Preamble The 1920s not only saw a rapid rise in the popularity of top-level football, but also a decade of rapid growth in grassroots football. In the interwar period, young men were gripped by a "football fever" that was repeatedly lamented in educational circles. In the first post-war season, the football section of the Swiss Football and Athletics Federation (SFAV) had 126 clubs with 20,696 members. By the 1930/31 season, this number had risen to 328 clubs with 66,966 members. After the end of the first world war, especially during the early 1920s, many new football clubs were formed. By around 1925 at the latest, every larger Swiss town seems to have had a football pitch and its own club. Top level organised football also experienced a boom. Not only were small clubs being formed, the larger already existing clubs were expanding and growing too. Between 1922 and 1930, twelve new football stadiums were built, each with a capacity of over 10,000 spectators. However, the hoped-for spectator increases failed to materialise. Furthermore, semi- and fully professional football players began to emerge and transfer fees started to become a reality. Roughly speaking, the Swiss football movement had tripled in size in about a decade. Switzerland also developed one of the first professional leagues in Europe, which contributed to the professionalisation of the sport. The clubs were modern and innovative, this put Swiss football on the European stage and during this period, many talented players ashined. The golden age of Swiss football was an era of growth, success, and innovation. The combination of sporting success and the development of professional structures laid the foundation for the future development of football in Switzerland and made the country one of the most innovative in European football at that time. In the meantime, to try and relieve these uprising confrontations and the resulting awkward situation, the competition called
Swiss Cup was organized for the season 1925–26 by the SFAV. The first edition was a success and this season 88 clubs applied to participate for the "Sandoz Trophy," which is still in use today. Therefore, the preliminary round was expanded, 48 teams played a knock out round, to qualify for the 24 slots in the first round.
Format This season's cup competition began with the afore mentioned preliminary round, which was held in advance of the main competition. This qualifying round was played on the first Sunday in September 1926, thus also in advance of the domestic league season. The first principal round was played on the first Sunday in October. The competition was to be completed on Sunday 3 April 1927 with the final, which this year took place at the
Förrlibuck in
Zürich. The preliminary round was held for the lower league teams that were not qualified for the main competition. Reserve teams were not admitted to the competition. The 27 clubs from this season's top-tier, the
1926–27 Serie A, joined the cup competition in the first principal round, which was played on Sunday 3 October 1926. The matches were played in a knockout format. In the event of a draw after 90 minutes, the match went into extra time. In the event of a draw at the end of extra time, if agreed between the clubs, a second extra time was played. If the score was still level at the final whistle, a replay was foreseen and this was played on the visiting team's pitch. If no replay was agreed or if the replay ended in a draw after extra time, a
toss of a coin would establish which team was qualified for the next round. ==Preliminary round==