Stade Payerne

Joël Corminbœuf spent a season on the touchline at Stade Payerne, taking charge for the 2019/2020 campaign. He arrived not as a former player of the club but as a Swiss international goalkeeper lending his name and experience to a side.

That has not stopped Payerne from winning where it competes. The club took the 1. Liga Group 1 title three times, in 1996/97, 2000/01 and 2003/04, and each of those championships carried promotion to the Nationalliga B, the second tier of the day. It held that level into the early 2000s before returning to the lower divisions, where it now plays in the Erste Liga, the third tier.

Around the town, the team and its supporters go by "Les Rouges et Blancs" — the Red and Whites. Local press sometimes calls the players "Les Payernois", after the town itself, though the more familiar tag "Les Stadistes" belongs to a different club, Stade Lausanne Ouchy.

Payerne's fixture against FC Échallens carries the weight of a derby, the two Vaud clubs meeting with the kind of local history that turns an ordinary league match into something sharper. The club plays out of the Stade Municipal on Avenue du Stade.

It has been going since 1932.