After its three-year broadcasting rights deal with OneFootball, the Swiss Football League (SFL) has opened its new streaming service to anyone outside Switzerland. The streaming service includes every Swiss Super League and Challenge League match and features your choice of German, French, and Italian commentary, or stadium noise.
It follows the announcement from the Polish league Ekstraklasa that it has launched a direct-to-customer service after OneFootball decided not to renew its rights for the league. After it aired the first matchday of both the Swiss Super League and Challenge League for free, the SFL now charges $2 per game to stream individual matches.
In 2021, nine European leagues, including the Norway Eliteserien, Danish Superliga, and Polish Ekstraklasa banded together to combine their rights. The leagues were frustrated with their inability to gain global exposure through non-domestic deals. They signed a broadcasting deal with OneFootball to broadcast their matches for free in certain territories.
Now, only three years later, Denmark, Poland, and Switzerland have exited the combined effort. The Ekstraklasa and Swiss Super League have made their streaming services, while the Danish Superliga doesn’t have an American partner to broadcast its games.
The SFL recently rolled out their over-the-top streaming service with the start of their games. All 228 Super League and 180 Challenge League matches are available on SFL’s new website (tv.sfl.ch). The platform broadcasts matches without any advertisements.
The channel is unavailable in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Liechtenstein.
The website also includes video replays for all of its matches, something OneFootball notably didn’t have. After creating an account, you access a ‘no spoiler’ mode, where the website hides scores after the game finishes. The stream also boasts a 1080-pixel resolution.
Although the SFL made the first matchday free to watch, the rest of the games are pay-per-view. Each game costs two euros ($2.18) to watch. With 222 games left of the Super League, watching all of the Super League games would cost around $490. The SFL has not announced a season-long subscription, although it’s possible they could announce a year-long plan soon.
The Super League began this past weekend with some enticing games over the weekend. The 12 teams played their first match on Saturday and Sunday. Despite its relative anonymity, the Super League arguably produces some of the best soccer out of Europe.
Lausanne’s climactic 3-2 win over Basel highlighted a fast-paced, intense weekend of Swiss soccer. The six games saw 17 goals for a whopping 2.83 goals per match.
The league will feature Lausanne attacking midfielder Simone Pafundi, who has earned links to Manchester United. Pafundi is currently playing with Italy at the U19 Euros. Reigning Golden Boot winners Chadrac Akolo and Kevin Carlos will also play in the league.
Switzerland frequently sends its clubs to play in the top levels of European soccer. Young Boys made it to the Champions League group stage last season, finishing third. Servette finished third in the Europa League group stage and advanced to the round of 16 of the Europa Conference League. UEFA ranks Switzerland as the 13th-best European league, above Czechia and Norway and barely below Turkey.
Young Boys will likely play in the Champions League’s revamped group stage this year. They’ll only need to beat a team in the play-off round to advance to the competition proper. Lugano, Servette, Zürich, and St. Gallen could also advance to the league.
PHOTOS: IMAGO / Sergio Brunetti
