On Tuesday evening, the Super League stage belongs entirely to the two Vaud clubs. Yverdon Sport welcomes Lausanne-Sport for a clash of the inconspicuous.
No time? blue Sport summarizes for you
- Yverdon and Lausanne meet on Tuesday evening. blue Sport broadcasts the game live, kick-off is at 8.30 pm.
- The rivalry between Lausanne-Sport and Yverdon is small on a Super League scale and the appeal is modest. The two teams have faced each other 14 times in the top division in the last 30 years.
- Despite good results, Yverdon only attract an average of 2,600 spectators at home, compared to 3,000 more in Lausanne. This puts the Vaud team in last and third-last place in the Super League's spectator rankings this season.
Both teams got into the right mood for the derby at the weekend. Lausanne-Sport beat Grasshoppers 3-0 at home, while Yverdon celebrated their first away win in over 440 days with a 3-2 victory at Luzern thanks to a goal deep into stoppage time. So far this month, only Servette and Basel have been more successful than the two Vaud clubs, who lead a shadowy existence in German-speaking Switzerland.
It is a rare moment of shared football euphoria in the canton's two largest cities, which are half an hour's drive apart. Yverdon goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni filmed himself in Lucerne with his smartphone and urged the fans to come to the "Muni", the Stade Municipal, on Tuesday evening. Lausanne coach Ludovic Magnin spoke of a perfect evening after the match against GC and looked ahead to the two derbies this week, against Yverdon and a few days later against Servette: "It's really cool!"
Even if the constellation is right once again, there's no need to kid yourself: The rivalry between Lausanne-Sport and Yverdon is small on a Super League scale and the charisma is modest. The two teams have faced each other 14 times in the top division over the past 30 years, played each other in the Cup semi-final in 2001 and in spring 2023, they battled it out in front of 12,000 spectators for promotion to the Super League, which they both managed in the end.
After almost 50 rounds back in the top flight, it remains difficult to form a picture of the two clubs. Yverdon is owned by Texan businessman Jamie Welch, who used to be a banker at Credit Suisse and now works in the energy sector. He has also been club president for a few days now. Lausanne-Sport is owned by the billion-dollar British petroleum company Ineos.
Wonder bag Ineos
With sporting director Stéphane Henchoz and coach Magnin, the British have installed a local duo in Lausanne who appear to have plenty of room to maneuver. The interest of the conglomerate and its owner Jim Ratcliffe does not always seem to be the same. In the club hierarchy of the company-owned football conglomerate, LS is in third place behind Nice and Manchester United. In a recent interview, Ratcliffe said casually and tellingly: "We made a lot of stupid mistakes in Lausanne and Nice. I'm glad we made the mistakes before we came to Manchester."
Since Ineos took over Lausanne-Sport in 2018, the club has spent three seasons in the Challenge League and never played the role it had hoped for in the Super League. The results of Magnin's team are certainly not causing Ratcliffe any sleepless nights. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, Magnin has survived phases of disappointing results unscathed and has had time to shape a team that, driven by Swiss U21 international Alvyn Sanches, has lost just two of nine games since mid-August.
Yverdon's plan is in place
Yverdon are also showing patience. After Marco Schällibaum was removed as coach early on a year ago by the then new management, Alessandro Mangiarratti has been trusted. The 46-year-old Swiss has not only delivered pleasing results, but has also developed Kevin Carlos to such an extent that he could be sold for over three million francs this summer. Yverdon openly admit that this counts.
Players should develop in Yverdon, show themselves and be sold on. "Creating value" is what Jeffrey Saunders, the club's football manager, calls it. The American owners are also prepared to spend money on this, be it on new players or improving the infrastructure - as was the case in the summer when the stadium was adapted for one million francs. The aim is for Yverdon Sport to soon stand on its own two feet financially.
There is still a long way to go
The successes of the last few weeks are not fooling anyone. Not even at the more ambitious Lausanne, who are expecting a top-six finish, as Magnin emphasized after the win against GC: "I told the boys there would be no party, not even a small beer. It would be stupid to be satisfied already." The road out of the shadows is still long, even in their own city. In Yverdon, despite good results at home, there are only 2600 spectators on average, in Lausanne there are 3000 more. This puts the Vaud club in last and third-last place in the Super League's spectator rankings this season.
SDA
