More Money – More Success? Why FC Thun Is Disrupting the Logic of Swiss Football

Veröffentlicht am 13.05.2026 21:46 Blog (EN) pending

clarus.news | Analysis | May 13, 2026 | Thierry Leserf

FC Thun becomes Swiss champion – with the smallest budget in the league and a club that was on the brink of insolvency less than a year ago. Meanwhile, FC Basel is recording double-digit million losses, and Paris Saint-Germain burns through 160 million euros annually without succeeding in the Champions League. An international study and three Swiss investigations reveal the same finding: Money is necessary in football, but it doesn't guarantee success. What really counts – and who profits from Swiss football.

The Province Beats the Metropolis

It's the image of this Super League season: The Bernese Oberland team in red, Andreas Gerber as a down-to-earth president, a club with 13.1 million francs in operating expenses – and a lead that settled the title question early. For comparison: BSC Young Boys records 63.7 million francs in expenses, FC Basel 57.6 million, FC Zurich just under 30. The champion manages with less than a quarter of YB's budget.

Source: finews.ch: "Fairy Tales, Patrons and Many Financial Firms in Swiss Football" (March 20, 2026)

The break becomes even clearer with personnel costs. Thun calculates around 6 million francs in personnel costs without the championship bonus, YB with almost 40 million, FCZ with just under 20. That the league needs its patrons is not a picturesque anecdote but structural reality: Beat Fahrni, entrepreneur and board member, has invested around 4 million francs in FC Thun in recent years – 870,000 francs alone in early 2025 as an additional injection to avert insolvency. At FC Zurich, the Canepa couple stepped in with 17 million over two years. Without these private fortunes, the lights would simply go out in Swiss professional football.

The Study That Overturns the Narrative

While the Swiss anecdote stands on its own, an international analysis provides the systematic findings. Plaier Sports and HSG investigated which European clubs most efficiently translate financial resources into sporting success for the 2023/2024 season. The result dismantles a persistent myth:

Money correlates but doesn't guarantee. Around 70 percent of championship teams belonged to the financially strongest in their league, 90 percent of the richest clubs achieved a top seven placement. But: "Rich clubs often waste money through poor transfers" – the study even shows a negative correlation between financial power and squad planning efficiency.
Paris Saint-Germain as negative record holder. Despite Europe's highest financial firepower, PSG suffers annual losses averaging 160 million euros – one owner (Qatar Sports Investments), unlimited resources, yet no sustainable model.
The efficiency champions come from the second tier. Bayer Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven get the most out of their resources. Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium) and Girona FC (LaLiga) exceed all expectations with modest budgets. And Moreirense (Portugal) as well as Kilmarnock (Scotland) shine as "Hidden Champions" despite being among the financially weakest in their leagues.

Source: STERN.de / Plaier + HSG Club Index: "Data Reveals: These Clubs Get Maximum Value from Their Budget" (March 4, 2025)

Study leader Jan Wendt states matter-of-factly that hardly any other industry makes such high investments with so little analysis. It's a diagnosis that could be applied directly to Thun.

The Other Currency: Authenticity, Proximity, Identity

What FC Thun does is no secret – it's just unfashionable. Patricia Greber, on the club's marketing team, describes the model in the "Klein Report" with disarming simplicity: "Our strength lies in proximity to players, staff and fans. We don't try to do everything, but consciously and authentically set priorities." The brand values – humility, down-to-earthness, grassroots appeal – are not just communicated but "credibly embodied by personalities in the club."

Source: kleinreport.ch: "Champions Without Millions – How FC Thun Steals the Show from the Big Clubs" (May 5, 2026)

While Basel, YB and GC focus on internationalization, Thun's strength lies explicitly in the region. Sports economist Dominik Schwizer (FH Graubünden) observes a similar effect at FC St. Gallen: "There, it's almost secondary how well they play on the pitch, the stadium has become a social meeting point. This gives those responsible a certain planning security." 17,579 spectators on average, 88 percent capacity at the Kybun Park, 20,000 small shareholders after the capital increase in 2022 – this is an economic resilience that no patron can replace.

It's the same finding that shows up across Europe: Union Saint-Gilloise, Girona, Moreirense, Kilmarnock, Bayer Leverkusen – all share the characteristic that identity, coaching leadership and squad planning don't need to be compensated by money, but work as independent resources.

How Swiss Football Generates Its Billion

Anyone who reduces Swiss professional football to its sporting balance sheet overlooks the economic dimension. A study by HSLU and consulting firm EBP, published in November 2025, quantifies the revenue of the twelve Super League clubs at 1.29 billion francs and the value creation at 665 million francs – a 47 percent increase compared to the 2013/2014 season.

