FC Vaduz
Fussball Club Vaduz is a professional football club from Vaduz, Liechtenstein that plays in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football. The club plays at the national Rheinpark Stadion, which has a capacity of 5,873 when all are seated but has additional standing places in the North and South ends of the ground, giving a total stadium capacity of 7,838.
Vaduz currently plays in the Challenge League following relegation from the Swiss Super League after the 2020–21 season. Vaduz represents its own national association in the UEFA Europa Conference League when winning the domestic cup, even though it plays in the Swiss league system. This is due to Liechtenstein not organising its own league. Vaduz is ineligible to represent Switzerland internationally and do not participate in the Swiss Cup due to this arrangement.
Vaduz has historically had many players from Liechtenstein, many of whom have played for the Liechtenstein national team, but nearly all these players have moved abroad, and now the majority of the first team squad are foreign players from different areas of the world. With the club playing in its league system, Swiss players have usually been common in the squad.
On 25 August 2022, after beating Rapid Wien away in Austria, Vaduz made history by qualifying for the 2022–23 [UEFA Europa Conference League|Europa Conference League] group stage, becoming the first ever club from Liechtenstein to reach the group stages of a UEFA club competition.
History
Fussball Club Vaduz was founded on 14 February 1932 in Vaduz, and the club's first chairman was Johann Walser. FC Vaduz is the only professional football club in Liechtenstein. In its first training match, which Vaduz played in Balzers on 24 April of that year, the newly born team emerged as 2–1 winners. The club played in Vorarlberger Football Association in Austria for the 1932–33 season. In 1933, Vaduz began playing in Switzerland. Over the years, Vaduz struggled through various tiers of Swiss football and won its first Liechtensteiner Cup in 1949. Vaduz enjoyed a lengthy stay in the Swiss 1. Liga from 1960 to 1973, then the third tier of the Swiss football league system.Vaduz has been required to pay a fee to the Swiss Football Association in order to participate as a foreign club, around £150,000 a year. There have been calls for this agreement to be revoked, but discussions have meant that a permanent arrangement has now taken place for a Liechtenstein representative to be allowed to participate in the Challenge League or Super League in the future.
From the 2001–02 season, Vaduz played in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss league system. Since then, Vaduz has remained one of the best-performing teams in the Challenge League and gave serious challenges towards promotion to the Super League, especially in 2004 and 2005, playing two-leg play-offs in both cases. In the 2007–08 season, Vaduz secured promotion to the Swiss Super League on 12 May 2008 by winning the Challenge League on the season's final day, giving Liechtenstein a representative at the highest level of Swiss football for the first time. Vaduz, however, was relegated back to the Challenge League after one season in the top flight. Vaduz finally returned to the top level after five years in the Challenge League.
In May 2010, the two Liechtenstein teams, FC Vaduz and USV Eschen/Mauren, decided on better cooperation, especially on the exchange and the development possibilities of the players of both teams. In principle, the agreement should replace the missing substructure at FC Vaduz and promote cooperation in the sense of Liechtenstein football. FC Vaduz is the first address for professional footballers.
In 1992, Vaduz qualified for European football for the first time, entering the Cup Winners' Cup">Liechtenstein Cup">Cup Winners' Cup as Liechtenstein Cup winners, but lost 12–1 on aggregate to Chornomorets Odesa of Ukraine in the qualifying round. In 1996, Vaduz qualified for the first round proper with their first European victory, winning 5–3 on penalties against Universitate Riga of Latvia, after a 2–2 aggregate scoreline, although Vaduz lost their first round tie to Paris Saint-Germain of France 7–0 on aggregate.
After the Cup Winners' Cup was abolished, Vaduz has annually entered the UEFA Cup as a result of winning the Liechtenstein Cup every year since 1998, except in 2012.
Vaduz came within one second of reaching the first round proper of the UEFA Cup in 2002. With the aggregate scores level and opponents Livingston scheduled to go through on away goals, Vaduz won a late corner. The ball was sent into the box, and Marius Zarn hit a goal-bound shot. However, the referee blew the whistle for full-time just before the ball crossed over the line, and Livingston progressed through under controversial circumstances.
For the 2005–06 season, Mats Gren was the coach. In the first round of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup qualifying, Vaduz defeated Moldovan opponent FC Dacia Chişinău. In the second round they faced Turkish club Beşiktaş J.K., who they were eliminated by.
