The Zurich Renegades are an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team from

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The club, formed in 1983, is the oldest still existing American football club in Switzerland. With seven

Swiss Bowl The Swiss Bowl is the annual national championship game in the sport of American football in Switzerland, first held in 1986. It is contested by the two best teams of the Nationalliga A. The Calanda Broncos are the record winners of the Swiss B ...

victories the Renegades have the second most after the Calanda Broncos.Team Vorstellung Zurich Renegades
Swiss Bowl website - Team history, accessed: 9 December 2013

History

Formed in November 1983, the club took part in the inaugural Swiss Bowl three years later, in 1986, where it lost to

Lugano Seagulls Lugano (, , ; lmo, label= Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Lugano has a populati ...

. The two clubs met again in the 1987 Swiss Bowl and this time Zurich kept the upper hand and defended its title in 1988, now against the

Bienna Jets Biannus or Biannos ( grc, Βιάννος), or Biennus or Biennos (Βίεννος), also Bienna (Βίεννα), was an inland town and ''polis'' (city-state) of ancient Crete. It appears, under the form Βίεννα, in the list of 22 cities of Cret ...

. After this, the club briefly dropped out of the Nationalliga A, the highest league of American football in Switzerland. The club returned to the Nationalliga in 1990 but it took another decade for the Renegades to reach another Swiss Bowl. From 2000 onwards the Renegades played in eight of the next ten

, winning five of those and losing three. National titles were won in 2001 against the

Basel Gladiators , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), Sa ...

, in 2002 against the Seaside Vipers St. Gallen, in 2004 and 2005 against the

Winterthur Warriors Winterthur (; french: Winterthour, lang) is a List of cities in Switzerland, city in the canton of Zürich in northern Switzerland. With over 110,000 residents it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, and ...

and in 2008 against the Calanda Broncos. The club's last appearance in the Swiss Bowl to date came in 2009 when it lost 23–35 to the Broncos. From 2010 to 2015 the club has played in the Nationalliga A without quite making it to the national championship game again. The 2016 season saw the club come last in the league without a win all season and lose the relegation play-off against Nationalliga B champions

Geneva Seahawks , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; ...

as well. Thereafter, the rebuild started. Two new mexican Coaches were acquired, Fabian Muñoz as head coach and offensive coordinator and Alonso Espinosa as defensive coordinator. In the first season in the NLB, the team managed to achieve only three victories out of 8 games played with the new coaching staff in the 2017 season. One year later, the mission to get back to NLA started and 9 regular season wins showed the potential of the team and led them to the relegation Game against the Luzern Lions. However, the Renegades were narrowly defeated by the team from Central Switzerland. In 2019, the Zurich Renegades had a perfect season with 10 out of 10 regular season wins and were once again playing against the Luzern Lions in the relegation game for the right to be promoted back to the NLA. This time the team from Zurich was victorious, defeating Lucerne 38–27 in Utogrund Stadium in front of over 1000 visitors, paving the way to move back up to NLA the highest American Football league in Switzerland.

Honours

** Champions: (7) 1987, 1988, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008 ** Runners-up: (4) 1986, 2000, 2006, 2009

Recent seasons

Recent seasons of the club: * SF = Semi Finals * SB = Swiss Bowl * PR = Promotion Round * RR = Relegation Round

References

External links

Official website

Football History
Historic American football tables from Germany and Europe {{DEFAULTSORT:Zurich Renegades American football teams in Switzerland American football teams established in 1983 1983 establishments in Switzerland Sport in Zürich