2001–02 Nationalliga A

The 2002–03 season of the Swiss Nationalliga contained two divisions, each with twelve clubs. The top tier was called Nationalliga A (NLA) (French: Ligue Nationale A, Italian: Lega Nazionale A) and the second tier was named Nationalliga B (NLB).

Nationalliga A

Season	2001–02
Champions	Basel 9th title
Relegated	Sporting: Aarau Luzern License: None
Top goalscorer	Christian Giménez (28) Richard Núñez (28)
← 2000–01 2002–03 →

Overview

The season was divided into two phases. The first of which was the qualification phase, and within the divisions the teams played a double round-robin, one at home and the other away. The divisions were then split. The first eight teams of the NLA then competed in the championship group and played a further double round-robin. The teams in ninth to twelfth position competed with the top four teams of the NLB in a promotion/relegation group to decide which four teams would play top tier next season. The other eight teams of the second tier competed in a play-out against relegation to the 1. Liga and the last two teams were to be relegated.

This was the second last season in which the Swiss championship would be competed in this format. It was already in planning that in two seasons the Nationalliga would be renamed to Swiss Football League and the championships were to be renamed and reformed.

Nationalliga A

Qualification phase

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Basel	22	13	4	5	52	37	+15	43	Advance to championship round halved points (rounded up) as bonus
2	Lugano	22	11	5	6	39	33	+6	38
3	Grasshopper Club	22	11	4	7	50	33	+17	37
4	St. Gallen	22	9	8	5	38	32	+6	35
5	Servette	22	9	7	6	36	29	+7	34
6	Sion	22	10	3	9	40	29	+11	33
7	Young Boys	22	8	7	7	35	28	+7	31
8	Zürich	22	7	9	6	24	27	−3	30
9	Aarau	22	7	6	9	28	25	+3	27	Continue to promotion/relegation round
10	Neuchâtel Xamax	22	6	7	9	28	36	−8	25
11	Lausanne-Sport	22	4	4	14	24	49	−25	16
12	Luzern	22	3	4	15	23	59	−36	13

Source: RSSSF

Results

Home \ Away	AAR	BAS	GCZ	LS	LUG	LUZ	NX	SER	SIO	STG	YB	ZÜR
Aarau		1–1	1–0	2–0	3–1	3–2	1–2	1–1	0–1	2–2	2–0	2–3
Basel	1–0		4–5	3–1	5–1	4–1	5–1	3–1	2–2	2–1	3–1	2–1
Grasshopper	1–0	1–0		1–2	2–5	6–0	4–1	3–0	6–1	0–3	1–1	0–0
Lausanne-Sport	0–3	2–4	2–4		1–2	3–2	1–1	0–3	1–1	2–1	2–3	1–1
Lugano	1–0	1–2	5–3	2–1		5–0	3–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–1
Luzern	2–1	0–1	2–1	1–3	1–2		0–0	1–1	1–3	2–6	0–4	3–0
Neuchâtel Xamax	0–0	1–0	1–4	2–1	1–3	4–1		1–3	3–0	0–0	0–0	1–1
Servette	3–3	1–4	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–0		1–2	2–3	3–0	0–2
St. Gallen	1–1	3–3	0–0	3–0	0–1	1–1	4–3	2–2		0–1	4–1	3–1
Sion	0–1	8–1	2–1	1–0	5–0	3–1	0–4	1–3	0–1		1–0	0–1
Young Boys	2–1	2–2	1–3	7–0	1–1	5–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	3–2		1–1
Zürich	1–0	2–0	1–3	1–0	2–3	1–1	1–1	0–3	3–2	0–0	0–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship round

The first eight teams of the qualification then competed in the Championship Round. They took half of the points (rounded up to complete units) gained in the Qualification as bonus with them.

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	BP	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Basel (C)	14	11	0	3	36	16	+20	22	55	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
2	Grasshopper Club	14	7	5	2	28	17	+11	19	45	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
3	Lugano[a] (R)	14	7	2	5	23	19	+4	19	42	Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round
4	Servette	14	6	3	5	25	23	+2	17	38	Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round
5	Zürich	14	6	2	6	14	17	−3	15	35	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
6	St. Gallen	14	4	4	6	18	20	−2	18	34	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
7	Young Boys	14	4	3	7	18	25	−7	16	31
8	Sion[a] (R)	14	1	1	12	10	35	−25	17	21

Source: RSSSF
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Both Lugano and Sion did not obtain a 1st level license for the 2002/03 season. Nor die Lausanne; all three clubs are relegated to the NL B and their NL A places filled by Aarau, Delémont and Luzern.