FC Vaduz started their European campaign in 2009–10 by beating Scottish side Falkirk in the second qualifying round of the Europa League. However, they lost 3–0 on aggregate to Czech side Slovan Liberec in the third qualifying round.
In the 2014–15 Swiss Super League season, Vaduz survived in the Swiss Super League for the first time in their history. They finished in 9th place with 31 points won. They also won their 43rd Liechtenstein cup, becoming world record holders of a domestic cup in the process.
In season 2015–16 FC Vaduz started their European campaign in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League by beating S.P. La Fiorita from San Marino in the first qualifying round of the Europa League. In the second round, Vaduz progressed against Nõmme Kalju FC to progress into the third qualifying round of the Europa League where they were drawn against fellow Swiss Super League club FC Thun. FC Thun won 2–2 on the away goals rule.
Vaduz won their domestic cup for the forty-fourth time and were eighth in the Swiss Super League. They won a team record thirty-six points. Vaduz player Armando Sadiku represented Albania at Euro 2016.
The team appeared for the first time in a popular sports video game, FIFA 17. This was the first time in history that a team from Liechtenstein appeared in the sports video game series.
After three years in the highest tier of Swiss football the 2016–17 season led to Vaduz's relegation, replacing Giorgio Contini with German coach Roland Vrabec after almost 5 years at the helm; Vaduz has not reached the Swiss Super League again.
On 5 September 2018, they terminated their contract with Roland Vrabec. On September 17, they presented Mario Frick as their coach. He is the first coach from Liechtenstein in the club's history.
In season 2019–20 FC Vaduz started their European campaign in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League by beating Breiðablik from Iceland in the first qualifying round of the Europa League. In the second round, Vaduz caused a shock by knocking out Hungarian side MOL Fehérvár. In the third qualifying round of the Europa League they played against German club Eintracht Frankfurt- the Bundesliga side easily won both matches. However, these matches were historic for Vaduz, as at the first match in Vaduz there were 5,908 spectators present, while the city as a whole has a population of only 5,521.
On 25 August 2022, after an away victory against Rapid Wien, Vaduz secured qualification for the group stages of the Europa Conference League, becoming the first ever team from Liechtenstein to reach the group stages of a European club competition. They were subsequently drawn into Group E where they played against Dutch side AZ, Cypriot champions Apollon Limassol and Ukrainian side Dnipro-1. After a solid start to the group, with a goalless draw at home to Apollon, Vaduz would only go on and collect one more point, away against Dnipro-1, thus finishing bottom of the group with two points from their six games.
On 20 June 2023, Vaduz drew Belarusian side Neman Grodno in the 2023-24 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round.
Legal status
Vaduz is one of several expatriate microstate European football clubs, playing in the Swiss Football League, alongside AS Monaco playing in France, San Marino Calcio playing in Italy and FC Andorra playing in Spain. The difference between Vaduz and the aforementioned clubs is that its status in Switzerland is a "guest club", and as such it does not participate in the Swiss Cup and cannot represent Switzerland internationally. This makes Champions League qualification from league football impossible under current rules other than by winning the Europa League or the Champions League itself. If Vaduz would win the Swiss championship, the Champions League places would be distributed among the top Swiss clubs in the league. Since the invention of the UEFA Conference League, this has been further improbable since the team would need to win first the Conference League and then the Europa League the following year unless the country coefficient would improve enough for the Liechtenstein Cup winners to get a Europa League spot. Since Vaduz has never finished higher than 8th in the Super League and therefore could not be argued to have qualified, such a situation has not occurred.Stadium
Rheinpark Stadion
Image:Rheinpark-Stadion-Main stand and castle.JPG|250px|thumb|right|Main stand of the Rheinpark Stadion with Vaduz Castle in the background.The Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz is the national stadium of Liechtenstein. It plays host to the home matches of the Liechtenstein national football team, and is also the home of Liechtenstein's top football club, FC Vaduz. It lies on the banks of the River Rhine, just metres from the border with Switzerland. The stadium has a fully seated capacity of 5,873, plus additional standing places, giving it a total capacity of 7,584. The building of the stadium cost roughly 19 million CHF.
The stadium was officially opened on 31 July 1998 with a match between FC Vaduz, the Liechtenstein Cup holders at the time, and 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the then Bundesliga champions. Kaiserslautern won the match 8–0. Liverpool F.C. played here against Olympiacos F.C. in a friendly in 2005. Rheinpark Stadion hosted the likes of FC Chornomorets Odesa and Paris Saint-Germain F.C. in this tournament but failed to progress past the qualification rounds.
