FC St. Gallen

Football barely existed as an organised game anywhere on the continent when a group of men in St. Gallen sat down at the restaurant Hörnli and started a club anyway. That meeting, on 19 April 1879, makes FC St. Gallen the oldest football club in Switzerland — and in continental Europe. 25 years later, in 1904, the club won the country's first national championship.

For much of the 20th century the club played at Espenmoos, and the nickname Espen has stuck long after the team left it in 2008 for what is now called Kybunpark, a 20,660-seat stadium. The shirts have stayed green and white throughout.

The second championship, in 1999/00, came with a win over Chelsea in that season's UEFA Cup. The Swiss Cup was won in 1968/69 and, after a long wait, again in 2025/26. It was the club's first major trophy since 2000. In between came harder years. Relegation followed in 2007/08, an immediate return, then relegation again in 2010/11. A debt of around 16 million francs from building the new stadium pushed the club toward bankruptcy in 2010, before a group of businessmen led by Dölf Früh stepped in.

St. Gallen won the Challenge League in 2011/12 and reached the Europa League group stage by 2013/14, beating Spartak Moscow on the way. Under president Matthias Hüppi and coach Peter Zeidler since 2018, the club has finished second in the league twice. It happened first in 2019/20, then again in 2025/26.

Tranquillo Barnetta came through the academy and went on to win 75 caps and play 3 World Cups for Switzerland; Christian Gross and Urs Fischer both played for the club before becoming well-known coaches.

The official derby is against FC Wil, the other club from the canton, though the two sides rarely share a division long enough to play it out. The rivalry that actually gets renewed most seasons is with FC Luzern.