The El Hadary saga is far from being over.
The Egyptian goalkeeper, African Champion with his national team, is once more at the centre of controversy following his move from Al Ahly to FC Sion of Switzerland.
One of the main sponsors of FC Sion is Giroud Vins (Giroud Wine) and being a Valaisan by birth [...]

Someone has a reason to celebrate: “AUFSTIEGSFEIER”

A whole nation has a reason to celebrate.

Have you ever heard of a team of a different country join the main league of a different country?
No, it’s not a matter of Celtic or Rangers joining the Premiership.
And it’s not what the Basques say about Bilbao in the Liga. [...]

Dear Laurie, I’m using the same template you used for the France team (hope you don’t mind).
Group: A; Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey. All games played in Basel and Geneva.
Nickname: La Nati (The National Team), also Rossocrociati (Red-Crossed),
Jersey: Red (Home) White (Away), manufactured by Puma
FIFA RANKING: 48th (as of April 2008), Highest Ranking: [...]

Fine, I know I should have called them 26 Wilhelm Tell’s. Let’s keep up with nationalism!
The list is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Diego Benaglio (Wolfsburg), Fabio Coltorti (Santander), Pascal Zuberbühler (NE Xamax).
Defenders: Valon Behrami (Lazio), Philipp Degen (Dortmund), Johan Djourou (Arsenal), Mario Eggimann (Karlsruhe), Stéphane Grichting (Auxerre), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lille), Ludovic Magnin (VfB Stuttgart), Patrick Müller [...]

FC Basel triumphed.
2-0 over close rivals Young Boys. 38,015 spectators showed up for the thrilling ending to a very spectacular championship.
Yet the final held very little suspense, since Basel was already 2-0 up after 23 minutes with goals by 19-year old Stocker (a great talent) and Streller.
Christian Gross’ (Basel coach) nightmares following the 2006 [...]

A portrait of our new star player, Inler, and a short biography of his deeds (will be followed by an interview)

For those whose thoughts are football-centred 24h a day this piece of news might be no surprise.
Yet for us proud Swiss folks (ok, I’m Dutch, but I still consider myself from Schwiiz) the recent news that Degen is going to taste the emotions of Anfield on a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund comes as [...]

Switzerland-Germany0-4 (0-1)
Parc St-Jacques – 38 500 spectators
Referee: Bramhaar (NED)
Goals: 23rd Klose 0-1. 61st Gomez 0-2. 67th Gomez 0-3. 89th Podolski 0-4.
Switzerland: Benaglio; Lichtsteiner, Eggimann, Senderos (75th von Bergen), Spycher; Behrami (58th Gygax), Inler, Fernandes (87th Huggel); Barnetta (80th Vonlanthen); Derdiyok (46th Nkufo), Frei (83rd Yakin).
Germany: Lehmann; Lahm (87th Trochowski), Mertesacker, Westermann, Jansen [...]

Definitely an unfair score. As Switzerland’s pressure on Germany was growing a pretty fortuitous goal was scored by Klose. Quite against the run of play.
Lichtsteiner, Behrami and Inler were probably the best Swiss players on the pitch. The right flank is strong and provided the best offensive moves. On the opposite side Spycher and [...]

His last game with the Nati dates back to the 25th of March 2007 in a 3-1 defeat to Colombia (awful game, I had gladly forgotten about it) but a series of injuries (most serious being a hip injury) kept him off the pitches until last February and has played 5 games since providing 4 [...]