Curious scenes at the Swiss first division match between FC Zurich and FC St. Gallen. Heavy snowfall brings the match to the brink of abandonment early on – but then the fans intervene
Sometimes soccer fans cause a match to be abandoned. But on Sunday they prevented one. It didn’t look good at the Letzigrund in Zurich. Heavy snowfall made the pitch in the stadium unplayable, and it was strange that Lionel Tschudi blew the whistle at all. Centimetres of white covered the surface, and the referee finally stopped the slippery action between FC Zurich and FC St. Gallen after six minutes
What now? The forces with the heat blasters had no chance. It looked like the match would have to be abandoned. But suddenly a number of other helpers arrived: fans – invited by the stadium’s security chiefs – entered the pitch with snow shovels and began to clear the pitch. The whole operation lasted half an hour, then Tschudi decided to get on with it
Geubbels shoots the aspens to victory
“We players were surprised,” said FCZ captain Yanick Brecher after the game, while St. Gallen’s Jordi Quintilla revealed that the only thing they had actually been thinking about was whether “it would be made up on Thursday or Saturday”.
His “Espen” benefited from the help of the Zurich fans and narrowly won 1:0 thanks to a goal from Frenchman Willem Geubbels (79′). There was a lot at stake at the Letzigrund; after all, fourth place was at stake and with it the chance to perhaps play at European level next season. After matchday 33, St. Gallen are fourth, while FCZ are in sixth place
