The 1999–2000 season was FC Aarau's 97th season in their existence, since their foundation in 1902. It was their eighteenth season in the top flight of Swiss football, following their promotion at the end of 1980–81 season. FCA played their home games in the Stadion Brügglifeld and the stadium is located on the southern outskirts of Aarau, in the territory of the neighboring municipality of Suhr. It is about one and a half kilometers from Aarau city center and the railway station.

Overview Since the AGM in 1989 the local businessman Ernst Lämmli was the club's chairman and patron. Lämmli was an architect and ran his own architectural firm. Toward the end of the previous season Lämmli had installed the German Jochen Dries as head-coach and in advance of the new season Lämmli extended the contract with Dries.

The FCA first team competed in this season's domestic first-tier 1999–2000 Nationalliga A with the clear intention of reaching the championship group and to attempt to qualify for the European competitions. To achieve this would mean they would have to finish the qualifying stage under the top eight teams, which had failed in the previous season. The team also competed in the 1999–2000 Swiss Cup. The FCA team had not qualified for the UEFA European competitions and they did not enter the Intertoto Cup.

FCA did not achieve the championship round and thus had to compete in the promotion/relegation group NLA/NLB, which did not please FCA club president Ernst Lämmli at all. During April and May president Lämmli and head-coach Jochen Dries had various important discussions, with the consequence that Dries lost his job mid-May as the FCA first team suffered a defeat in the promotion/relegation round against lower class Thun. Just one day later Lämmli appointed Rolf Fringer as new head-coach. Fringer had achieved the championship with the club during the 1992–93 season and had been head-coach of the Swiss national football team during 1996 and 1997.

Players The following is the list of the FCA first team squad this season. It also includes players that were in the squad the day the domestic league season started, on 18 July 1998, but subsequently left the club after that date.

Players who left the squad The following is the list of the FCZ first team players that left the squad during the previous season or in the off-season, before the new domestic season began.

Results Legend

Nationalliga A

Qualification phase The first stage of the NLA began on 7 July 1999 and was completed on 12 December. The top eight teams in the qualification phase would advance to the championship group and the last four teams would play against relegation.

Qualification table

Promotion/relegation group NLA/NLB The teams in the ninth to twelfth positions in Nationalliga A competed with the top four teams of Nationalliga B in a Nationalliga A/B promotion/relegation round. This phase began on 12 March 2000 and was completed on 7 June.

Final table

Swiss Cup

The 1999–2000 Swiss Cup was the 75th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. It began on 7 August with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 28 May 2000 with the Final held at Wankdorf, Bern. The Cup winners earned a place in the first round of the UEFA Cup. The 12 first-tier clubs from the 1999–2000 Nationalliga A had been granted byes for the first four rounds and they joined the competition in the fifth round. The first-tier teams in round 5 were seeded and cound not be drawn against each other. The draw respected regionalities, when possible, and the lower classed team was granted home advantage.

FCZ won the cup and this was Zürich's sixth cup title to this date.

References

Sources Switzerland 1999–2000 at RSSSF FCA squad 1999–2000 at arowa.ch