FC Thun - last updated on 10 December 2007
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: Fussballclub Thun 1898
Foundation: May 1st 1898
City: Thun
Colours: Red and white
Website: www.fcthun.ch
Honours:
FC Thun has currently no honours.
A bit of history:
FC Thun 1898 is a Swiss football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League. The club plays in the Lachen Stadium which accommodates a total of 10,300 supporters, both seated and standing. The club's colours are red and white.
It has played in the Nationalliga B from 1946-50,1953/54, 1955-70 and. 1997-2002. Since 2002 it has played in the Nationalliga A, which was renamed to Axpo Super League.
On 23 August 2005 FC Thun, with a yearly budget under €2 million, wrote Swiss football history. It qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League by beating first FC Dynamo Kyiv & then the Swedish Champions Malmö FF at home 3-0 after having won in Malmö 0-1. Apart from Grasshoppers and FC Basel, FC Thun is the only Swiss football team to reach the group stages of the Champions League, and the smallest club ever to enter the tournament. Only nine years earlier, Thun were playing amateur third division football in front of crowds of 100.
FC Thun were drawn in Group B alongside European giants Arsenal, Ajax and Sparta Prague. They started their first ever Champions League campaign on 14 September 2005 away at Arsenal, where, even after they scored a stunning equaliser, they narrowly lost 2-1 after Dennis Bergkamp scored in the match's dying seconds. On 27 September they hosted the Czech champions Sparta Prague at their 'home' venue, the Stade de Suisse, Wankdorf in Berne (all of the club's 'home' ties matches were held there as the Lachen Stadium does not meet UEFA's prerequisites for Champions League venues)[citation needed]. Given the low expectations most had for the club considering their newcomer status, Thun's 1-0 victory thanks to Selver Hodžić's 80th minute gamewinner was something of an upset, and propelled them into second place in the group. Following a loss to Ajax Amsterdam on 2 November 2005, FC Thun fell to 3rd place in Group C, 4 points back of Ajax. The last home game they played in the Champions League was a home match against Arsenal. Thun still had a chance of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League but realistically had to beat The Gunners. The match result was quite controversial. Thun were denied a goal by Lustrinelli in the 67th minute due to a supposed offside. Television replays show that the offside decision of the linesman was questionable. This was the second dissallowed goal by Thun in the match.The first one occurred 15 minutes earlier and was also not given because of offside. This however was a correct decision. The game looked to end 0-0. In the 89th minute Robin van Persie fell in the Thunese penalty box. Arsenal were awarded a penalty. This also looked to be a questionable decision by some camera angles. It looked like van Persie let himself fall without Thunese influence. Attacker Robert Pires took the penalty and scored, leaving Arsenal 1-0 winners & with Ajax beating Sparta Prague confirmed Thun's exit from the Champions League. However Thun would draw 0-0 with Sparta Prague in their last Champions League group match, thus qualifying for the Uefa Cup third round. A fine achievement in itself giving the club's small reputation & despite being tipped to finish bottom of the group.
Just three days prior to their Uefa Cup tie aganist Hamburg SV, Thun sacked their coach, Urs Schönenberger who had guided them to the Champions League group stages & was replaced by Heinz Peischl. Despite this Thun managed a surprise 1-0 over Hamburg SV in the 1st leg at the Stade de Suisse. However Hamburg were to strong at AOL Arena and managed to overturn the deficit and won the 2nd leg 2-0 (2-1 on aggregate).
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
FC Thun -
Founded on May 1st 1898
