Swiss Football Association

Origins

Switzerland was the first country in Continental Europe to adhere to football, which was introduced in the 1860s by Anglo-Saxon students and teachers from Swiss private schools in the French-speaking part of the country around Lausanne and Geneva, forming teams that initially played a mixture of rugby and football. There is documentation from Geneva that football was played at the Château de Lancy and La Châtelaine institutes in the 1860s. Another club founded by English students was the Lausanne Football and Cricket Club, which was established in 1860, thus being the first football club in Continental Europe, being only three years younger than Sheffield; however, it is likely that Lausanne initially played cricket and only began to practice football in the 1870s.

The oldest Swiss club still in existence, FC St. Gallen, was founded in 1879, by locals from the embroidery industry in German-speaking Switzerland, who had learned about the game from English students; it was followed in 1886 by the Grasshopper Club Zurich. In 1895, Lausanne FCC, St. Gallen, and the Grasshopper Zurich clubs, were among the founding members of the Swiss Football Association. The SFV was one of the seven national associations that founded the world football association FIFA in 1904.

Presidents

References

References

1. "Switzerland". UEFA.
2. "Die frühe Fussballnation Schweiz".
3. (30 September 2000). "Die Geschichte des Fussballs".
4. "Die englische Krankheit die Schweiz".
5. "Schweizerischer Fussballverband - 2005-2010".
6. (13 June 2009). "Peter Gilliéron an der Verbandsspitze angelangt".
7. (18 May 2019). "Dominique Blanc ist der neue SFV-Präsident".
8. "Schweizerischer Fussballverband - Peter Knäbel".