2015–16 Swiss Challenge League

The 2015-16 Swiss Challenge League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Brack.ch Challenge League, was the 13th season of the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier in the Swiss football pyramid. It began on 18 July 2015 and ended on 27 May 2016.^[1] After the 18th matchday the league will be on winter break between 7 December 2015 and 6 February 2016.

Swiss Challenge League

Season	2015–16
Champions	Lausanne-Sport
Promoted	Lausanne-Sport
Top goalscorer	Jocelyn Roux (20 goals)
Highest scoring	Lausanne-Sport 5–4 Biel-Bienne (18 July 2015)
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

Participating teams

2014–15 Swiss Challenge League champions FC Lugano were promoted to the 2015–16 Swiss Super League. They were replaced by FC Aarau, who were relegated after last place finish in the 2014–15 Swiss Super League. Last placed team of the 2014–15 Challenge League season FC Biel-Bienne were spared from relegation as Servette FC failed to obtain a license for the 2015-16 season and were relegated to the 1. Liga Promotion.^[2] Servette were replaced by 1. Liga Promotion champion Neuchâtel Xamax.

Stadia and locations

Aarau

Biel/Bienne

Chiasso

Lausanne

Le Mont

Neuchâtel Xamax

Schaffhausen

Wil

Winterthur

Wohlen

Locations of clubs in the 2015–16 Challenge League

Team	Venue	Capacity
FC Aarau	Stadion Brügglifeld	8,000
FC Biel-Bienne	Tissot Arena	5,200
FC Chiasso	Stadio Comunale	5,000
FC Lausanne-Sport	Pontaise	8,500
FC Le Mont	Stade Sous-Ville	4,000
Neuchâtel Xamax	Stade de la Maladière	12,000
FC Schaffhausen	Stadion Breite	4,200
FC Wil	IGP Arena	6,958
FC Winterthur	Schützenwiese	8,550
FC Wohlen	Stadion Niedermatten	3,624

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Sponsor
FC Aarau	Marco Schällibaum	Nike	Zehnder Group AG
FC Biel-Bienne	Zlatko Petričević	Nike	Fors
FC Chiasso	Giancarlo Camolese	Primato	Caffè Chicco D'Oro
FC Lausanne-Sport	Fabio Celestini	Adidas	BCV
FC Le Mont	Claude Gross	Joma	AQUATIS
Neuchâtel Xamax	Michel Decastel	Erima	Video2000 Viteos
FC Schaffhausen	Maurizio Jacobacci	gpard	Ersparniskasse Schaffhausen Methabau
FC Wil	Kevin Cooper	Nike	Hans Eisenring
FC Winterthur	Sven Christ	gpard	Keller
FC Wohlen	Martin Rueda	Adidas	IBW

Managerial changes

Club	Name	Date of departure	Replacement	Date of appointment
Aarau	Livio Bordoli	13 October 2015[3]	Marco Schällibaum	18 October 2015[4]
Chiasso	Marco Schällibaum	18 October 2015	Giancarlo Camolese	20 October 2015[5]
Neuchâtel Xamax	Roberto Cattilaz	20 October 2015[6]	Michel Decastel	21 October 2015
Wil	Fuat Çapa	23 October 2015[7][8]	Philipp Dux (Interim)	23 October 2015
Wil	Philipp Dux (Interim)	4 November 2015	Kevin Cooper	4 November 2015[9]
Winterthur	Jürgen Seeberger	26 November 2015[10]	Dario Zuffi (interim)[11]	26 November 2015
Winterthur	Dario Zuffi (interim)	28 December 2015	Sven Christ	28 December 2015[12]
Biel-Bienne	Patrick Rahmen	24 February[13]	Petar Aleksandrov (interim)	25 February
Biel-Bienne	Petar Aleksandrov (interim)	29 March	Zlatko Petričević	29 March[14]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Lausanne-Sport (C, P)	34	19	8	7	61	39	+22	65	Promotion to 2016–17 Swiss Super League
2	Neuchâtel Xamax	34	15	9	10	53	42	+11	54
3	Wil	34	14	11	9	60	49	+11	53
4	Aarau	34	12	14	8	44	39	+5	50
5	Schaffhausen	34	14	5	15	43	45	−2	47
6	Winterthur	34	12	7	15	40	49	−9	43
7	Chiasso	34	7	16	11	39	44	−5	37
8	Wohlen	34	9	9	16	35	52	−17	36
9	Le Mont	34	7	11	16	36	50	−14	32
10	Biel-Bienne[a] (R)	34	5	22	7	28	30	−2	16	Relegation to 2016–17 1. Liga Promotion

