Pizza makes it a sensation
The small club FC Wil is right at the top of the race for promotion. This is thanks to the traditional pizza get-together after home games too.
Sharing good cheer and pizzas: the players of FC Wil
The population of Wil in St. Gallen is around 24,000. This makes it the third smallest town with a professional football club in the country. FC Wil itself does not exaggerate its size, according to its motto “little club, big history”. The club has actually had some great stories to tell in the past. In 2002, FC Wil played in the top division for the first time. In 2003, they defeated their canton rivals FC St. Gallen, with a record result of 11-3. In 2004, they were even the winners of the Swiss Cup.
However, for a time, there were few positive “big stories” to follow this. First it was relegation. Then it came to light that FC Wil’s roaring success had been financed with millions in embezzled cash. Ukrainian investors later intervened and left it in ruins after they withdrew. Subsequently, in 2015, Turkish financiers took over with similar consequences: countless dismissals of trainers, points deductions and non-payment of wages. In 2017, FC Wil only escaped relegation to the Promotion League because FC Le Mont withdrew voluntarily.
But now FC Wil is already starting to have big stories to tell once again. At the beginning of the season, scarcely anyone would have considered the team from Eastern Switzerland to be a candidate for promotion, since competition is fierce in the dieci Challenge League. Currently, far behind FC Wil in the table are rich Lausanne, ambitious Aarau, and the long-standing Super League clubs Thun, Vaduz and Xamax. This is despite the fact that 19 players in the squad are no more than 24 years old, which means Wil is the youngest team in the entire dieci Challenge League.
Under trainer Brunello Iacopetta, not only is Wil playing successfully but spectacularly too, with scores such as 4-3, 6-1, 3-2 and 1-5. When FC Wil plays, the fans can look forward to plenty of goals. Captain and veteran Philipp Muntwiler (36) revealed the recipe for success: “Good team spirit can take you a long way. We really are a unit, and I have never experienced such team spirit anywhere else.”
This is also apparent after matches at the team’s home venue, the Lidl Arena: once the final whistle is blown, pizzas are delivered to the dressing room from the nearby branch of dieci. However, it is not separate pizzas for each player but a selection for everyone. People at FC Wil like to share. And winning tastes even better with a hot slice of Prosciutto, Kickericki or Funghi!
Two teams are promoted directly at the end of the season, while a third takes on the bottom team in the Super League play-offs. FC Wil has a good chance in this competition, and thanks to dieci pizzas, the team recharges its batteries every week to keep going. It would be a minor football miracle if FC Wil did go up, and yet another big story for a small club.
By the way, the dieci branch in Wil not only provides the club’s first team with hot pizzas, but also supports up-and-coming players with vouchers and deliveries.
