FC Lugano

Lugano

Full name	Football Club Lugano
Founded	1908; 116 years ago (1908)
Ground	Cornaredo Stadium, Lugano, Switzerland
Capacity	6,330
Chairman	Philippe Regazzoni
Manager	Mattia Croci-Torti
League	Swiss Super League
2022–23	Swiss Super League, 3rd of 10
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

FC Lugano is a Swiss football club from Lugano. The club was newly founded as AC Lugano in 2004 because of the relegation and the financial situation of FC Lugano, which was founded in 1908. In 2008 went back to his original name, FC Lugano. They play at the Stadio Cornaredo. They have played in what is now the Swiss Super League during the periods of 1922–53, 1954–60, 1961–63, 1964–76, 1979–80, 1988–97, 1998–02 and from 2015 until present.

History

Football Club Lugano was formed on 28 July 1908 . The team won its first Swiss Cup in 1931. The following decade, FC Lugano was able to win 3 national titles (1938, 1941 and 1949).

In 1968, Lugano won the Swiss Cup and participated in the Cup Winners' Cup. Two years later the team took part in the UEFA Cup. In 1993 Lugano won its third Cup against Grasshoppers and played Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1995–96 season, Lugano participated in the UEFA Cup, eliminating Jeunesse Hautcharage in the first round and Inter Milan in the second.

The club was declared bankrupt in 2003 and removed from the league. Due to the bankruptcy, the team was renamed AC Lugano and played with under-21 players because they were forced to sell or release the senior team to pay the club's debts. In 2004 the club merged with Malcantone Agno and the team should play in the Swiss Challenge League.^[1]

On 4 June 2008 when the club became 100 years old the general meeting of shareholders voted on a name change. The historical name of Football Club Lugano was used again. In 2015 FC Lugano was promoted to the Swiss Super League.

On August 18, 2021, it was announced that American billionaire and owner of the Chicago Fire FC, Joe Mansueto had purchased FC Lugano and that the Fire and FC Lugano work together as sister clubs.^[2] On 1 September 2021, assistant coach Mattia Croci-Torti took over coaching duties at the club, replacing Abel Braga.^[3] The first season under new ownership was successful winning the 2021–22 Swiss Cup.^[4]

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1968–69	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Barcelona	0–1	0–3	0–4
1971–72	UEFA Cup	First Round	Legia Warsaw	1–3	0–0	1–3
1993–94	European Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying Round	Neman Grodno	5–0	1–2	6–2
		First Round	Real Madrid	1–3	0–3	1–6
1995–96	UEFA Cup	Preliminary Round	Jeunesse Esch	4–0	0–0	4–0
		First Round	Inter Milan	1–1	1–0	2–1
		Second Round	Slavia Prague	1–2	0–1	1–3
2001–02	UEFA Champions League	Second Qualifying Round	Shakhtar Donetsk	2–1	0–3	2–4
2002–03	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	FK Ventspils	1–0	0–3	1–3
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	Group G	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	1–0	1–2	3rd
			Steaua București	1–2	2–1
			Viktoria Plzeň	3–2	1–4
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	Group B	Dynamo Kyiv	0–0	1–1	4th
			Copenhagen	0–1	0–1
			Malmö FF	0–0	1–2
2022–23	UEFA Europa Conference League	Third Qualifying Round	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	0–2	1–3	1–5

Players

Current squad

As of 8 July 2022^[5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  Switzerland Amir Saipi 3 DF  Switzerland Reto Ziegler 4 DF  Kosovo Kreshnik Hajrizi 5 DF  Switzerland Albian Hajdari (on loan from Juventus U23) 6 FW  Algeria Mohamed El Amine Amoura 7 DF  Switzerland Mickaël Facchinetti 8 MF  Switzerland Adrian Durrer 9 FW  Slovenia Žan Celar 10 FW  Switzerland Mattia Bottani 11 MF  Switzerland Maren Haile-Selassie 14 MF  Uruguay Jonathan Sabbatini (captain) 15 DF  Germany Lars Lukas Mai 17 DF  Argentina Milton Valenzuela

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 MF  France Hicham Mahou 20 MF  Ivory Coast Ousmane Doumbia 23 DF  Bosnia and Herzegovina Leonid Srdić 25 MF  Kosovo Uran Bislimi 27 FW  Switzerland Boris Babic 29 MF  Tunisia Hadj Mahmoud 30 DF  Switzerland Fabio Daprelà 31 FW  Argentina Ignacio Aliseda 33 FW  Switzerland Alessandro Casciato 34 DF  Switzerland Allan Arigoni 41 DF  Switzerland Noah De Queiroz 58 GK  Nigeria Sebastian Osigwe 77 MF  Czech Republic Roman Macek

Honours

• Swiss Super League
  • Champions: 1937–38, 1940–41, 1948–49
• Swiss Cup
  • Winners (4): 1930–31, 1967–68, 1992–93, 2021–22
• Swiss Challenge League
  • Winners: 2014–15

References

1. "FC Lugano - Switzerland 2017-18" (PDF). LiberoGuide.
2. "Chicago Fire FC Owner and Chairman Joe Mansueto Purchases Swiss Super League Club FC Lugano | Chicago Fire FC". chicagofirefc.
3. Berger, Nicola. "Super League: Mattia Croci-Torti neuer Lugano-Trainer".
4. "Der FC Lugano gewinnt den 97. Schweizer Cupfinal". SFV.
5. "Prima squadra" [First team] (in Italian). FC Lugano. Retrieved 17 July 2021.

Other websites

• Official website (in Italian)