Swiss 36 No. 41: Sportplatz Liebefeld - FC Köniz

FC Köniz v FC Breitenrain

14th April 2018

Another gorgeous spring morning on what promises to be a great weekend.  Imagine Dragons last night at the Hallenstadion in Zürich were excellent and today (Saturday) a 3rd class local derby.  What could be better?  Sportplatz Liebefeld is a place where we’ve been before, twice actually and I’m surprised that I haven’t covered it before now on this blog.  Nevermind, so we’ll cover it now.

My previous visits involved a cup tie when FC Winti visited, and lost after a penalty shoot out and a match where we saw Köniz play FC Locarno.  Again Köniz won so it seems I’m a bit of a lucky charm for them.

Well, today, I hope we aren’t.  We’re going to see a Bern-Derby between Köniz and our good friends FC Breitenrain.  We have our Breitsch scarves and are definitely for the visitors in this one.

So what else shall I waffle on about on our way to Bern?  Well, I’ve been looking back over the blog to see if there are any egregious injustices in what I have written before now and there are!  I scored Lausanne Sport a meagre 2/10 for friendliness.  Very unfair on reflection as I have met Lausanne Sport fans on many occasions since.  They have bought me beers so they are good!  My problem at the time was the security, not the fans but in any case, I now feel I’ve set the record straight.  

I’ve also sampled Fucking Hell, a lager from Austria, on which I promised to provide an opinion.  It’s OK but nothing spectacular.  Not great, but better than “Arrogant Bastard” ale, which is fucking awful.

Back to our trip and while walking to find our bus, we were asked who Winti were playing by some guys doing some filming.  They had noticed our Winti shirts.   One of them turned out to be the brother of Winti striker Kwando Duah.  

Points time.

Getting there: 7 / 10. 

Simple enough getting a train to Bern, but then we had to find a bus to Köniz.  Our phone app said we needed Perron  I.  We wandered to the front of the station and then down the side of the station where we found perrons G and H but no sign of I.  It seemed the labelling system of the Perrons followed the same logic as the labelling of gates at Lausanne Sport’s stadium.  

So, time to give up and ask someone and who better than tourist information at Bern station?  There’s no one better of course, when you actually find their office.  You see signs on both the escalator and the lift say the information office is downstairs in the station.  There may be an office downstairs but the one we found was upstairs, right next to Perron G, where we had been 10 minutes earlier.  We were directed to the front of the station where Perron I was found, and our bus was waiting.

Friendliness: 7 / 10

We spent most of our time with the Breitenrain fans who of course we already knew, but I did speak to some Köniz fans.  While taking photos, I met a gorgeous pup who had been tied to the railings around the pitch.  She was happy to see me, and get a little fussing as most dogs are. 

 Seeing my scarf, her owner joked “She normally bites Breitenrain fans!” 

“Well, I’m not a real Breitenrain fan”. I replied.  “She seems to like Winti fans”

“She should bite them too!”

“Well, I’m actually not even Swiss so I think her bite instincts are faulty!” I smiled while petting the dog a little more.

We also enjoyed a drink in the bar with both sets of fans.

Safety: 5 / 10

As good as it needs to be for promotion league but you can imagine difficulties should Köniz get a big-name tie in the cup.  The ground would also clearly hinder any chance of Köniz being promoted.

View: 3 / 10

As it’s name suggests the Liebefeld is a multi-sport facility so has one of those lovely running tracks that I like so much.  FC Köniz have however been sensible in allowing fans behind the goal to be at the edge of the pitch and not at the edge of the athletics track with a 4-lane track, high-jump, shot-putt circles and lord knows what else between them and the action.  Still, there is only terracing/seats at one side of the ground and only three sides are open.  Behind the goal there is a safety net that is unfortunately right in your face and so is annoying.  The view is OK with the normal promotion league size of crowd, but would be limited with many more.

Atmosphere: 5 / 10

Breitsch were making the most of being able to make some noise.  They are not allowed their megaphones, drums or bells at home because some idiot neighbour complained about the noise.  If you read the blog about FC Breitenrain, (its no. 25) you’ll find that the Spitalacker has been a football ground since at least the 1920’s, but people can still move into a flat next to a football ground and then complain about the noise!? 

Köniz also had a singing section so all in all, a small crowd did what they could for the players.

Refreshments:  7 / 10

There’s a full bar in the Köniz clubhouse next to the main stand and there’s a decent selection of food.  We went for the “Steak in Brot” which I was quite surprised to find out was a turkey steak.  Either way it was tasty and came with a chunky salsa.

Overall:  34 / 60.  A fairly typical Swiss third flight ground.

The Match

To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the game.  Köniz won 1:0 wth a decent goal curled in directly from a free kick.  The home team were the better side throughout and had the majority of possession.  Breitenrain kept trying but struggled to get a clear chance.  There were a few balls that flew dangerously across the Köniz area without anyone really looking like getting on the end of them.