FC Lugano

Lugano
Full name	Football Club Lugano
Founded	1908; 117 years ago
Ground	Cornaredo Stadium,; Lugano, Switzerland; (capacity: 6,330)
Chairman	Philippe Regazzoni
Manager	Mattia Croci-Torti
League	Swiss Super League
2022–23	Swiss Super League, 3rd of 10
Website	Club home page
	Current season

FC Lugano is a Swiss football club from Lugano. The club was newly founded as AC Lugano in 2004 because of the relegation and the financial situation of FC Lugano, which was founded in 1908. In 2008 went back to his original name, FC Lugano. They play at the Stadio Cornaredo. They have played in what is now the Swiss Super League during the periods of 1922–53, 1954–60, 1961–63, 1964–76, 1979–80, 1988–97, 1998–02 and from 2015 until present.

History

Football Club Lugano was formed on 28 July 1908 . The team won its first Swiss Cup in 1931. The following decade, FC Lugano was able to win 3 national titles (1938, 1941 and 1949).

In 1968, Lugano won the Swiss Cup and participated in the Cup Winners' Cup. Two years later the team took part in the UEFA Cup. In 1993 Lugano won its third Cup against Grasshoppers and played Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1995–96 season, Lugano participated in the UEFA Cup, eliminating Jeunesse Hautcharage in the first round and Inter Milan in the second.

The club was declared bankrupt in 2003 and removed from the league. Due to the bankruptcy, the team was renamed AC Lugano and played with under-21 players because they were forced to sell or release the senior team to pay the club's debts. In 2004 the club merged with Malcantone Agno and the team should play in the Swiss Challenge League.^[1]

On 4 June 2008 when the club became 100 years old the general meeting of shareholders voted on a name change. The historical name of Football Club Lugano was used again. In 2015 FC Lugano was promoted to the Swiss Super League.

On August 18, 2021, it was announced that American billionaire and owner of the Chicago Fire FC, Joe Mansueto had purchased FC Lugano and that the Fire and FC Lugano work together as sister clubs.^[2] On 1 September 2021, assistant coach Mattia Croci-Torti took over coaching duties at the club, replacing Abel Braga.^[3] The first season under new ownership was successful winning the 2021–22 Swiss Cup.^[4]

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1968–69	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Barcelona	0–1	0–3	0–4
1971–72	UEFA Cup	First Round	Legia Warsaw	1–3	0–0	1–3
1993–94	European Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying Round	Neman Grodno	5–0	1–2	6–2
1993–94	European Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Real Madrid	1–3	0–3	1–6
1995–96	UEFA Cup	Preliminary Round	Jeunesse Esch	4–0	0–0	4–0
		First Round	Inter Milan	1–1	1–0	2–1
		Second Round	Slavia Prague	1–2	0–1	1–3
2001–02	UEFA Champions League	Second Qualifying Round	Shakhtar Donetsk	2–1	0–3	2–4
2002–03	UEFA Cup	Qualifying Round	FK Ventspils	1–0	0–3	1–3
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	Group G	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	1–0	1–2	3rd
			Steaua București	1–2	2–1
			Viktoria Plzeň	3–2	1–4
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	Group B	Dynamo Kyiv	0–0	1–1	4th
			Copenhagen	0–1	0–1
			Malmö FF	0–0	1–2
2022–23	UEFA Europa Conference League	Third Qualifying Round	Hapoel Be'er Sheva	0–2	1–3	1–5

Players

Current squad

As of 8 July 2022

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Amir Saipi
3	DF	Reto Ziegler
4	DF	Kreshnik Hajrizi
5	DF	Albian Hajdari (on loan from Juventus U23)
6	FW	Mohamed El Amine Amoura
7	DF	Mickaël Facchinetti
8	MF	Adrian Durrer
9	FW	Žan Celar
10	FW	Mattia Bottani
11	MF	Maren Haile-Selassie
14	MF	Jonathan Sabbatini (captain)
15	DF	Lars Lukas Mai
17	DF	Milton Valenzuela

No.	Position	Player
18	MF	Hicham Mahou
20	MF	Ousmane Doumbia
23	DF	Leonid Srdić
25	MF	Uran Bislimi
27	FW	Boris Babic
29	MF	Hadj Mahmoud
30	DF	Fabio Daprelà
31	FW	Ignacio Aliseda
33	FW	Alessandro Casciato
34	DF	Allan Arigoni
41	DF	Noah De Queiroz
58	GK	Sebastian Osigwe
77	MF	Roman Macek