Thun’s fairy tale journey to Highbury
John Ley visits the Swiss minnows ahead of tonight’s match with Arsenal
DURING Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Young Boys Bern, a banner was unfurled in the visitor’s section of the Stade de Suisse. It read: Vom Kuhstall ins Highbury – From the cow shed to Highbury – and it described the rise and rise of FC Thun, who make their Champions League debut in London tonight, just nine years after attracting crowds of little more than 100 in the Swiss third division.
Consider these facts. The picturesque yet sadly inadequate Lachen stadium — the Stade de Suisse will be used for Champions League ties — has 900 seats and a Portakabin for an office. The ground is so poor that the club needs special dispensation to stage games there.
Thun’s annual budget is about £2.4 million. Arsenal recently announced a turnover of £115 million. The average annual salary at Thun is around £ 30,000, while Thierry Henry earns about £ 80,000 a week.
The population of Thun is 40,000 – about the same as Accrington – and the club only started paying their players a professional wage three years ago.
Thun is set in central Switzerland on the Thunersee. A fairy tale castle looks down on a medieval centre against a backdrop of Alpine peaks.
But only two weeks ago the Lachen stadium, without a stand until 1958, was under four feet of water, a victim of the latest flooding that affects the region on a regular basis.
“The flooding was really ugly and people died in the mountains because
of mud slides,” said Christian
Stahl, the club’s media officer.
“The pitch is okay but the
offices were damaged, the
electricity was off, and
everything that was in the
office had to be thrown out.”
Like most people connected with this success
story, Stahl struggles to put
into words the rise of Thun.
“We average 6,000
spectators. Three years ago
it was 1,500 and eight years
ago it was 150. Every year
we have made a step
forward. In Switzerland
everyone calls it a miracle,
a fairy tale. The miracle is
that we can do it with our
budget.
“Everybody in the team
is a no-name. Even in Switzerland they are not known. For many players it is their last chance, or they are young players. The big clubs don’t want them any more. They come here and try and make their name.”
Thun employ 13 full-time administrative staff. Before qualification for the Champions League, there were only seven. Arsenal have 158 full-time employees, a figure that swells to 293 when the footballing staff are included.
Urs Schonenberger, the Thun coach, is a tall, angular man with shallow cheek bones. He arrived in January to replace the popular Hanspeter Latour, who moved to Grasshopper Zurich.
Schonenberger is an Arsenal fan ever since he asked to watch the club in training, when in charge at FC Luzern. “I was taken around by Charlie George,” recalls the 46-yearold, who winced when told of Arsenal’s demise at Middlesbrough.
“ Arsenal lost? That’s not good, that could be dangerous for us,” said Schonenberger after the draw with Young Boys.
“Defensively we work very hard and in the middle we were okay,” he adds. “But if we make mistakes like that we will be punished by Arsenal. There will be 38,000 yelling at us from the stands. I’ll be happy if we haven’t conceded a goal in the fi rst 20 minutes. A draw will be a golden point.”
The fans feel the same. Back to Thun and the delightful Sinnebrucke restaurant. Waiter David Camphoff has followed Thun for five years: “We are a small team, nobody knows us but that’s okay,” he says. “ Arsene Wenger came to see us when we played Yverdon, and we lost 2-0 but we had all been partying after we beat Malmo, and we weren’t at our best.”
In the Thun tourist office Carmen Baul is proud and thankful of her team’s achievements. “Before, nobody knew who we or the town were. But we are now on TV, radio and they know now.”