1979–80 Nationalliga A

This is the summary of the Swiss National League in the 1979–80 football season, both Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B. This was the 83rd season of top-tier and the 82nd season of second-tier football in Switzerland.

Nationalliga A

Season	1979–80
Champions	Basel
Relegated	La Chaux-de-Fonds Lugano
European Cup	Basel
Cup Winners' Cup	Sion
UEFA Cup	Grasshopper Club Servette
Top goalscorer	Claudio Sulser (GC) 25 goals
← 1978–79 1980–81 →

Nationalliga B

Season	1979–80
Champions	Bellinzona
Promoted	Bellinzona Nordstern
Relegated	FC Raron FC Baden
Top goalscorer	Roger Ries (Nordstern) 17 goals
← 1978–79 1980–81 →

Overview

The Swiss Football Association (ASF/SFV) had 28 members at this time. The clubs were divided into two tiers, both tiers with of 14 teams each, the top tier Nationalliga A (NLA) had been increased by two and the second tier Nationalliga B (NLB) decreased by two. The format in both divisions was that the teams played a double round-robin to decide their table positions. Each club playing every other club twice (home and away) for a total of 26 rounds. Two points were awarded for a win and one point was awarded for a draw. The top placed six teams then played a championship stage. For all others teams the season was complete. In the championship group the teams played another double round-robin and each team took half of the points gained in the first stage, rounded up to complete units, as bonus with them.

The Swiss champions would qualify for the 1980–81 European Cup, the runners-up and third placed team would qualify for the 1980–81 UEFA Cup. The last two teams of the NLA were relegated to the second-tier. The top two teams in the NLB were promoted to top-level. The bottom two teams were relegated to the 1980–81 1. Liga.

Nationalliga A

The first round of the NLA was played on 11 August 1979. There was a winter break between 2 December and 2 March 1980. The season was completed on 20 May and the championship group on 30 June 1980.

Teams, locations

Team	Town	Canton	Stadium	Capacity
FC Basel	Basel	Basel-Stadt	St. Jakob Stadium	36,800
CS Chênois	Thônex	Geneva	Stade des Trois-Chêne	8,000
FC Chiasso	Chiasso	Ticino	Stadio Comunale Riva IV	4,000
Grasshopper Club Zürich	Zürich	Zürich	Hardturm	20,000
FC La Chaux-de-Fonds	La Chaux-de-Fonds	Neuchâtel	Centre Sportif de la Charrière	12,700
FC Lausanne-Sport	Lausanne	Vaud	Pontaise	15,700
FC Luzern	Lucerne	Lucerne	Stadion Allmend	25,000
FC Lugano	Lugano	Ticino	Cornaredo Stadium	6,330
Neuchâtel Xamax FC	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Stade de la Maladière	25,500
FC St. Gallen	St. Gallen	St. Gallen	Espenmoos	11,000
Servette FC	Geneva	Geneva	Stade des Charmilles	27,000
FC Sion	Sion	Valais	Stade de Tourbillon	16,000
BSC Young Boys	Bern	Bern	Wankdorf Stadium	56,000
FC Zürich	Zürich	Zürich	Letzigrund	25,000

Qualifying phase table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Servette	26	16	7	3	61	25	+36	39	Advance to championship round halved points (rounded up) as bonus
2	Basel[1]	26	15	7	4	67	27	+40	37
3	Grasshopper Club	26	14	8	4	61	21	+40	36
4	Luzern	26	14	4	8	44	44	0	32
5	Zürich[2]	26	13	5	8	56	42	+14	31
6	Sion	26	11	9	6	47	37	+10	31
7	St. Gallen	26	11	6	9	48	37	+11	28	entered 1980 Intertoto Cup
8	Chiasso	26	6	11	9	27	43	−16	23
9	Lausanne-Sport	26	8	6	12	35	38	−3	22
10	Young Boys	26	8	5	13	34	49	−15	21	entered 1980 Intertoto Cup
11	Chênois	26	4	12	10	32	45	−13	20
12	Xamax	26	8	4	14	33	48	−15	20	entered 1980 Intertoto Cup
13	La Chaux-de-Fonds	26	5	7	14	24	57	−33	17	Relegated to 1980–81 Nationalliga B
14	Lugano	26	1	5	20	18	74	−56	7

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored;

