FC Thun

FC Thun 1898 is a Swiss football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club currently plays in the Swiss Super League after being promoted in the 2009/10 season. The club plays in the Lachen Stadium which accommodates a total of 10,300 supporters, both seated and standing. The club's colours are red and white.

History

FC Thun was founded on 1 May 1898.

It has played in the Nationalliga B from 1946–50,1953/54, 1955–70 and 1997–2002. From 2002–2008 it played in the Nationalliga A, which was renamed to Axpo Super League. In 2008 the club were relegated to the Swiss Challenge League.

On 23 August 2005 FC Thun, with a yearly budget under €2 million, wrote Swiss football history. It qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League by beating first FC Dynamo Kyiv & then the Swedish Champions Malmö FF at home 3–0 after having won in Malmö 0–1. Apart from Grasshoppers, Zürich and FC Basel, FC Thun is the only Swiss football team to reach the group stages of the Champions League, and the smallest club ever to enter the tournament. Only nine years earlier, Thun were playing amateur third division football in front of crowds of 100.

FC Thun were drawn in Group B alongside European giants Arsenal, Ajax and Sparta Prague. They started their first ever Champions League campaign on 14 September 2005 away at Arsenal, where, even after they scored a stunning equaliser through Nelson Ferreira, they narrowly lost 2–1 after Dennis Bergkamp scored in...
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