Five fans have been banned from all Swiss football stadiums for two to five years for their involvement in trouble which forced Sunday's match between Lucerne and Grasshopper Zurich to be called off.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/sb
Towards the end of the Swiss League match, several dozen angry Grasshopper supporters threatened to storm the pitch after their team fell 4-0 behind to Lucerne. The defeat sealed the relegation of the 27-times Swiss champions from the top division and ended an unbroken 68 years in the top league.
The supporters demanded that Grasshopper players hand over their football shirts and socks as they said they were not worthy of wearing them. Some shirts were given to the angry fans following talks with club officials.
The Swiss Football League (SFL) said in a statementExternal link that two supporters who attacked a Grasshopper player had been banned together with three others who entered the pitch. It said that in all 57 offenders had been identified and all would eventually be sanctioned.
“Particularly shocking was the physical and verbal attack against a dark-skinned player,” said SFL chief executive Claudius Schaeffer in the statement. “We must all act together vehemently against racist thinking and any kind of discrimination.”
The stadium bans will apply immediately for all football and ice hockey matches in the top two Swiss leagues.
It was the second such incident involving Grasshopper supporters in two months, but Swiss football in general has been plagued by fan violence in recent years.
More
More
Football hooligan sent to jail in landmark trial
This content was published on
A man has received a three-year prison sentence after a court found him guilty of throwing fireworks and smoke bombs in a Swiss stadium.
Report finds serious security flaws in Swiss hospital information systems
This content was published on
The IT systems of several Swiss hospitals suffer from serious security flaws, according to the National Testing Institute for Cybersecurity (NTC).
Cost of leisure activities rises dramatically in Switzerland
This content was published on
The Swiss paid more for leisure activities in December. Prices for vacation apartments, package tours and cable cars rose significantly.
New Swiss epidemic surveillance centre inaugurated
This content was published on
The Centre for Pathogen Bioinformatics was inaugurated in Bern on Thursday. It aims to improve epidemics monitoring in Switzerland using genomic data.
This content was published on
Switzerland, as a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), signed a free trade agreement with Thailand during WEF.
This content was published on
The federal audit office has criticised the Swiss government for poor planning of the procurement of six drones from an Israeli supplier.
This content was published on
Every third football game in Switzerland over the past six months has been marked by violent incidents according to a new database.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.