Source: SRF Echo der Zeit: "Swiss Football Clubs Generate Billion-Franc Revenue" (November 26, 2025)

The detailed figures:

3.2 million tickets sold – 45 percent more than eleven years ago, driven by expanding the league to twelve teams and stadium modernization.
82 million francs in additional fan spending on match days (catering 52.2 million, retail 11 million, transport 10.8 million, accommodation 5.4 million).
Over 70,000 hotel nights by traveling fans.
Around 4,400 full-time positions directly or indirectly dependent on professional football.
One hotel night per traveling fan costs an average of 158 francs – while locals spend around 31 francs.

Claudius Schäfer, CEO of the Swiss Football League, openly states the study's political goal: "We are an economic force and want to be taken seriously." Benedikt Würth, member of the Council of States (The Centre) and board member of FC St. Gallen, adds that the message is important for politics "because often only security costs are discussed there." The value chain has become broader – and politically, the league seeks the frame of location economics rather than pure subsidy debate.

Noteworthy: 98 percent of surveyed fans indicated feeling safe or very safe in Swiss stadiums. This too is an argument the league will actively use in debates about police costs and licensing practices.

Patrons, Banks, Fintechs: Who Profits from Swiss Football

The other side of the balance sheet is a look at the main sponsors. The finews.ch analysis of the twelve Super League clubs shows how closely Swiss professional football is intertwined with the financial center – and how reliably the industry buys visibility:

BSC Young Boys: Plus500 (Israeli CFD broker) – main sponsor since 2020. From 2026, additionally Yuh (Swissquote/Postfinance) as partner.
FC Basel: Bitpanda (crypto platform) – since 2025.
FC St. Gallen: St. Gallen Cantonal Bank – for 23 years, the longest-running main sponsorship in the league.
FC Lausanne-Sport: Vaud Cantonal Bank – since 2011.
FC Lucerne: Otto's – since 2011.
FC Winterthur: Keller AG – special case, the main sponsor has been the owner of the newly founded AG since 1999.
FC Thun: Visana – since 2023.
Servette FC: MSC. Grasshopper Club Zurich: Elca Informatik. FC Lugano: Lugano's Plan B. FC Sion: Alloboissons.
FC Zurich: currently no shirt sponsor – the only club in the league without a main sponsor, after marketing switched from Ringier Sports to Goldbach and back to self-marketing.

Source: finews.ch / Research by Stefan Waldvogel (March 20, 2026)

The picture is clear: Banks, insurance companies, crypto platforms, online brokers. Swiss professional football is a stage for the financial industry that provides year-round brand presence, emotionalization and hospitality. St. Gallen Cantonal Bank, for example, explicitly cites the "attractive opportunity to invite customers to various hospitality platforms year-round" as value in return. This is sober and honest – and it's a logic that hardly differs from the industry advertising of professional sports in general.

It becomes problematic when sponsors' creditworthiness lags behind clubs' creditworthiness: The now-liquidated prepaid credit card provider Antepay paid FCZ just under one million francs in 2020 – a few months later it ceased operations. The Plus500/Bitpanda category of main sponsors is more regulatorily sensitive than appears in Sunday speeches.

Bundesliga, Premier League, Ligue 1: The International Mirror

The Plaier-HSG study provides the comparative framework. The Bundesliga is – surprisingly – Europe's most financially stable league: 16 of 18 clubs show above-average financial stability, no other country performs better. At the bottom of the scale: the English Championship, the second tier of the Premier League circus.

In Germany, it's not the clubs with investor models but the "quiet" clubs – TSG Hoffenheim and SC Freiburg – that are considered the league's most financially stable teams. Efficient in translating squad quality onto the field are 1. FC Heidenheim, RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen. FC Bayern Munich is considered an "interesting case study" by the study because it keeps up with the European elite even without an owner.

The study authors' conclusion can be applied one-to-one to the Super League: "Clubs should base transfer decisions more strongly on data-based analyses in the future, instead of risking expensive bad purchases." Anyone looking at FC Basel and its double-digit million losses understands why this sentence isn't coming too early in Basel, Bern or Geneva either.

Source: STERN.de / Plaier + HSG Club Index (March 4, 2025)

Four Findings, One Question

From the four sources, answers to the initially posed questions crystallize:

Can success be bought? No – not reliably. Money increases probability, but the Plaier-HSG data shows a negative correlation between wealth and squad planning efficiency. PSG, Real Madrid (Pérez calls new elections), FC Basel: The richest often pay the most expensive lessons.

