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25-514: The league forms the semi-professional bridge to amateur football. Eighteen teams play each other twice, once home and once away, for a total of 34 games. The season begins in August and ends in May, interrupted through a winter break from late November to early March. The team finishing in first place—subject to license requirements of professional football—will be promoted to the division above , in turn

50-418: A 0–6 home defeat to Stade Lausanne-Ouchy on the last matchday, which saw the team finish in ninth place (out of ten). Following a 3–2 victory against Wil on matchday 33, the team was secured from relegation. Another sign of the unsettled season was the number of changes in the coaching staff. David Sesa , who had joined in the pre-season, resigned after only two months at the helm. Baldassare Raineri took over

75-483: A final game and the three regional champions qualified for the final round. While SC Veltheim  [ de ; es ; fr ; it ; uk ] won the first Serie Promotion, all three participants of the final round were promoted to the Serie A. In the following seasons, regional Serie B champions played relegation/promotion playoffs against the last placed of the regional leagues in the Serie A. This format would persist until

100-669: Is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona . It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948 . After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga , the sixth tier of the Swiss Football League System in 2014–15 season. After winning it and the 1. Liga Classic , Bellinzona is promoted to 1. Liga Promotion . They currently play in

125-1452: The 2018–19 season . FC Lugano and FC Lausanne-Sport went bankrupt which meant that no team was relegated due to their league position. FC Sion were not awarded a license for the 2003–04 season resulted in an extra team being promoted. The league statistics of the Challenge League era: Vaduz 2:1 Neuchâtel Xamax Neuchâtel Xamax won 3:2 on aggregate Vaduz 0:1 Schaffhausen Schaffhausen won 2:1 on aggregate Neuchâtel Xamax 0:3 Sion Sion won 3:0 on aggregate Aarau 3:1 Bellinzona Aarau won 5:2 on aggregate St. Gallen 0:2 Bellinzona Bellinzona won 5:2 on aggregate Luzern 5:0 Lugano Luzern won 5:1 on aggregate Lugano 0:0 Bellinzona Bellinzona won 2:1 on aggregate Servette 3:1 Bellinzona Servette won 3:2 on aggregate Aarau 1:0 Sion Sion won 3:1 on aggregate Aarau 0:4 (4:5 p ) Neuchâtel Xamax Xamax won after 4:4 on aggregate and 5:4 in penalty shootout. Thun 4:3 Vaduz Vaduz won 5:4 on aggregate. Sion 2:3 Thun Sion won 6:4 on aggregate. Luzern 2-0 Schaffhausen Luzern won 4:2 on aggregate. Lausanne Ouchy 4–2 Sion Lausanne Ouchy wins 6–2 on aggregate Relegation play-off: Rapperswil-Jona 1–3 Xamax Xamax wins 6–1 on aggregate Grasshopper wins 3–2 on aggregate. AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona

150-712: The Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League , while the bottom-placed team is relegated to the Promotion League . The Serie B was first carried out in 1898. In the year before, Genevan newspaper La Suisse Sportive organized

175-480: The Super League had also been restructured along with the name changes. The old promotion/relegation playoffs were scrapped and replaced with the simpler 1-up 1-down format. Between 2003 and 2012, the second placed team of the Challenge League would also play a two-legged promotion/relegation playoff against the second-to-last team of the Super League. This playoff was dropped in 2012 and later reintroduced for

200-476: The Swiss Challenge League , the second tier of Swiss football. Because Bellinzona is an Italian -speaking region, many of Italy's Serie A clubs have loaned youth players to the club to get first team experience. Bellinzona was promoted to the Swiss Super League after beating St. Gallen 5–2 on aggregate in the relegation play-off following the 2007–2008 season. Bellinzona played at

225-592: The 1929–30 season. Starting in 1930, both Serie A and B were renamed to First and Second League , respectively, and in the season after the Second League become the First League (as the previous First League became known as the National League). These name changes came as a push to create the aforementioned National League, which no longer would be split into regional groups. This reorganization

250-506: The 1995–96 season, the NLB was once again reunited and slimmed down to twelve teams. The promotion/relegation and relegation playoffs would also no longer be split into two groups. Both playoffs would be played in a round-robin group with eight teams, with the top four promoted/remaining in the NLA and NLB, respectively. Bottom four would be relegated/remain in the NLB or First League, respectively. At

275-426: The 2013–14 season of 1. Liga Promotion the club was declared bankrupt. After staying one season playing only at young divisions, the club went back to professional football, joining the 2014–15 2.Liga. After two years in 1. Liga Classic , the club finished first in 2018 and was promoted to the 1. Liga Promotion for the 2018–19 season. In the 2021–22 Swiss Promotion League , Bellinzona reached second place during

