Full name | Fussball-Club Luzern |
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Nickname(s) | Die Leuchten (The Luminaries) |
Founded | 12 August 1901; 114 years ago |
Ground | Swissporarena, Lucerne |
Capacity | 17,000 |
Chairman | Rudolf Stäger |
Manager | Markus Babbel |
League | Swiss Super League |
2015–16 | Swiss Super League, 3rd |
Website | Club home page |
Fussball-Club Luzern, commonly known as FC Luzern (German pronunciation: [ɛf ˈt͡seː luˈtsɛrn]), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne. It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, and has won the national title once and the national cup twice.
The club colours are blue and white, derived from the City of Lucerne and Canton of Lucerne coats of arms. The club plays its home games at Swissporarena which was newly built in 2011 at the place of the old Stadion Allmend.
FC Luzern was founded in 1901. It has non-professional departments for women's football, volleyball, boccia and gymnastics.
FC Luzern was officially founded on 12 August 1901 in Lucerne. After two years, FCL joined the Swiss Football League and started its first championship season in the third division. In the following years, FC Luzern was playing in various leagues. After the introduction of a new league system in 1944 (consisting of Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B as the two top tiers) FCL was allotted into Nationalliga B. The club remained in the second division until it was promoted in 1953. In the following years, FCL mainly played in the Nationalliga A. In 2003, after several seasons with financial and sporting troubles, the club was relegated to the renamed Challenge League, the former Nationalliga B. In 2006, after three seasons in the second division, FC Luzern celebrated its return into the top division (Super League) of Swiss football. In 2012 the club finished second in the Super League, securing its best league finish in 23 years.