The 2012–13 Swiss Challenge League was the tenth season of the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league pyramid. It began on 14 July 2012 and ended on 2 June 2013.
Teams 2011–12 Challenge League champions St. Gallen were promoted to the 2012–13 Super League. They weren't replaced by another team due to Neuchâtel Xamax being demoted to the 4th tier of Swiss football for financial irregularities. 2011–12 Challenge League runners-up Aarau had to compete in a promotion/relegation playoff against 9th-placed Super League team Sion and remained in the Challenge League after losing 3–1 on aggregate.
The bottom five teams – Stade Nyonnais, Étoile Carouge, Delémont, Kriens and Brühl – were relegated to the newly formed 1. Liga Promotion with no teams replaced them due to the Challenge League reducing from 16 to 10 teams.
Club City Stadium 2011–12 season FC Aarau Aarau, Aargau Stadion Brügglifeld 2nd in Challenge League AC Bellinzona Bellinzona, Ticino Stadio Comunale 3rd in Challenge League FC Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne, Bern Gurzelen Stadion 10th in Challenge League FC Chiasso Chiasso, Ticino Stadio Comunale 7th in Challenge League FC Locarno Locarno, Ticino Stadio del Lido 9th in Challenge League FC Lugano Lugano, Ticino Cornaredo Stadium 5th in Challenge League FC Vaduz Vaduz, Liechtenstein Rheinpark Stadion 8th in Challenge League FC Wil 1900 Wil, St. Gallen Stadion Bergholz 6th in Challenge League FC Winterthur Winterthur, Zürich Stadion Schützenwiese 4th in Challenge League FC Wohlen Wohlen, Aargau Stadion Niedermatten 11th in Challenge League
League table
Results Teams played each other four times (twice home and twice away) over the course of the season, home and away, for a total of 36 matches per team.
First and Second Round
Third and Fourth Round
Season statistics
Top scorers RankPlayerClubGoals1 Armando SadikuLugano202 Davide CallàAarau193 Luís PimentaChiasso144 Patrick BengondoWinterthur12 Kristian KuzmanovićWinterthur126 Charles-André DoudinBiel-Bienne11 Sven LüscherWinterthur / Aarau11 Giuseppe MorelloBiel-Bienne11 Drilon PacariziLocarno1110 Matar ColyBiel-Bienne9 Stefano MilaniWohlen9 Landry MouangueWil9
Assists RankPlayerClubAssists1 Markus NeumayrBellinzona152 Sven LüscherWinterthur / Aarau143 Davide CallàAarau134 Charles-André DoudinBiel-Bienne11 Dante SengerAarau11 Alain SchultzAarau117 Pascal CerroneWil9 Matar ColyBiel-Bienne9 Steven UkohBiel-Bienne910 Carlos da SilvaLugano8 Martin SteubleWil8
Hat-tricks Player For Against Result Date Biel-Bienne Vaduz 4–2 Wil Chiasso 4–1 Aarau Wohlen 5–3 Winterthur Bellinzona 5–1 Biel-Bienne Aarau 5–1 Wil Winterthur 4–0 Aarau Wohlen 3–1 Bellinzona Wil 8–0 Biel-Bienne Wohlen 7–0
Scoring First goal of the season: Gezim Shalaj for Lugano against Wil (14 July 2012) Fastest goal of the season: Mirko Facchinetti for Chiasso against Bellinzona (27 August 2012) Largest winning margin: 8 goals Bellinzona 8–0 Wil (18 April 2013) Highest scoring game: 8 goals Vaduz 5–3 Aarau (6 August 2012) Aarau 5–3 Wohlen (28 October 2012) Bellinzona 8–0 Wil (18 April 2013) Locarno 2–6 Bellinzona (8 May 2013) Most goals scored by a single team: 8 goals Bellinzona 8–0 Wil (18 April 2013) Most goals scored by a losing team: 3 goals Vaduz 5–3 Aarau (6 August 2012) Aarau 5–3 Wohlen (28 October 2012) Lugano 4–3 Bellinzona (2 June 2013)
Clean sheets Most clean sheets: 15 Bellinzona Fewest clean sheets: 4 Locarno
Discipline Most yellow cards (club): 86 Chiasso Most yellow cards (player): 14 Pietro Di Nardo (Biel-Bienne) Most red cards (club): 10 Chiasso Most red cards (player): 2 Marko Bašić (Lugano) Igor Djuric (Chiasso) Cha Jong-Hyok (Wil) Charles-André Doudin (Biel-Bienne) Emiliano Dudar (Chiasso) Pavel Pergl (Bellinzona) Mirko Quaresima (Chiasso)
References
External links
Soccerway
de:Schweizer Fussballmeisterschaft 2012/13#Challenge League