What other parameters count? Identity, anchoring, coaching leadership, squad planning quality – and the willingness to be a recognizable brand. The "Hidden Champions" (Union SG, Girona, Moreirense, Kilmarnock) and FC Thun share exactly these characteristics. FC St. Gallen additionally demonstrates that a broadly supported shareholder base (20,000 small shareholders) creates its own economic resilience.

How does Switzerland perform internationally? The Super League is a respectable medium-sized league with 1.29 billion francs revenue and 665 million value creation – but it's structurally dependent on patrons. Without private patrons, match operations would be endangered multiple times. This distinguishes it significantly from the Bundesliga (16/18 clubs above-average stable) and resembles the logic of smaller leagues like the Belgian Pro League.

How are revenues generated? Tickets (3.2 million sold), main sponsoring (267.7 million operating revenue of the twelve clubs combined, including 72.9 million sponsoring and 99.8 million tickets), hospitality, fan spending on match days (82 million), TV rights and transfers. With clear dominance of the financial industry among main sponsors – banks, crypto platforms, online brokers. Plus patrons who cover losses where the market doesn't.

Conclusion: The Province Has the Better Plan

Following money as a solution leads to Paris Saint-Germain – 160 million euros loss annually, no Champions League title, an owner with a political agenda. Distrusting money leads, in the best case, to Thun – champion with a fraction of the competition's budget, but also with an equity base that a single patron had to bail out again.

Swiss football stands at a point where the simple narrative "more money = more success" is factually refuted – the Plaier-HSG study, the finews balance sheet and Thun's championship season say exactly the same thing. What remains is the more difficult question: How do you turn this insight into a sustainable model that doesn't depend on individual entrepreneurs' goodwill?

Patricia Greber formulated a sentence in the Klein Report that every board member of a Super League AG should frame and hang on the wall: "Stay true to yourself. Strengthen what makes you unique. And consciously enjoy the moment when success comes."

The rest of the league should take the first half-sentence particularly seriously.

Critical Questions

Evidence: The Plaier-HSG study refers to the 2023/2024 season – how robust are the efficiency findings over multiple seasons? Are Bayer Leverkusen, Union SG or Girona structural phenomena or snapshots?
Conflicts of Interest: The SRF value creation study was carried out by Swiss Football League, HSLU and EBP – the league itself has an interest in high figures. How independent is the methodology of value creation calculation?
Causality: Is FC Thun's "regional anchoring" cause or effect of success? Would the same club have become champion in an urban market with the same strategy?
Implementability: Can a patron-dependent system like FCZ (17 million Canepa injection over two years) survive without these patrons at all – or is the Swiss Super League structurally dependent on a form of "loss subsidization" that nobody openly discusses?
Compliance/Sponsoring: How carefully do clubs examine main sponsors from volatile industries (CFD brokers, crypto platforms, prepaid cards) – and what reputational risks arise when a main sponsor like Antepay suddenly disappears in 2020?
Benchmark: The comparison with the Bundesliga makes sense – but are the structural parameters (market, TV revenues, 50+1 rule in Germany) even transferable to a league with twelve clubs and a population of nine million?
Political Dimension: If the SFL wants to be "taken seriously as an economic force," what concrete political demands does it derive from this – and who bears the costs of security externalities not reflected in the 665-million value creation?

Sources:

finews.ch: "Fairy Tales, Patrons and Many Financial Firms in Swiss Football," March 20, 2026 (Stefan Waldvogel)
kleinreport.ch: "Champions Without Millions – How FC Thun Steals the Show from the Big Clubs," May 5, 2026 (Interview with Patricia Greber)
STERN.de: "Data Reveals: These Clubs Get Maximum Value from Their Budget," March 4, 2025 (Lennard Worobic), based on the study by Plaier Sports and HSG on the Plaier + HSG Club Index (2023/2024 season)
SRF Echo der Zeit: "Swiss Football Clubs Generate Billion-Franc Revenue – Value Creation of 665 Million," November 26, 2025 (Philipp Schrämmli), based on the study by Swiss Football League, EBP and the Institute for Tourism and Mobility at HSLU
Sports Economic Classification: Dominik Schwizer, FH Graubünden

Tags: #SwissFootball #SuperLeague #FCThun #FCStGallen #BSCYoungBoys #FCBasel #FCZurich #ValueCreation #SportsEconomics #Patrons #FinancialCenter #PlaierHSGIndex #BayerLeverkusen #PSG #Bundesliga #PatriciaGreber [#BeatFahrni](/en