The construction of the stadium became necessary because the world governing body FIFA and the European association UEFA threatened not to allow more European and international matches in Liechtenstein if the country did not provide a modern venue in accordance with international standards. In Liechtenstein, no domestic football league is played, but a cup competition is organized. Vaduz being by far the most prolific Liechtenstein club is therefore represented in the Conference League almost every year. The national team has only been represented in the qualifying rounds of a major competition.
Rheinpark Stadion sits less than 1 km west of Vaduz city centre on the eastern bank of the Rhein River. Vaduz holds the distinction of being one of the few capitals in the world to lack its own airport and railway station, although there is a train station called Schaan-Vaduz in the nearby town of Schaan.
Rheinpark Stadion consists of four stands: North, East, South and West.
There are a limited number of free parking spaces located at Rheinpark Stadion on matchdays which are allocated on a first-come first-served basis.
Current sponsorship
Companies that FC Vaduz currently has sponsorship deals with include:- Liechtensteinische Landesbank – main sponsor
- MBPI AG – main sponsor
- Puma – kit manufacturer
- Accurata Treuhand und Revisions AG – official sponsor
- Brauerei Schützengarten AG – official sponsor
- Heim Bohrtechnik AG – official sponsor
- Kibernetik AG – official sponsor
- Hirslanden Private Hospital Group – medical partner
- Orthopädie St. Gallen – medical partner
Honours
Domestic competitions
Liechtenstein Football Championship- *Winners : 1932, 1936 Liechtenstein Football Cup
- *Winners : 1948–49, 1951–52, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1962, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1973–74, 1979–80, 1984–85, 1986, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1991–92, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25
- *Runners-up : 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1949–50, 1950–51, 1954–55, 1971–72, 1976–77, 1983–84, 1986–87, 1990–91, 1996–97, 2011–12
Switzerland competitions
Swiss Challenge League- *Winners : 2002–03, 2007–08, 2013–14
- *Runners-up : 2003–04, 2004–05, 2019–20 1. Liga Classic
- *Winners : 1999–2000, 2000–01
European record
| Competition | Matches | W | D | L | GF | GA | ± |
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup | 10 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 40 | −36 |
| UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League | 67 | 21 | 14 | 32 | 76 | 93 | −17 |
| UEFA Europa Conference League / UEFA Conference League | 22 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 24 | 34 | −10 |
| Total | 99 | 25 | 23 | 51 | 104 | 167 | −63 |
'Biggest win in UEFA competition:'''''
Club records
Biggest European home win: FC Vaduz 5–1 La Fiorita Biggest European away win: La Fiorita 0–5 FC Vaduz Biggest European home defeat: FC Vaduz 0–5 Chornomorets Odesa, FC Vaduz 0–5 Hradec Králové, FC Vaduz 0–5 Eintracht Frankfurt Biggest European away defeat: Hradec Králové 9–1 FC Vaduz Biggest home win: FC Vaduz 11–0 FC Schaan Biggest away win: FC Triesen II 0–22 FC Vaduz Player with most trophies with FC Vaduz: Franz Burgmeier Player with most appearances: Franz Burgmeier Player with most goals: Daniele Polverino Player with most UEFA appearances: Daniel Hasler, Peter Jehle, Franz Burgmeier Player with most Super League appearances: Philipp Muntwiler Most European goals: Moreno Costanzo, Moreno Merenda Most Super League goals: Moreno Costanzo Most goals in Liechtenstein Cup: Daniele Polverino Highest home game attendance: 6,773 Highest away game attendance : 27,066 Highest European home game attendance: 5,908 Highest European away game attendance : 48,000 Most capped foreign player: Miguel Mea Vitali, 87 caps, VenezuelaMost capped Liechtenstein player: Peter Jehle, 132 capsIndividual awards
Domestic
The player of the year in Liechtenstein has been announced as the season 1980/81 to 2007/08 as of the end of the season. The open for all election was organized by media house Vaduz. Since 2009, the Liechtenstein Football Association draws the title holder of its own. To this end, the LFV-Award has been launched, annually awarded a title in which professional bodies and public in three categories. The categories are Footballer of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.Liechtensteiner Footballer of the Year
| Year | Name | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 1980–81 |  SwitzerlandSwiss Challenge League top scorers
|