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300-498: The Challenge League, while the rest joined from the division below. In March 2020, the ongoing season was canceled after 17 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020–21 season suspended until further notice. The league was expanded to 18 teams for the 2022–23 season and the number of allowed U21 teams is unrestricted. The following teams have won the league: Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as

325-494: The beginning of the 20th century, further format changes to the top Swiss leagues were suggested. Starting with the 2003-04 season , the league was renamed to Challenge League . Unlike the top league, the Super League , the Challenge League did not have a title sponsor at first, until the 2008-09 season which was named the Dosenbach Challenge League . The league would again be without a title sponsor for

350-466: The bottom four teams of the NLA would be joined by the top six of both groups. These sixteen teams were once again split into two groups and the top two of both groups would gain promotion to the NLA. For relegation, the bottom six teams of either group were shuffled into two groups, where the bottom two of both groups are relegated to the First League . The number of teams in the NLB was reduced to 20 in 1993 and further reduced to 16 in 1994. Starting with

375-497: The first team to be promoted to the Serie A. In the following two seasons, the second teams of Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Zürich won the Serie B and thus no teams were promoted. The Serie B was held under this name until 1922. However, records of these times are spotty at best. In 1922, the league was renamed to Serie Promotion and was split into three regions East, West, and Central with each region further subdivided into two groups. The respective regional group winners played

400-483: The first unofficial Swiss Championship, where the Coupe Ruinart was awarded to Grasshopper Club Zürich . The first Serie B was competed for this same cup. The final game was held between Cantonal Lausanne , FC Bern , and Vereinigte St. Gallen , with Cantonal Lausanne beating first FC Bern 2-0 and then Vereinigte St. Gallen 3-2 to win the championship. In the 1900-01 season, Serie B winner Fortuna Basel were

425-401: The following four season. Between 2013 and 2021, it was named brack.ch Challenge League and since the 2021–22 season it is called the dieci Challenge League . The number of participants has fluctuated since the renaming of the league. Initially, the Challenge League had 17 participants, but in the following season it was increased to 18. To make the league more attractive to viewers, it

450-508: The last-placed team of the second division will be relegated for the following season. Similarly, the bottom two teams are relegated to the fourth tier and replaced respectively. It is the highest league in Switzerland that permits participation of reserve teams. The league was introduced as the 1. Liga Promotion beginning with the 2012–13 season as part of a restructuring that saw the Challenge League reduced from 16 to 10 teams. This

475-468: The regular season. In the promotion round, they were able eke out a first-place finish ahead of FC Breitenrain to gain promotion to the Swiss Challenge League . As Breitenrain withdrew their license request, Bellinzona would have been promoted even had they not won the season. Their return to the Challenge League was a season of ups, such as a 5–1 home victory to FC Wil , and downs, such as

500-490: The relegated FC Luzern , would participate in the inaugural season. Initially, the top two of the league were promoted, while the bottom two were relegated. In the 1976–77 season, the number of teams was increased to sixteen. After the number of teams was reverted in 1979, the number of teams was increased again in 1981. This increase was also mirrored by the National League A. For the 1986–87 season, playoffs between

525-425: The top four of the NLB and the bottom four of the NLA were played, with only two of them getting promoted, as the NLA would reduce the number of teams to twelve for the next season. At the same time the NLB was increased to 24 teams, split once again into two regional groups. Furthermore, the seasons were also split into two stages: a qualifying stage and promotion/relegation stage. During the promotion/relegation stage,

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550-666: The top level in the 2008–2009 season for the first time since the 1989–90 season. As finalists in the Swiss Cup , the team also qualified for the 08-09 UEFA Cup where it beat Ararat Yerevan of Armenia in the 1st qualifying round . Then they knocked-out Ukrainian FC Dnipro on away goal rule (2:3 in Dnipropetrovsk, and 2:1 home victory, 4:4 aggregate). In third qualifying round they faced Galatasaray losing both games 3:4 at home ground and 1:2 in Istanbul. In 2013 before

575-403: Was done to decrease the competitive gap between it and the Super League by converting it to a purely professional league. The Promotion League would therefore serve as the semi-professional link to amateur football. The 1. Liga was consequently renamed to 1. Liga Classic , before reverting again in 2013 when the former adopted its current name. For its maiden season, six teams were relegated from

600-616: Was finally realized for the 1933–34 season, however the First League maintained regional groups. The league was split into a western and eastern group, except in the 1939/40 season where five regional groups were created due to the World War. Starting with the 1944–45 season, the National League B (NLB) was created. Fourteen teams, the top seven teams of both groups in the 1943–44 season, minus champions AC Bellinzona , plus

625-456: Was reduced again to 16 participants in 2008 and then further down to ten in 2012 . This last reduction came as a result of the creation of the Promotion League . Similarly, the number of teams relegated and promoted to and from the former First League (later Promotion League) had also fluctuated. With the new Promotion League, it has been a simple 1-up 1-down promotion/relegation format between Challenge League and Promotion League. Promotion to

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