FC St. Gallen 1879
Also written as FC St. Gallen, St Gallen, St. Gallen.
The club
St. Gallen were founded on 19 April 1879 at the Restaurant Hornli on Neugasse, and the sources read here describe them as the oldest football club still in existence in Switzerland and in continental Europe. They play at the Sitterstadion, which was renamed in 2026 and was previously the Kybunpark, and before that the AFG Arena when it opened in 2008. Capacity is 20,660, reduced to 17,317 for international matches. The ground replaced the old Espenmoos, and the club's nickname, Espen, comes from it. Colours are green and white.
Recent seasons
The sources read here did not establish St. Gallen's Super League finishes for 2021/22 through 2024/25, so those should not be guessed at.
The 2025/26 season is confirmed and it was the club's best in a generation. St. Gallen finished second in the Swiss Super League with 70 points from 20 wins, 10 draws and 8 defeats, scoring 72 and conceding 47. Thun won the title with 75 points, their first, after a five-year absence from the top division. Lugano were third on 67 and Sion fourth on 63. St. Gallen also won the Swiss Cup, their first since 1969, and it was the cup rather than the league place that sent them into the Europa League.
Honours and landmarks
Swiss champions twice, in 1903/04 and 1999/2000. Swiss Cup winners twice, in 1968/69 and 2025/26. Challenge League champions three times, in 1970/71, 2008/09 and 2011/12. Swiss League Cup winners in 1977/78. For a club of this age the trophy cabinet is modest, and the 2026 cup was a genuine landmark, fifty-seven years after the last one.
Notable scorelines
An all-time record win and record defeat were not confirmed from the sources read here. The scoreline St. Gallen are remembered for abroad is the 2-0 win over Chelsea at the Espenmoos in the first round of the 2000/01 UEFA Cup, which stood up to a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge and put the Swiss side through 2-1. The heaviest recent European defeat is the 5-0 loss at Benfica on 30 July 2026.
European record
Across their European history the sources read here record 47 matches, 18 wins, 9 draws and 20 defeats, with 67 goals scored and 67 conceded.
The 2000/01 UEFA Cup is the high point: Chelsea beaten 2-1 on aggregate in the first round, 2-0 at home and 1-0 away, followed by a 3-2 aggregate defeat to Club Brugge in the second round after a 1-1 draw at home and a 2-1 loss in Belgium.
The most recent full campaign was the 2024/25 Conference League. St. Gallen beat Tobol 5-1 in the second qualifying round, Slask Wroclaw 4-3 in the third, and Trabzonspor in the play-off, drawing 1-1 and winning 5-4 on penalties. In the league phase they played six matches and finished twenty-ninth.
The 2026/27 campaign began in the Europa League second qualifying round, entered as Swiss Cup winners, and the draw gave them Benfica. St. Gallen won the first leg 2-1 at the Sitterstadion on 23 July 2026, Aliou Balde scoring on 37 minutes and Gaal on 80 after Rafa Silva had equalised for Benfica on 44. The return at the Estadio da Luz on 30 July went 5-0 to Benfica, Vangelis Pavlidis scoring four, one from the penalty spot, and Clement Lenglet adding the fifth on 82. Benfica took it 6-2 and St. Gallen dropped into the Conference League third qualifying round.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here. The club's news pages were reachable only as a list of headlines and none of the article bodies could be read, so nothing verbatim could be attributed.
Right now (2026/27)
Enrico Maassen has been head coach since July 2024. The squad list current to 24 July 2026 includes the goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi, the defender Jozo Stanic, the captain and midfielder Lukas Gortler and the forward Aliou Balde, who scored against Benfica. Specific summer 2026 transfer detail was not confirmed from the sources read here. The club announced in recent news that Thorsten Kirschbaum joins as a new assistant coach and that Jonas Maier has extended his contract.
The tie they are in right now is the Conference League third qualifying round against Sheriff Tiraspol. The first leg was in Tiraspol on 6 August 2026 and St. Gallen won 3-1, Hunziker scoring on 63 minutes, Frokaj on 70 and Witzig in the second minute of stoppage time, with Pineda pulling one back for Sheriff on 89. The second leg is at the Sitterstadion on 13 August 2026, with St. Gallen two goals up and an away goal in hand. Win it and they go into the Conference League play-off round; the club were 29th in that competition's league phase two seasons ago and will expect to be back in it.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_St._Gallen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Swiss_Super_League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Conference_League_qualifying_(third_and_play-off_round_matches) https://www.fcsg.ch
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.