FC Stade Lausanne Ouchy, sometimes referred to as SLO, is a Swiss

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Ouchy Ouchy is a port and a popular lakeside resort south of the centre of Lausanne in Switzerland, at the edge of Lake Geneva (). Facilities Very popular with tourists for the views of nearby France (Évian-les-Bains, Thonon), Ouchy is also a ...

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

. They will play in the Challenge League from 2024 after relegation from

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

in 2023–24.

History

The club is the result of a merger between ''FC Ouchy-Olympic'' and ''FC Stade Lausanne'' in 2001. Lausanne Ouchy League Performance

''FC Ouchy-Olympic'''s story began in 1895 as ''FC La Villa Ouchy''. As founding members of the

Swiss Football Association The Swiss Football Association (, , , ) is the governing body of football in Switzerland. It organizes the football league, the Swiss Football League and the Switzerland national football team. It is based in Bern. It was formed in 1895, was a ...

, they competed in the first

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

season during 1897–98, but later mostly played in the lower divisions. The initial forerunner to the latter club was founded in 1901 as ''FC Signal Lausanne'', which became ''Stade Lausanne'' in 1926, also introducing

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and

shooting sports Shooting sports is a group of competitive sport, competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airg ...

departments. They competed in the second division and narrowly failed to achieve promotion to the Serie A in 1929.

Henri Guisan Henri Guisan (; 21 October 1874 – 7 April 1960) was a Swiss military officer who held the office of General of the Swiss Armed Forces during the Second World War. He was the fourth and the most recent person to be appointed to the rarely u ...

acted as president between 1929 and 1939, when his position became honorary as he led the Swiss army's mobilization during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He emphasized the importance of sport to stay healthy, for civilians but especially soldiers. They continued to compete in the lower divisions following his departure, playing in the 1. Liga as late as 1963–64. After the two clubs combined, they were eventually promoted to the 2. Liga Interregional in 2005, where they stayed until 2014. They reached the

Promotion League The Promotion League, named the Hoval Promotion League for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Swiss football league system. Eighteen clubs compete in the league, playing each other twice over course of the season. The champions are prom ...

by 2017, where they had a notable cup run in the 2017–18 season, beating first division side

FC Sion Football Club Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss Association football, football club from the city of Sion, Switzerland, Sion. The club was founded in 1909 and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have wo ...

to reach the round of 16. After promotion to the Challenge League, the club was forced to relocate outside the city to

Nyon Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...

as their previous pitch failed to meet the requirements for professional football, but now play at

Stade Olympique de la Pontaise Stade Olympique de la Pontaise is a multi-purpose stadium in Lausanne, Switzerland. The stadium holds 15,700 people and was opened in 1954. The stadium is used primarily for football matches. It is currently the home ground of FC Stade Lausann ...

. In the 2022–23 season, following a strong season that had the team in the top half of the table for the majority of the time, they managed to jump to third place in the final rounds and qualified for the promotion play-off against

. They won the first leg in Sion with 2–0 and won the second leg at home with 4–2 and thus with an aggregate score of 6–2, secured promotion to the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

for the first time in history from next season. Their stay in the Swiss top flight would prove to be a short one, as the club was relegated at the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

as the last placed team.

Stadium

Stade Lausanne Ouchy play in Stade Olympique Pontaise for Super League matches from 2023 to 2024 season since 2020.

Honours

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

**Promotion Play-off Winner: 2023 *

Swiss Promotion League The Promotion League, named the Hoval Promotion League for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Swiss football league system. Eighteen clubs compete in the league, playing each other twice over course of the season. The champions are prom ...

**Winners (1): 2019

Players

Current squad

On loan

Notable former employees

* Richard Durr, Swiss international capped 29 times, worked as player, manager, and president of Stade Lausanne * Norbert Eschmann, Swiss international capped 15 times, played in the youth team 1949–50 *

, acted as president 1929–1939 *

Blaise Nkufo Isetsima Blaise Nkufo (born 25 May 1975) is a Swiss former international footballer who played as a striker and current coach of Rino's Tigers in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. He was born in Zaire and raised in Switzerland from the age o ...

played in the youth teams 1988–1992.

Coaching staff

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stade Lausanne-Ouchy Football clubs in Switzerland Sport in Lausanne Association football clubs established in 1901 1901 establishments in Switzerland