website.  However he was quite correct in that there's nothing there!  

So here's a community of less than 1000 who have a football team playing in the third flight of Swiss football at a ground in the village!  Credit where credit is due, that's impressive!  But is their stadium?  Points time.

Getting There. 

9/10.  Absolutely no problem.  The S1 train runs every hour between Grandson and Lausanne.  If you're coming by train, you'll most probably arrive either via Lausanne or Yverdon.  You get can this train from either city.  You can see the ground from Bavois station - it's about a 3 minute walk.

Friendliness.

8/10.  Nice people work at the club.  Exactly what we have come to expect from the small clubs.

Safety

3/10.  Yes - unfortunately the tiny clubs get caught out in this category and it is tough on them.  Once again the ground does everything the club need.   But there's no segregation and behind one of the goals there's a rather deep hole.  Were Bavois to get a big cup-tie, they'd struggle here or perhaps they'd need to borrow a stadium for the evening.  It would certainly be tough for them to get a license at the next level, but then again, Bavois are already punching over their weight.

View

3/10.  You've got to love that stand which proudly bears the name "Tribune principalé".  I guess if it's the only stand, it must be the main stand.  Anyway, that seats 74 people (I just counted) not including the press area at the back.  Other than that, we have a pitch with a barrier around it.  No raised areas so any sort of crowd could have spectators struggling to see.  Behind one of the goals is also not good due to high fences.  But again with Bavois' normal attendance good enough.

Atmosphere 

2/10.  Friendly enough but no atmosphere to speak of.  Really difficult though as I think the attendance would struggle to reach the 200 mark.

Refreshments

8/10.  The obligatory sausages grilled on a barbecue as usual and mine was very tasty.  As for drinks, well the ground has a very nice restaurant which has a full selection at the bar.  The food in the restaurant looked great although we didn't try any.  We tried their wine though.  We liked their wine!

Overall

33/60.  A proud club with every right to be proud.

The Match

After having the young Baslers hammering at their door for the opening 10 minutes, Bavois seemed to find their feet, and what followed was an entertaining 0:0.

In all honesty, we didn't do so much watching the match, a shame really, because what I did see was good.  Instead we were chatting with our Basel II friends, Schippi, Stanley and Sützi. While keeping our eye on the days cup ties.  The notable upsets were Schaffhausen - leaders of the challenge league being shown the cup exit door by Münsingen, a team two flights below them while Super League Sion were embarrassed by FC Lausanne Ouchy of the promotion league 2:1 after extra time.  We'd watched Ouchy get soundly beaten by Basel II just a month ago!  That's why fans love the cup.

So back to that restaurant for a few wines before moving on.  I'll not get too smug about Sion or Schaffhausen until after Winti's match.

Swiss 36 No. 36: Stadion Schützenmatte - BSC Old Boys

BSC Old Boys v SC YF Juventus Zurich 

3rd September 2017

International break so what do you do?  Well there was the Faroe Islands v Andorra to be considered but we decided on something much better than that. A visit to Basel to watch BSC Old Boys take on Juvé Zürich and chalk off No. 36 of the Swiss 36.

So this is it then?  The last of the Swiss 36?  Well....nahhh!  Like the "Doing the 92",  covering the Swiss football grounds in the top 3 leagues is a bit like painting the Forth railway bridge.  New teams come into the league, Old teams move to new grounds so you never really finish.  I bet everyone is pleased to hear that!

We've actually already visited the Schützenmatte but laziness stopped the blog from being updated.  So we've had to travel halfway across Switzerland ...again and watch a crap football match...again...just to complete this blog.  And I have a stiff back too.  I make my sacrifices.  But I did manage to grab a bottle of wine and head for the station.

Points time.

Getting There

8/10.  Swiss public transport is fabulous.  We had three connections with no longer than 6 minutes between any of them.  But train, train, train, tram - no problem at all.  A bit of confusion on which way to go when we got off the tram (I think we could have had a 5 minute walk in either direction).  So - easy.

Friendliness

5/10.  Not a soul from Old Boys said a word to us, apart from when tickets or refreshments were being bought.  Embarrassingly, we had to ask a Juvé fan who was playing in what colours as the match started and he was nice enough.  Oh, and one of the Basel II fans we'd met on our last outing said "hello" when we were on our way out.

Safety 

9/10.  As good as I've seen in the third flight of Swiss football.  That's a decent all- seater stand and other than that, there's terracing all the way around (and terracing with a sensible step height).  No stupid fences or nets but also no segregation.  That's the only thing that's missing to prevent this ground being up to standard for the next level up.  Should they improve enough to gain promotion, I can't see the SFA having any issue with allowing Old Boys to play at the Schützenmatte in the 2nd flight.

View

6/10.  OK - I'll admit it.  My dislike of multi-purpose stadia led me to looking for the worst view in the stadium.  That being behind the hammer/discus circle.  But really, decent terracing and that stand means the views are pretty good.  Just the matter of an 8-lane athletics track and all the field event paraphernalia.

Atmosphere 

1/10.   Very quiet, unfortunately.  Only 213 were at the match but apart from when goals were scored - nothing.

Refreshments

5/10.  Sausages.   The lady who served me my hot-dog managed to poke a hole right through my hot dog bun so the ketchup ran out and onto my shirt, so that didn't help!  Soft drinks, beer and ice cream also available.  We also saw chips but the source of the chips was a well kept secret.

Overall

 34/60 - a very decent stadium that could score very high if they ever got a crowd in it!

The Match

Bottom of the table Old Boys put 4 past Juvé without reply.  It was clear from the outset that Old Boys were up for this as they employed a shoot on sight policy.  After just 8 minutes a lob from the edge of centre circle beat the Juvé 'keeper before landing on top of the goal net.  The lead was taken after 22 minutes with an easy tap-in for Serkan Sahin after a long corner was headed back into the middle.  There followed a bit of controversy.  An Old Boys striker was bearing down on the Juvé 'keeper. He went down and the referee pointed to the spot.  The goalie wasn't happy and had run to the linesman who was waving his flag furiously.  After a brief conflab, Juvé were awarded a free kick and the OB striker had a yellow card for simulation.  Right or wrong?  - I couldn't say.

It didn't matter much though.  On 26 minutes it was 2:0 with Adrian Fleury smashing a ball into the bottom corner from about 30 yards.  Fabulous strike!  Shortly afterwards, it was three.  Merghim Ahmeti ran through the inside-left channel and decided to go it alone when there were perhaps better options to his right.  But he scored so what do I know?!

In the second half and there were a few incidents that could have led to bizarre goals.  A Juvé cross was missed by the Old Boys' 'keeper who was no doubt relieved to see it bounce off the top of the bar.  A few minutes later, a looping ball into the OB area was given up as a lost cause by everyone.  They soon took interest when it bounced off the post though.  Bizarre!  It was then Old Boys turn for a strange incident.  After a poor goal-kick from Juvé, there was a tackle and the ball flew out back towards the goal from where it had just come.  The 'keeper was beaten but as the ball bounced in front of the goal line, it had enough backspin to bounce back out and a relieved 'keeper dived on it.  You normally get a maximum of one weird incident per game.  Here we were with three in a half!

Serkan Sakin finished the scoring with his second.  4-0 probably flattered Old Boys but they certainly deserved this much-needed win.