Confusion and ghost fans: Swiss clubs inflate their number of spectators

Protesters, sharp-eyed people and geometry lovers have noticed this for a long time. When the moment comes for the announcer to be announced, an immovable ritual at the heart of the second half, they are the first to brandish their fists. “Never!” they shout with skepticism at the figure formulated. And they are right: we are being lied to about crowds in football stadiums.

It’s an open secret. The practice was already talked about decades earlier. In amateur football, it tends to make you smile, when it only takes a few seconds of manual counting to realize that the number of “official” spectators around the field corresponds to double, or even triple, the reality. All the ambiguity of the problem lies here. We know these figures are unreliable, and yet we end up accepting them as truth. Whether you are a supporter, media or sponsor.

Last June, the Swiss Football League, which oversees the country’s two major leagues, was delighted with a new record. The 22 clubs that make up the Super League and the Challenge League would have welcomed more than 3 million spectators during the 2023-2024 season.

A figure widely reported in the media, before serving as an argument in several struggles led by the SFL. In particular the hot issues of nominative tickets and violence around stadiums.

Servette will “win” a few hundred spectators

It was Servette FC who shot into the anthill last week. Until now, the Geneva club opted for a reliable public census model. The number of spectators announced at each home match corresponded to the number of tickets scanned at the entrances.

“Small revolution”, announced the Grenat, out of concern to “align with the practice of many other Swiss professional clubs”. The articulated figure will now correspond to the number of tickets sold and issued to which all subscribers will be added. Whether they are present in the stands of the Stade de Genève or not.

Servette should thus “win” a few hundred spectators per match. Even if there won’t be more people in the stands. “We sometimes had the impression of being the jokers. If opening the debate on the question allows a harmonization of practices in the league, that is very good, believes Loïc Luscher, head of Servetti communication. On a philosophical level, it seems legitimate to me to count an allocated place which can no longer be sold to someone else. On the obvious condition of avoiding any misleading advertising.

In its June press release welcoming the new record attendance in Swiss stadiums, the SFL maintains the confusion. It evokes both the notion of “spectators”, “visitors” and “tickets sold”. For the same figure of 3 million.

In the stadiums, the speakers responsible for the fateful announcement are also required to play with words. Because being happy on the microphone about the number of tickets sold is less than thanking the (insert the number of your choice) spectators present.

“We modeled ourselves on the same model as Servette during our time in the Challenge League. Out of frustration. We found it unfair to end up with statistics that were worse than certain clubs whose public was less loyal than ours,” reveals Loris Tschanz, communications manager at Yverdon Sport.

Some people have no interest in adding to the public

If the debate exists, it is because the Swiss Football League does not impose any obligation on its clubs on the issue. Even that it pushes its clubs to increase their attendance. “We assume that the system newly adopted by Servette is largely the most used, also abroad and during European competitions,” explains its spokesperson, David Barras.

This is also the method chosen by Young Boys, the most followed club in the country (nearly 29,000 tickets sold per match last season). “There is something logical in the fact that a club which announces its sold-out match is not then penalized in its official number of spectators by people who are sick or who simply did not come despite their ticket or subscription . In summary, if all the tickets are sold, the club cannot do more,” said David Barras.

There is indeed a leading club which continues to rely on the good old method of counting at the turnstile. The one which offers, more or less, a reliable count of the public present. This club is Lausanne-Sport. Far from being inhabited by rebellious ideas, however.

“Now that the subject is on the table, I say to myself that we should also follow the trend and announce the tickets sold,” says its vice-president, Vincent Steinmann.

In reality, not all clubs in the country are equal when it comes to the theme. The City of Lausanne is notably one of the last to impose a tax on entertainment. It amounts to 14% and is calculated on registered entries. Or when inflating your audiences can prove counterproductive.

“But Lausanne-Sport is not subject to this tax,” refutes Vincent Steinmann. Which reminds us that “even in Lausanne, the final figure is sometimes based on an estimate. Particularly during the implementation of special actions, like last weekend against Lucerne. That day, the announced 7,743 spectators seemed almost below reality. The day before, FC Sion seemed to have had a generous hand with its estimate of 8,200 people coming to watch the game against Grasshopper.

In 2015, the Tourbillon club was pinched by “Le Matin”. Thanks to a wide shot photo of each stand taken in the 15th minute, the media noticed that Sion had given itself the freedom to add around 5,000 spectators to the actual figure.

Christian Constantin remembers the episode. He defends himself by arguing that the club has always counted the tickets sold more than the spectators actually present. “That day, many subscribers were absent. Quite simply.”

The president of FC Sion details his reasoning. “There are 4,000 subscribers today. But the figure has gone up to 6,000 in the past. There is one constant with us: the season following our Swiss Cup finals, we have more subscribers. Because if people buy a season ticket for the next season, they get tickets for the Cup final. And when Sion plays a final, everyone wants to see that. But this is a public which tends to desert the stadium quickly when the results no longer follow.

The explanation could be understood. But it is not very convincing in this specific case. Sion did not play in the final of the 2014 Swiss Cup, which could have triggered the process mentioned by its president and this differential of 5,000 spectators observed one day in March 2015. That was a decade ago. It remains that if the Swiss clubs intend to achieve a harmonious practice, the first challenge will perhaps be to come to an agreement with the die-hard Valaisans.

Florian Vaney has been a journalist in the Sport-Center editorial team since 2019. Trained in the regional press, he closely follows Swiss football, from the “bank” divisions to the Super League.More info

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