AC Bellinzona is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...

. It was founded in 1904, and won the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the

Swiss Football League System The Swiss football league system, is a series of interconnected leagues for association football clubs in Switzerland, with seven teams from Liechtenstein, and one each from exclaves of Germany and Italy, also competing. The system has a hierarchi ...

in 2014–15 season. After winning it and the 1. Liga Classic, Bellinzona is promoted to 1. Liga Promotion. They currently play in the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the winners of the league are promoted to the Super League, while the ...

, the second tier of Swiss football.

History

Because Bellinzona is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

-speaking region, many of Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

clubs have loaned youth players to the club to get first team experience. Bellinzona was promoted to the

after beating

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

5–2 on aggregate in the relegation play-off following the 2007–2008 season. Bellinzona played at the top level in the 2008–2009 season for the first time since the 1989–90 season. As finalists in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, the team also qualified for the 08-09

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

where it beat

Ararat Yerevan Football Club Ararat Yerevan ( hy, Ֆուտբոլային Ակումբ Արարատ Երևան), commonly known as Ararat Yerevan, is an Armenian football club based in Yerevan that plays in the Armenian Premier League. Since 1999, the club is ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

in the 1st qualifying round. Then they knocked-out Ukrainian FC Dnipro on away goal rule (2:3 in Dnipropetrovsk, and 2:1 home victory, 4:4 aggregate). In third qualifying round they faced Galatasaray losing both games 3:4 at home ground and 1:2 in Istanbul. In 2013 before the 2013–14 season of 1. Liga Promotion the club was declared bankrupt. After staying one season playing only at young divisions, the club went back to professional football, joining the 2014–15 2.Liga. After two years in 1. Liga Classic, the club finished first in 2018 and was promoted to the 1. Liga Promotion for the 2018–19 season. In the 2021-22

Swiss Promotion League The Promotion League, named the YAPEAL Promotion League for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Swiss football league system. Eighteen clubs compete in the league, playing each other twice over the course of the season. The champions are ...

, Bellinzona reached second place during the regular season. In the promotion round, they were able eke out a first place finish ahead of

FC Breitenrain Football Club Breitenrain Bern are a football team from Bern, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1994 as a merger of the clubs FC Minerva Bern and FC Zaehringia Bern, is currently playing in the Swiss Promotion League The Promotion League, n ...

to gain promotion to the

. As Breitenrain withdrew their license request, Bellinzona would have been promoted even had they not won the season.

Honours

* Champions: 1947–48

* Champions: 1942–43 (Lost promotion play-off), 1943–44 (Won pronotion play-off), 1975–76, 1979–80, 1999–2000 (Lost promotion play-off)

*Champions: 2021–22 1. Liga Classic * Champions: 1931–32, 1935–36, 1998–99, 2017–18 2. Liga * Champions: 1920–21 (as 4th tier), 2014–15 (as 6th tier)

Players

Current squad

''As of 6 September 2022.''

Out on loan

Coaching staff

References

External links

Official website
*http://www.calcioregionale.ch/?1298/2a-lega *https://web.archive.org/web/20140908031642/http://www.acbellinzona.ch/index.php/squadre Football clubs in Switzerland

AC Bellinzona AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss Super League in 1948. After being folded in 2013 declaring bankruptcy, the team played the Ticino Group of 2.Liga, the sixth tier of the Swi ...

Association football clubs established in 1904 1904 establishments in Switzerland Organisations based in Bellinzona {{Switzerland-footyclub-stub