2005: FC Thun celebrates entering the Champions League group stage. Image: KEYSTONE
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When FC Thun stunned Europe, pocketed millions – and chaos followed
Almost 15 years ago, FC Thun wrote the most amazing chapter in its club history. In the sold-out Stade de Suisse he moves into the Champions League with the 3: 0 against Malmö.
Andres Gerber, today’s sports director and then captain of FC Thun, called the qualification for the group phase of the Champions League “one of the greatest sensations in European football”.
The Bernese Oberlanders not only came from a relatively small city and had no title to show, they were also mouse-poor on a European football scale. Hardly any other club has ever played in the Champions League group stage with a budget of CHF 5.5 million.
Eldin Jakupovic was hard to beat at the time. Image: AP
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FC Thun fascinated all of Europe with its steep climb for several weeks: 1997 promotion to the NLB, 2002 promotion to the Super League, 2005 championship runner-up and a few months later this fantastic qualification. Thanks to the outstanding goalie Eldin Jakupovic, Dynamo Kiev was eliminated and then a feasible draw with Malmö.
The Thuners were accommodated by the fact that they took over the set position of the defeated Ukrainians in the lottery pot and were allowed to compete against an unsettled team. Today, after the exploit against Dynamo Kiev, the Thuners would again be given a heavyweight.
At the latest after the 1-0 in Malmö, the Bernese Oberland was seized by the euphoria. There were FC Thun tarts to buy, a large screen was set up in the city and a free night was granted. «We succeed with little money but a lot of work. People like that, »said midfielder Silvan Aegerter at the time. 32,000 tickets were sold for the game at the Stade de Suisse. The fact that some places remained free was due to the circumstances in the Bernese Oberland.
Premiere at the Stade de Suisse
While the players of FC Thun were preparing for the match, torrential rain broke out over the region and caused the flood of the century. On August 22, 2005, the day before the game, Lake Thun rose so much that the Lachen stadium, at that time the actual home of FC Thun, was under water.
August 2005: The Lachen Stadium in Thun is under water. Image: KEYSTONE
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The planned transmission to the big screen was no longer an option, and the free night was also canceled. Some villages in the Bernese Oberland were cut off by the storm.
The Stade de Suisse was on the evening of the match – it was only the tenth Thuner European Cup appearance – still red and white. 31,243 spectators found their way to the stadium, which had been sold out for the first time since the opening a few weeks earlier. Thanks to the 2-0 lead, the team was already on course at the break.
So the SRF looked back at the Thun euphoria. Video: SRF
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After a good hour, Mauro Lustrinelli finished with a wonderful long shot from 35 meters. The way for further highlights at the Stade de Suisse was paved: more than 30,000 fans were also in the stadium against Arsenal, Ajax Amsterdam and Sparta Prague in the group phase. As a group third, Thun even qualified for the UEFA Cup sixteen semifinals against Hamburger SV.
Layoffs and exodus
It would be an exaggeration to say that the climb followed the fall. But it is true that FC Thun skidded after the Champions League. In February 2006, coach Urs Schönenberger was fired between the clearly lost vote for a new stadium and the UEFA Cup match against Hamburg.
Sports director Werner Gerber had been disempowered a good month earlier. The two kept getting into each other’s hair when it came to what should be done with the additional income of over ten million francs.
Shortly after the European fairy tale, Mauro Lustrinelli left Thun and coach Urs Schönenberger was released. Image: KEYSTONE
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“There were only two topics left: money and the media,” said then President Kurt Weder pretty much exactly one year after the European soaring. In September 2006, FC Thun was last in the Super League and had only five players in the squad who had started against Malmo.
Most Champions League heroes had gone in all directions: to Moscow (Jakupovic), Bochum (David Pallas), Edinburgh (José Gonçalves) or Prague (Lustrinelli). Only one, Silvan Aegerter, played again in the Champions League after the Thun soar – 2009 with FC Zurich, when his former club had long since regained his down-to-earthness. (abu / sda)
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