Football Season Guide

Zurich's relegation at the end of the 2015/16 season was something that pretty much no one expected before the season started as, despite underachieving in the previous few Super League seasons, the Whites still had one of the strongest squads in the league and were seen as being too good to go down. What is particularly interesting is that the Whites also won the Swiss Cup in the season in which they were relegated, with the end result being that they spent last season playing both in the Challenge League and the group stage of the Europa League. They did well in both competitions, easily winning the second division while taking their battle for a place in the knock-out stage into the final round. The Whites managed to keep the core of their squad together despite their relegation but the club have decided to reward Olivier Buff for his years of service and allow him to leave and join Spanish side Real Zaragoza. Ivan Kecojevic and Davide Chiumiento did not have their contracts extended and are searching for new clubs while Mike Kleiber failed to break into the first team and has joined Rapperswil. Zurich have signed two well-known Super League players in Michael Frey and Pa Modou Jagne. Victor Palsson brings top flight experience from other European leagues but has never played in Switzerland whilst Armando Sadiku left to join Legia Warsaw on a permanent deal after having a couple of loan spells. It is clear that Zurich's promotion is not good news for bottom half clubs. The Whites are a big club, have a proven manager in Uli Forte and have a squad filled with proven Super League quality so they are therefore expected to have nothing to do with relegation.