The 2011–12 Swiss Challenge League was the ninth season of the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league pyramid. It began on 22 July 2011 and ended on 23 May 2012. The champions of this season, St. Gallen, earned promotion to the 2012–13 Super League. The runners-up Aarau lost the promotion/relegation playoff against the 9th-placed team of the 2011–12 Super League, FC Sion. The bottom five teams, Stade Nyonnais, Étoile Carouge, Delémont, Kriens and Brühl were all relegated to partly form the newly created 1. Liga Promotion.
Teams 2010–11 Challenge League champions FC Lausanne-Sport were promoted to the 2011–12 Super League. They were replaced by St. Gallen, who were relegated after finishing the 2010–11 Super League in last place. 2010–11 Challenge League runners-up Servette had to compete in a promotion/relegation playoff against 9th-placed Super League team AC Bellinzona and were promoted (hence exchanging leagues) after winning 3–2 on aggregate.
FC Schaffhausen as 15th-placed team and last-placed Yverdon-Sport FC were relegated after the 2010–11 season. They were replaced by SC Brühl and Étoile Carouge FC, who were promoted from 1. Liga.
Club City Stadium 2010–11 season FC Aarau Aarau Stadion Brügglifeld 11th in Challenge League AC Bellinzona Bellinzona, Ticino Stadio Comunale 9th in Super League FC Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne, Bern Gurzelen Stadion 9th in Challenge League SC Brühl St. Gallen St. Gallen, St. Gallen Paul-Grüninger-Stadion 2010–11 1. Liga play-off winners FC Chiasso Chiasso, Ticino Stadio Comunale 7th in Challenge League SR Delémont Delémont, Jura La Blancherie 8th in Challenge League Étoile Carouge FC Carouge, Geneva Stade de la Fontenette 2010–11 1. Liga play-off winners SC Kriens Kriens, Lucerne Stadion Kleinfeld 12th in Challenge League FC Locarno Locarno, Ticino Stadio del Lido 14th in Challenge League FC Lugano Lugano, Ticino Cornaredo Stadium 3rd in Challenge League FC St. Gallen St. Gallen, St. Gallen AFG Arena 10th in Super League FC Stade Nyonnais Nyon, Vaud Centre sportif de Colovray Nyon 6th in Challenge League FC Vaduz Vaduz, Liechtenstein Rheinpark Stadion 4th in Challenge League FC Wil 1900 Wil, St. Gallen Stadion Bergholz 5th in Challenge League FC Winterthur Winterthur, Zürich Stadion Schützenwiese 13th in Challenge League FC Wohlen Wohlen, Aargau Stadion Niedermatten 10th in Challenge League
League table
Results Teams played each other twice over the course of the season, home and away, for a total of 30 matches per team.
Relegation play-offs The ninth-placed team in the 2011–12 Swiss Super League, Sion, played a two-legged play-off against the Challenge League runners-up, Aarau, for a spot in the 2012–13 Super League.
Sion won 2–1 on aggregate.
Top scorers
RankPlayerClubGoals1 Armando SadikuLocarno192 Shkëlzen GashiAarau17 Moreno MerendaVaduz17 Igor TadićKriens175 Adis JahovićWil166 Ezequiel ScarioneSt. Gallen157 Alessandro CiarrocchiBellinzona14 Odirlei de Souza GasparWohlen14 Giuseppe MorelloBiel-Bienne1410 Džengis ČavuševićWil1311 Frédéric BesseyreStade Nyonnais11 Remo StaubliAarau1113 Franck EtoundiSt. Gallen10 Gastón MagnettiBellinzona10 Marco MathysSt. Gallen10
Updated 4 July 2012 Source Soccerway
References
External links Swiss Challenge League Soccerway