Aarau

The women's football side at Aarau grew up inside a men's institution already old by Swiss standards: FC Aarau, founded in 1902, added a women's section in 1968, and within a few years that team was strong enough to take the Swiss women's championship. For decades the setup stayed informal, a department of the bigger club rather than an operation of its own. That changed in 2015, when FC Aarau 1902 set up a dedicated performance-football wing to bring the women's side in line with professional standards, and on 1 July 2017 the team split off entirely, registering as its own legal club with the Swiss football association.

Independence brought a harder road before it brought a name change. Relegation from the top flight came in 2018, and the club spent two seasons rebuilding in Nationalliga B before a rebrand in 2020 turned it into Red Boots Aarau, worn in the club's black, white and red. The new name suited a new run: the 2020/21 side won Nationalliga B and went back up to the top division, now called the AXA Women's Super League. It was the third such promotion push in under a decade, after earlier Nationalliga B titles in 2012/13 and 2016/17, and in each case the club found the top flight tougher going than the level below it — a mid-table or lower finish has been the pattern at that stage since, with ninth in the first half of 2025/26 the most recent reading.

Julia Stierli came through the club and captained Switzerland before leaving for FC Zürich and then Bundesliga side SC Freiburg; her sister Michelle stayed on to captain the Red Boots themselves after representing Switzerland at under-19 level. Games are played at Stadion Brügglifeld, shared with the men's team and holding 8,450. The fixture that means most is still the one against whoever else is fighting to stay clear of the bottom of the Super League table — the gap between the two Swiss divisions has shaped this club more than any single rival has.