The Swiss 36 No. 7 Swissporarena - FC Luzern

FC Luzern v Grasshoppers Club Zürich

Beautiful Luzern

Lucerne is first of all much better spelt the German way rather than the English way so get used to the above spelling!  Its also one of my favourite cities in Switzerland.  The city itself is beautiful. Situated on a tip of one of the arms of Lake Lucerne, or as we prefer to call it, the Vierwaldstättersee.  So you have a lovely city, a gorgeous and huge lake surrounded by fabulous mountains.  What's not to like?

But can the football experience in Luzern match everything else the city has going for it?  Well frankly, yes it can.

The story of this Swiss 36 visit starts before the game with my wife looking to buy tickets.  She couldn't find any agents selling tickets online so she left a message on You Just Can't beat that.com asking how to get hold of tickets.  A reply came telling us that match-tickets were available on the day and recommending the best parts of the stadium for our visit.   How nice!

On the way, we were as ever in search of something to drink.  A bottle of original Fucking Hell seemed a good option.  I mean, you'd have to wouldn't you?  Sadly, we couldn't find the stuff in the store but rest assured., sampling this brew has now become a mission that I will undertake on behalf of pissheads everywhere.  I will report soon!

So we travelled from Zürich to Luzern with a combination of Feldshitschen premium (1st class Swiss shit) and some really sweet stuff that makes your teeth itch!

In Luzern a match-day bus, the first dedicated service we have found, takes you directly to the stadium taking about 10 minutes.

First impressions, well that doesn't look bad does it?  Theres some design expertise gone into that!  This post is starting to make me nervous as there is very little to complain about.  Time to be picky I think!

Luzern, what IS that colour all about?  Luzern play in a very nice Navy Blue kit so what's with the "Baby crap" yellow?  Its a very difficult colour to pull off.  My Skoda Estelle in the 80s completely failed, this stadium does better.  But its a bad colour.

Ticket purchase was as had been advised, no problem.  A wee bit expensive for Switzerland at 28 SFr (£18.50) for a place on the terrace behind a goal.  So, now time to test those security people.  

This time we'd done it.  Plastic cups that have not yet been refused entry, no glass bottles, not even plastic bottles.  Just two tetra-paks with ready mixed "orange juice" inside.

My security guy was happy and I was waved on after he'd throughly and politely checked my bag.  Unfortunately, Seona, my wife's security guard was just as polite but somewhat less tolerant of her very dangerous looking tetra-pak.  Its the inconsistency that drives you crazy.

Posh Concourse

So we had the now familiar ceremony of decanting  a 1 litre tetr-pak into two 0.5 litre plastic cups and having to carry them around, which is frankly a pain in the arse.

Next stop, fan shop.  Ouch!  our car pennant cost 14.90 SFr (£9.80).  Ragged, bagged and shagged once again on club souvenirs.

Inside the stadium and there's a posh concourse that runs all the way around the inside.  There's food bars and places to enjoy a beer all the way around too.  Very clean and really cool!

So what's it like to watch football?

No fences.  No athletic track just a net that stops the fans behind the goals getting a ball in the face, whilst preventing them from giving any player a beer in the face in return.  Its a very unobtrusive net too.  I can live with it.  I'd prefer it wasn't there but can understand why it is.

The stadium caters for 14500 seated fans with capacity for 3000 who prefer to stand behind one goal.  There also looks to be very good hospitality boxes for those who like to watch their football in style.

It all sets itself up nicely for a very enjoyable day!

During the match, we had probably the best reaction to the "strange English person" test. When the Grasshoppers 'keeper kicked out, we did the famous English chant "Yooooouuuuuurrrrrr SHIT!  Ha Ha Ha ha!"  The response - Laughter.  "Its English", I explained.  "I like it!" came the response.

Score time!

Getting There

9/10.  A match day bus service elevates Luzern above all scores so far.  A point was deducted because on the way back, we went to the place where the bus had left us.  Not quite correct, it picks-up a little closer to the stadium for the return journey.  Now if Luzern would indicate properly where the buses are to be found, they'd get the full mark.

Friendliness

 9/10.  Thanks you to "You can't beat that.com" for advising us well with regard to tickets.  They even offered to meet us on the day, but unfortunately we were at opposite corners of the standing area.  The point deducted is for inconsistent security.  

Safety

9/10.  The stadium is brand new, opened in 2011 so you'd expect it to be good, and it is.    The standing areas have crush barriers although I'd probably have a few more of them.  They are good to lean against and make for really safe standing spectator areas.  Other than that - no problem!

View

9/10.  You are not far from the action and there are no fences to either see over or through.  Just a slight complaint about the net.

Atmosphere

8/10.  First of all it was great to see nearly 16500 spectators in a 17500 capacity stadium.  A good, noisy kop.  They built the atmosphere well as the Luzern team was announced by being the only Swiss team that I have seen so far to adopt the German trick of shouting the players surname after the stadium announcer just says the christian name.  This was accompanied by a slow, rhythmic hand-clap throughout the announcement.  Quite effective.  There was some booing at half-time, which I thought was a bit harsh and the crowd seemed to run out of steam towards the end.  The scoreline wasn't helping though.

Refreshments

A PIE?  Could it b true?

7/10.  From my spot on the terrace, I could see this attractive advertising hoarding.  It couldn't be could it?  The PIE standard British Football fare at a Swiss match.  No, it couldn't be true.  On seeing what was on offer, I chose the only thing I didn't recognise in the hope it was a pie.  Sadly, a Schaublig is a Bockwurst, my least favourite sausage.  Oh well, so it's sausage, sausage sausage, hamburger, chips, a bretzel or a bun.  Not exactly inspiring and a shame since they have everything else so right.

Redeeming Feature

The Swissporarena doesn't need a redeeming feature as its a very good stadium.  If I was asked to state something, I'd say Luzern itself as its a great place!

Overall: 51/60 - Now that's what I'm talking about!

The Match

First of all congratulations to the match officials.  This game was played with the temperature at 38°C.  Sensibly, the referee was stopping the game every 15 minutes for one or two minutes to allow the players to take on some water.  I've never seen that done before and it did not detract from the game at all. 

The match was OK if a little too one-sided.  Grasshoppers took the lead after just 4 minutes, with a great strike from Steven Zuber.  Luzern simply did not close him down and his shot was perfectly placed.  It should have been 2:0 after 11 minutes when Toko Nzuzi was on the end of a cross from Ben Khalifa but miscued horribly. 

Grasshoppers were in control and in the first half, the home side simply made no impression.

After the break there was a slight improvement.  Luzern were holding te ball better but rarely getting out of midfield.  The game was over in the 79th minute.  Terrible marking from Luzern left Amir Abrashi in the middle of the penalty area, alone with a simple task of slotting the ball past David Zibung.  It was no more than the visitors and Luzern deserved,  Luzern finished the 90 minutes without a shot on goal.  They have dropped to 9th (out of 10) in the Super League table and for Luzern's board, it was enough.  Coach Murat Yakin was fired shortly after the game.