The 1932–33 1. Liga season was the second season of the 1. Liga since its creation in 1931. At this time, the 1. Liga was the second-tier of the Swiss football league system.
Overview Preamble This season the Swiss Football Association (ASF/SFV) had 18 member clubs in the top-tier and 18 clubs in the second-tier. The third-tier was now governed regionally. The modifications in the football league system were continuing, but after the turmoils of the recent years, the moods had cooled considerably. The plan for next year was to reduce the membership of the top-tier by two clubs and to increase the size of the second-tier by four clubs in two years.
Format There were 18 clubs that competed in the 1. Liga this season. The 18 clubs were divided into two regional groups, each with 9 teams. The teams in each group played a double round-robin to decide their league position. Two points were awarded for a win and one point was awarded for a draw. Both group winners were promoted to the top-tier Nationalliga, but they contested a final to decide the title of 1. Liga champions. Curiously the 1. Liga Champions were automatically qualified for the final round of the Nationalliga. However, this rule was abolished after this season. There were four relegations this season, the last two placed teams in each group were directly relegated to the 2. Liga (third tier).
Challenge of 1. Liga Another curiosity this season was that, during the winter break from November to February an intermediate championship was played. This was named Challenge of 1. Liga. Each team from one group played five games against drawn teams from the other group. Then the two Challenge group winners played a final.
Group West Teams, locations ClubBased inCantonStadiumCapacity FC Bern Bern Stadion Neufeld US Bienne-Boujean Biel/Bienne FC Cantonal Neuchâtel Neuchâtel Stade de la Maladière FC Étoile-Sporting La Chaux-de-Fonds Les Foulets / Terrain des Eplatures / FC Grenchen Grenchen Stadium Brühl FC Montreux-Sports Montreux Stade de Chailly FC Olten Olten Sportanlagen Kleinholz Racing Club Lausanne Lausanne Centre sportif de la Tuilière FC Solothurn Solothurn Stadion FC Solothurn
Final league table
Group East Teams, locations ClubBased inCantonStadiumCapacity AC Bellinzona Bellinzona Stadio Comunale Bellinzona SC Brühl St. Gallen Paul-Grüninger-Stadion FC Locarno Locarno Stadio comunale Lido FC Luzern Lucerne Stadion Allmend FC Oerlikon Oerlikon (Zürich) Sportanlage Neudorf BSC Old Boys Basel Stadion Schützenmatte FC Seebach Zürich Zürich Eichrain FC St. Gallen St. Gallen Espenmoos FC Winterthur Winterthur Schützenwiese
Final league table
Championship final The two group winners had achieved direct promotion to the 1934–35 Nationalliga. They now competed a play off for the title of 1. Liga champions and the qualification to the final round of the Nationalliga. The games was played on 14 May 1933 in Bern
FC Bern won the 1. Liga championship title and qualified for the top-tier final round.
Challenge of 1. Liga Group 1
Group 2
Final The Challenge final was played on 14 May 1933 at the Espenmoos in St. Gallen.
Further in Swiss football 1932–33 Nationalliga 1932–33 Swiss Cup
References
Sources Switzerland 1932–33 at RSSSF