Results

Home \ Away	BAS	GCZ	LUG	SER	SIO	STG	YB	ZÜR
Basel		4–1	4–3	3–2	4–0	1–2	2–0	1–0
Grasshopper	1–0		2–1	2–2	1–0	3–3	1–1	3–0
Lugano	2–5	1–0		1–3	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–0
Servette	1–2	1–5	1–0		4–1	2–2	0–0	0–1
Sion	0–3	0–2	1–4	2–3		0–2	3–1	1–1
St. Gallen	1–3	2–2	0–0	1–3	2–1		3–1	0–1
Young Boys	0–3	1–4	2–2	3–1	4–0	1–0		3–2
Zürich	3–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	2–1	1–0	2–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Nationalliga B

Qualification phase

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Wil	22	12	5	5	53	32	+21	41	Advance to promotion/relegation NLA/LNB round
2	Winterthur	22	12	3	7	48	48	0	39
3	Thun	22	11	5	6	42	32	+10	38
4	Delémont	22	11	5	6	33	26	+7	38
5	Yverdon-Sport	22	10	5	7	37	31	+6	35	Continue to relegation round NLB/1. Liga halved points (rounded up) as bonus
6	Étoile Carouge	22	8	7	7	27	26	+1	31
7	Kriens	22	9	3	10	28	30	−2	30
8	Bellinzona	22	7	4	11	26	33	−7	25
9	Baden	22	5	9	8	40	37	+3	24
10	Locarno	22	6	5	11	28	34	−6	23
11	Vaduz	22	5	7	10	34	43	−9	22
12	Concordia Basel	22	5	4	13	34	58	−24	19

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Promotion/relegation NLA/NLB

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Xamax	14	8	4	2	26	12	+14	28	Remain in NLA
2	Lausanne-Sport[a]	14	8	2	4	21	14	+7	26	Did not obtain licence for top level
3	Wil	14	6	5	3	17	13	+4	23	Promoted to NLA
4	Thun	14	6	3	5	19	18	+1	21
5	Aarau[a]	14	6	3	5	20	20	0	21	Relegated, but remained in NLA via green table
6	Delémont[a]	14	4	4	6	14	20	−6	16	Promoted on green table
7	Luzern[a]	14	2	5	7	26	28	−2	11	Relegated, but remained in NLA via green table
8	Winterthur	14	1	4	9	11	29	−18	7	Remain in NLB

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
Notes:

1. Lausanne did not obtain a top level license for the 2002/03 season, neither did Lugano and Sion; these three clubs were relegated to the NLB and their NLA places filled by Aarau, Delémont and Luzern.

Results

Home \ Away	AAR	DEL	NX	LS	LUZ	THU	WIL	WIN
Aarau		2–0	2–1	0–3	2–1	1–3	0–1	3–0
Delémont	2–1		1–2	4–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–0
Neuchâtel Xamax	3–1	4–0		1–0	3–2	4–0	2–0	2–0
Lausanne-Sport	0–1	3–2	1–1		1–0	1–0	2–0	4–1
Luzern	2–2	4–1	2–2	1–2		3–3	1–2	4–1
Thun	0–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	4–2		1–2	1–0
Wil	2–2	3–1	0–0	0–0	2–2	2–0		2–0
Winterthur	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–4	3–2	1–2	1–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation NLB/1. Liga

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	BP	Pts	Qualification
1	Yverdon-Sport	14	8	1	5	30	26	+4	18	43	Remain in LNB
2	Vaduz	14	8	3	3	28	18	+10	11	38
3	Bellinzona	14	7	3	4	22	18	+4	13	37
4	Kriens	14	7	0	7	31	24	+7	15	36
5	Concordia Basel	14	6	4	4	23	20	+3	15	37
6	Baden	14	5	2	7	15	21	−6	12	29
7	Locarno	14	4	5	5	17	19	−2	12	29	Relegated to 1. Liga
8	Étoile Carouge	14	1	2	11	10	30	−20	16	21

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) Position in the qualification