Source: Swiss Challenge League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored; 4) head-to-head points; 5) draw^[19]
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. FC Biel-Bienne were deducted one point for licence violation.^[15] On 22 April Biel-Bienne were deducted four more points.^[16] On 27 April licence committee of the Swiss Football League stripped Biel-Bienne of their league licence. Results of Biel-Bienne's second half of the season were converted to 0-0 draws that award no points.^[17][18]

Results

First and Second Round Home \ Away AAR BB CHI LAS LMT NEU SHA WIL WIN WOH Aarau 2–3 1–1 0–3 2–1 2–1 2–0 1–1 1–2 1–1 Biel-Bienne 3–1 1–1 0–3[a] 3–3 2–2 2–0 0–0 5–1 0–3 Chiasso 1–1 0–0 1–2 2–2 2–1 3–0 2–2 1–3 1–1 Lausanne-Sport 1–1 5–4 1–2 1–1 2–3 1–0 3–0 0–2 2–0 Le Mont 0–0 1–1 1–1 1–3 2–1 2–0 1–0 1–0 3–0 Neuchâtel 2–0 1–4 0–0 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–3 1–0 1–1 Schaffhausen 1–0 2–0 2–0 0–4 2–0 2–1 4–1 1–2 1–1 Wil 0–0 2–0 4–1 3–3 3–1 3–2 3–2 0–0 1–3 Winterthur 1–1 1–0 3–1 0–1 2–2 2–0 0–2 1–2 0–0 Wohlen 0–0 2–0 0–3 1–2 2–2 0–2 2–1 1–3 3–2 Source: Swiss Challenge League Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes: Lausanne was awarded a 3–0 w/o win due to Biel-Bienne fielding more foreign players (5) than allowed (4). Match originally ended in a 3–2 win for Lausanne.[20]

Third and Fourth Round Home \ Away AAR BB CHI LAS LMT NEU SHA WIL WIN WOH Aarau 0–0 3–2 1–2 1–0 2–2 1–3 2–1 3–0 2–0 Biel-Bienne 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 Chiasso 1–2 0–0 1–1 2–0 2–1 1–1 1–1 1–2 1–0 Lausanne-Sport 1–1 0–0 0–0 2–1 1–1 0–1 2–1 1–4 1–0 Le Mont 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–2 2–4 0–1 1–1 2–0 2–0 Neuchâtel 0–0 0–0 2–1 3–1 1–0 1–1 4–2 2–0 4–0 Schaffhausen 1–3 0–0 3–1 0–2 4–1 0–0 1–3 2–2 4–1 Wil 3–3 0–0 1–1 2–3 3–0 3–1 3–0 2–1 1–1 Winterthur 0–2 0–0 0–0 2–2 2–1 0–3 1–0 1–2 1–4 Wohlen 0–1 0–0 2–1 1–3 2–1 2–2 0–1 1–0 0–2 Source: Swiss Challenge League Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jocelyn Roux	Wil / Lausanne-Sport	20
2	Antonio Marchesano	Biel-Bienne	13
	Charles-André Doudin	Neuchâtel Xamax
4	Deniz Mujic	Schaffhausen	11
5	Patrick Rossini	Aarau	10
	Pak Kwang-ryong	Lausanne-Sport / Biel-Bienne

As of 27 May 2016^[21]