Stolen from the corner of the wood: this is the feeling that animated the players of FC Wettingen the evening of Tuesday October 31, 1989 in Naples.
The Argovians had let loose a qualification for the third round of the UEFA Cup which was reaching out to them, following a scandalous arbitration decision.
After having won 0-0 in the first leg against Diego Maradona and his teammates in a Letzigrund filled by 23,000 spectators despite the almost exorbitant price of places – 100 francs for a platform -, FC Wettingen had testified to a rare master’s degree at San Paolo. Deprived this time of Maradona struck by an internal suspension a few days before his nuptials which he was going to celebrate in Buenos-Aires, Napoli conceded the opening of the score in the 16th minute on a success of the Dane Brian Bertelsen.
Marcel Heldmann, Dan Corneliusson and Andreas Löbmann then had to squander golden opportunities in front of the cage defended by Giuliano Giuliani before this fateful 76th minute. The moment chosen by the Maltese referee Edgar Azzopardi to whistle a nonexistent penalty which was transformed by Massimo Mauro for 2-1, and which sealed the qualification of the trophy holder.
“A bad joke”
“The penalty was a bad joke,” keeper Jörg Stiel is still fuming today. The former captain of the Swiss team, then aged 21, was one of the strong men of the team as well as Peter Schepull, Martin Rueda and Roger Kundert. This quartet keeps the memory of having really looked eye to eye this October 31, 1989 the Alemao, Careca, Ciro Ferrara, Gianfranco Zola and other Andrea Carnevale. The team of a small Aargau village had not been far from signing a very improbable feat in the face of a formation led by the future coach of FC Sion Alberto Bigon.
The feeling of injustice felt by the Argovians in Naples, whom they had joined by … private jet, was all the more exacerbated since the club had just experienced a real earthquake with the Kloetzli affair. Eleven days before the first leg against Naples, the Jura referee Bruno Kloetzli had not validated a tie in the last second of the Argovians in Sion. Four Wettingen players rushed to him for one of the most famous scrums in the history of Swiss football.
Roger Kundert had been suspended for 4 months, Martin Frei for 8 months, Reto Baumgartner for 10 months and Alex Germann for 12 months. The Kloetzli affair marked the beginning of the end for FC Wettingen. Relegated to LNB in 1992, the club was bankrupt in 1993 to start again in 5th league. It is currently playing in the 2nd inter-regional league.
ats
–