Results

Home \ Away	BAS	CDF	CHÊ	CHI	GCZ	LS	LUG	LUZ	NX	SER	SIO	STG	YB	ZÜR
Basel		6–0	0–0	6–1	2–0	3–1	7–0	8–2	6–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	4–1	3–1
La Chaux-de-Fonds	1–1		2–2	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	0–1	4–1	0–5	1–2	1–2	0–0	0–0
Chênois	1–1	4–2		0–0	1–1	2–2	3–1	3–0	0–2	2–2	2–2	3–0	2–2	2–4
Chiasso	1–1	2–1	2–1		1–1	1–0	3–3	2–3	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–0	2–1	1–0
Grasshopper Club	4–1	5–0	5–0	6–2		4–0	4–0	5–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	3–0	1–1	0–0
Lausanne-Sports	0–3	5–1	4–0	1–1	1–1		2–1	1–3	1–1	0–0	0–2	0–0	3–1	3–0
Lugano	2–5	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	0–1		1–4	2–5	0–1	0–4	2–2	1–3	0–2
Luzern	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	2–1	2–1		1–0	1–1	2–2	2–1	3–1	2–1
Neuchâtel Xamax	0–1	4–0	3–1	1–0	0–3	0–1	2–0	1–1		1–2	2–1	1–0	0–1	2–3
Servette	0–0	4–0	4–1	2–1	4–2	3–1	8–0	3–2	6–0		2–3	4–1	1–0	0–4
Sion	1–2	1–1	2–1	4–0	2–1	0–3	1–1	3–1	2–2	1–1		2–2	3–1	3–2
St. Gallen	3–0	6–0	1–1	2–1	1–4	1–0	4–0	2–1	3–0	1–1	4–0		2–3	4–0
Young Boys	1–3	0–3	0–0	1–1	0–2	2–1	2–1	3–1	3–2	1–2	0–3	4–2		1–2
Zürich	1–1	3–1	0–0	7–2	2–2	3–2	5–1	3–1	4–2	1–3	4–2	0–3	4–1

Source: rsssf.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	BP	Pts	Qualification
1	Basel[1]	10	6	2	2	24	11	+13	19	33	Champions, qualified for 1980–81 European Cup
2	Grasshopper Club	10	5	3	2	21	11	+10	18	31	qualified for 1980–81 UEFA Cup
3	Servette	10	5	1	4	18	11	+7	20	31	qualified for 1980–81 UEFA Cup
4	Zürich[2]	10	5	1	4	17	15	+2	16	27
5	Sion	10	4	2	4	22	20	+2	16	26	Swiss Cup winners, qualified for 1980–81 Cup Winners' Cup and entered 1980 Intertoto Cup
6	Luzern	10	0	1	9	4	38	−34	16	17

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored;

Results

Home \ Away	BAS	GCZ	LUZ	SER	SIO	ZÜR
Basel		0–0	5–0	2–0	3–2	2–0
Grasshopper Club	3–1		8–0	2–1	2–2	0–1
Luzern	0–4	0–1		0–2	3–5	0–2
Servette	2–1	1–1	6–0		2–0	3–0
Sion	2–2	0–3	4–0	3–1		3–2
Zürich	2–4	5–1	1–1	2–0	2–1

Source: rsssf.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Nationalliga B

Teams, locations

Team	Town	Canton	Stadium	Capacity
FC Aarau	Aarau	Aargau	Stadion Brügglifeld	9,240
FC Baden	Baden	Aargau	Esp Stadium	7,000
AC Bellinzona	Bellinzona	Ticino	Stadio Comunale Bellinzona	5,000
FC Bern	Bern	Bern	Stadion Neufeld	14,000
FC Biel-Bienne	Biel/Bienne	Bern	Stadion Gurzelen	15,000
FC Frauenfeld	Frauenfeld	Thurgau	Kleine Allmend	6,370
FC Fribourg	Fribourg	Fribourg	Stade Universitaire	9,000
FC Grenchen	Grenchen	Solothurn	Stadium Brühl	15,100
SC Kriens	Kriens	Lucerne	Stadion Kleinfeld	5,100
FC Nordstern Basel	Basel	Basel-Stadt	Rankhof	7,600
FC Raron[3]	Raron	Valais	Sportplatz Rhoneglut	1,000
Vevey-Sports	Vevey	Vaud	Stade de Copet	4,000
FC Wettingen	Wettingen	Aargau	Stadion Altenburg	10,000
FC Winterthur	Winterthur	Zürich	Schützenwiese	8,550

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	AC Bellinzona	26	12	14	0	37	14	+23	38	NLB Champions promoted to 1980–81 Nationalliga A
2	FC Nordstern Basel	26	15	7	4	63	32	+31	37	Promoted to 1980–81 Nationalliga A
3	FC Winterthur	26	13	7	6	46	32	+14	33
4	Vevey-Sports	26	12	7	7	46	27	+19	31
5	FC Fribourg	26	11	7	8	30	24	+6	29
6	FC Bern	26	11	7	8	44	41	+3	29
7	FC Frauenfeld	26	9	10	7	30	26	+4	28
8	FC Grenchen	26	9	8	9	38	40	−2	26
9	FC Aarau[4]	26	8	8	10	43	52	−9	24
10	FC Biel-Bienne	26	6	11	9	24	29	−5	23
11	FC Wettingen	26	6	8	12	47	46	+1	20
12	SC Kriens	26	6	6	14	29	51	−22	18
13	FC Raron[5]	26	5	5	16	21	47	−26	15	Relegated to 1980–81 1. Liga
14	FC Baden[5]	26	5	3	18	29	66	−37	13	Relegated to 1980–81 1. Liga

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored;

Further in Swiss football

• 1979–80 Swiss Cup
• 1979–80 Swiss 1. Liga