Biel-Bienne

The club that made it had already been taken apart once. Liga regional, which is amateur football in a city of watchmakers, and the two seasons that followed brought two straight promotions back into 1. Liga. Nor was that the first squeeze. In 1978 creditors wrote off 1.195 million francs to keep the club alive, and in 1990 it went through a court-supervised settlement.

The one championship came in 1946/47, decided by a single point over Lausanne. Three times, either side of it, Biel finished second — the last of those in 1959/60, under Jupp Derwall .

The early years were spent absorbing neighbours rather than beating them: between 1901 and 1907 four local sides — Avenir, Central, Villa, Floria — were merged in, and for a while the name on the fixture list read Vereinigter Fussball-Klub Biel. The old name came back in 1911.

Since 2015 home matches have been played at the Tissot Arena, which holds 5,200. The red and white come from the city's coat of arms.

There is no derby in Biel/Bienne itself.