This season, Swiss second division team FC Vaduz is playing in the group stage of a European competition. In 2020/21, Vaduz finished bottom of the Swiss Super League, falling to the Challenge League.
However, Vaduz does not have any hardware from the Swiss leagues or cups to provide access to European club play.
Despite playing in Swiss leagues, FC Vaduz is not a Swiss club. Instead, the city of Vaduz is the capital of the small state of Liechtenstein. This nation has a land mass of around 60 square miles, an amount that would not be among the 150 largest cities in the United States. Consequently, the nation that lies between Austria and Switzerland has a population of 38,000. Comparatively, Huber Heights, OH, has about the same population.
Perhaps surprisingly, Liechtenstein’s small nature has its own football federation. Despite having a handful of clubs, the nation does not have its own league. However, as a fully recognized member of UEFA, Liechtenstein has its own domestic cup competition.
arrive in Europe
This is where it starts to make more sense. FC Vaduz won 21 of the previous 22 domestic cup finals. It is the most successful club in the competition with 48 wins after the competition was launched in 1945. As the winner of the domestic cup, FC Vaduz goes into the fray to qualify for the European club competition.
Of course, a good performance in the Swiss League is another way for FC Vaduz to reach Europe. However, less than stellar performances ‘domestic level’ and unsuccessful attempts in qualifying prevented the club from playing in the group stage of any European competition.
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All that changed this season. Also, to make things weirder, FC Vaduz suffered only two seasons before.
Last season, while playing in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss Super League, Vaduz won another domestic cup in Liechtenstein. This gave him a ticket to the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League. While a Champions League club from a season ago in Switzerland, Young Boys, failed to even make it to the Europa Conference League, a team one level below them is in the group stage. It is the same position as another Swiss elite, FC Basel, with FC Zürich only one step ahead in the Europa League.
FC Vaduz arrives in Europe for the first time
This Cinderella story began in the last week of July this summer in the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
Lichtenstein’s club won 2-1 on aggregate against Slovenian side Koper. The two-leg victory advanced Vaduz to a third-round tie with Turkish club Konyaspor. In 2021/22, Konyaspor finished ahead of Besiktas and Galatasaray, good enough for third place in the Turkish Süper Lig. Vaduz trampled them with an aggregate score of 5-3.
The final enemy before the group stage was Rapid Wien, the record winners of titles in the Austrian Bundesliga. The clubs drew 1-1 at Lichtenstein. Then an unlikely 1-0 upset in Austria qualified Vaduz for their first trip to the group stage of a European club competition.
Europa Conference League Group E
After an exciting summer, FC Vaduz entered Group E of the UEFA European Conference League. Joining Vaduz are AZ Alkmaar from the Netherlands, Apollon Limassol from Cyprus and the Ukrainian team SC-Dnipro-1.
In the Swiss Challenge League, Vaduz is struggling. An eight-game winless streak of four losses and four draws puts the club in ninth place out of 10 teams in the competition.
However, not everything is ghastly in Lichtenstein. Vaduz picked up its first point in the European group stage at the Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz. A goalless draw against their Cypriot rivals is a good result to start with.
Vaduz faced a challenge on matchday two, en route in the Netherlands to take on two-time Eredivisie champions AZ Alkmaar. A 4-1 loss ensued, but it shouldn’t tarnish the story told since Lichtenstein.
FC Vaduz is not the biggest team in Europe’s third-tier club competition. However, it is one of the most compelling plotlines to follow throughout the competition.
PHOTO: IMAGO / GEPA Images
