Serie A era , winners of the first championship organized by the
Swiss Football Association. The
Swiss Football Association was founded in 1895, but were initially unable to organize an annual competition, citing the teams' travel costs. The
first unofficial championship, competed for the
Ruinart Cup, was organized by
Genevan newspaper
La Suisse sportive as a response in 1897. It was mainly contested by teams from the
French-speaking area, with the exception of
FC Zürich and
Grasshopper Club Zürich, the latter of which eventually won the tournament. The inaugural official championship was therefore organized for the following season, in
1898–99, and won by
Anglo-American Club against
Old Boys Basel. It was, however, only competed by
Swiss-German teams (with the exception of a team from
Neuchâtel) until 1900, due to a dispute about playing on Sundays. Teams from the
canton of Zürich continued to dominate the league until
1907–08, with Grasshoppers winning a further three,
FC Winterthur winning two, and FC Zürich winning one title. Other champions from that time included
Servette,
St. Gallen, and
Young Boys, who subsequently also won three in a row from 1908–1911. Over the next decade,
FC Aarau, Montriond LS (now
Lausanne-Sport),
SC Brühl, and Cantonal Neuchâtel FC each won their first title as nobody managed to monopolize the league. During the 1920s and 1930s, championships were achieved almost exclusively by modern Super League regulars, namely Grasshoppers, Servette, Zürich, Young Boys, Lausanne-Sport, and
FC Lugano.
FC Bern was the exception in 1923; however, their championship was denied after the use of an unauthorized player.
Nationalliga era The league was reformed into the Nationalliga in 1931 and initially changed from three regional groups to two groups with 9 teams each. The league composition thereafter varied on several occasions, ranging from 12 to 16 teams competing in a single group. Contrary to its neighboring countries, national football was not
suspended during World War II due to Switzerland's neutrality, but the post-war years nevertheless brought change. The
1944–45 season saw the separation of the league into the Nationalliga A and B, with the winner of the former declared Swiss champion. The
1946–47,
1947–48,
1952–53, and
1953–54 seasons saw further maiden victories achieved by
FC Biel-Bienne,
AC Bellinzona,
FC Basel, and
FC La-Chaux-de-Fonds, respectively. In 1954, broadcasting rights were sold to
SRG SSR for the first time, with the company initially being restricted in showing games on TV. For the
1956–57 season,
jersey numbers were declared mandatory, with Young Boys initiating an unprecedented streak of four titles the same season. The 1980s and 1990s saw Grasshoppers dominate and
Neuchâtel Xamax,
FC Luzern, and
FC Sion win their first titles in
1986–87,
1988–89, and
1991–92. promptly leading to a new transfer record of 1.3 million francs with Servette acquiring
Mats Magnusson. In
1992–93 Aarau won the championship the first time in 79 years, while St. Gallen earned their first title in 97 years
at the turn of the millennium. This new era initially proved to be one of domination for Basel, as 11 of the first 14 seasons were won by them, including a record-breaking streak of 8 championships between 2009 and 2017. After a change in leadership in 2017, however, they were dethroned by Young Boys, who won the next four straight championships. The proposal includes three stages: an initial round-robin qualifying stage with all 12 teams (22 rounds); an intermediary stage, with two groups (1st-6th placed in the Championship and 7-12th placed in the Qualification Group) of six teams each (10 rounds); the format of the third and final playoff phase is still to be determined. Despite pushback from fans and a general negative response from club officials, the proposal to increase the league size as well as the proposed format change were approved by the general assembly of the Swiss Football League on 20 May 2022. The details of the final playoff stage was also finalized: • The first and second placed teams of the Championship Group will play a
best of three Championship Final. The first placed team has home advantage in the first and third game. • The 3rd-6th placed teams of the Championship Group and the 1st-4th placed teams of the Qualification Group (eight teams total) will play a three round playoff for the remaining spots in international championships. The playoff will be carried out according to the European model, with home and away games except in the final match. Teams are seeded according to their placement. • The 5th placed team of the Qualification Group will play a relegation playoff against the second placed team of the Challenge League. The last placed team is relegated directly. The new format will be implemented for the
2023–24 season, while the transitional
2022–23 season will have only the last placed team playing a relegation playoff against the 3rd place of the
Challenge League. A change of format for the
Swiss Challenge League is not yet clear. In October 2022, following heavy fan protests, reigning champions
FC Zürich officially submitted a request to repeal the decision to introduce the play-off modus. Instead they propose to use the system used in the
Scottish Premiership. An according fan petition gathered 18,000 signatures (including
national team star
Breel Embolo) in the first day of its publication and Super League heavy-weights
BSC Young Boys officially supported the motion immediately. This triggered a renewed vote by the general assembly. On 11 November 2022, the new proposal to instead use the "Scottish Model" was approved by the general assembly of the Swiss Football League. By the time of the vote, the petition opposing the play-off system had gathered over 60,000 signatures. The increased number of teams was not up for a re-vote, though. The new format is as follows: • In a first phase all twelve teams play each other three times each, for a total of 33 matchdays. • Following that, the league is split into two groups of six each, one "Championship Group" and one "Relegation Group". • Each team will play every other team in their group one time (five matches each), for a total of 38 matchdays. • The Championship Group will play for the title of Swiss Football Champion and qualification to European championships. • The Relegation Group will play against relegation (last place) and qualification to the relegation play-off (second-to-last place). • Points won in the first phase are carried over to the second phase. At the beginning of each season, the
Swiss Football Association 'predicts' the likely positions of each club in order to produce a fixture schedule that ensures the best possible chance of all clubs playing each other twice at home and twice away. This is known as the league 'seeding' and is based on clubs' performance in the previous season. If the clubs do not finish in the half where they are predicted to finish, then anomalies can be created in the fixture list. Clubs sometimes play another three times at home and once away (or vice versa), or a club can end up playing 20 home (or away) games in a season These "Scottish Model" format changes were implemented for the
2023-24 Swiss Super League season, alongside the expansion to 12 teams. Due to the expansion, the
2022-23 season had no automatic relegation spots and two promotion spots in the
Swiss Challenge League. There was, however, a promotion/relegation playoff between 3rd in the Challenge League and 12th in the Super League. == Clubs ==