FC Hard - Your Forum football team

Good morning all,

Third time lucky with this post hopefully, the others have gone missing!

There's a lot of negative vibes floating about at the moment, so I think it is time to redress the balance with a story of Forum success, a tale of community, integration and moreover, a story of how the forum CAN work when you stick with it.

Around 4 years ago, a member on here (BoyD) met a man in a bar. This man was on the board of a Swiss football team, that had been in existance since 1931, but was going under, due to financial problems, no sponsorship and a severe lack of players. Aha, thought he, we have a shed load of EFers who love playing football, and would relish the competitive challenge of such a venture. So he, with help from many others (namechecking LeeD here too) managed to organise a group of EFers to join up with this club, and found some sponsors, so it's 80 year history could be preserved.

4 Years on, and unfortunately BoyD and LeeD have had to leave the club, due to family commitments, but we have gone from strength to strength. In our first seasons, we struggled a bit, and tended to finish in the bottom 3 of the 5th division table (no relegation from here luckily!), we had a good team, but a shallow squad, and people going on holiday etc really hurt us.

Now however, we have established ourselves. Last season we finished an encouraging 3rd, having been pressing the top of the league all season, but falling just short at the end. This season however, has gone far more to plan. We currently sit in 2nd place, 3 behind the leaders (who have a game in hand) and 4 clear of 3rd place,, with only 2 games left. If we win both of these games, we will be promoted as one of the best placed 2nd teams in the 5th division and will ascend to the giddy heights of the 4th league. See here:

http://www.football.ch/fvrz/de/verein.aspx?v=1607

So what, you may be thinking, I already support a football team, and they play on the TV, and they are probably of a better standard than a 5th division Swiss team. Yes, that is almost certainly the case (unless you support Spurs), but here's your chance to actually be a part of something and make a difference.

We have a culturally diverse squad, picked from all over the globe, and recruited extensively from the forum...we have English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Americans (better than you might think!), Canadians, Spanish, Icelandic, Swedish, Algerian, and yes, even Swiss players!

So here's the deal - we're always looking for new people to join the club. Our squad is a really friendly bunch of people, but obviously with so many ex-pats, we still struggle when there are mass holiday exoduses. For example, we only have one goalkeeper in the squad (muggins here), and are down to two out and out strikers, so we could really do with some reinforcement. As stated before, we're a friendly bunch, and everyone is welcome down at training, so why not come and have a go?

If you're not of the playing persuasion, and you enjoy watching exciting live sport (we've never had a 0-0 result, ever!), why not come down and watch a game. We're always grateful for any support we get, and who knows, you might even enjoy it :-)

Failing both options above, why not join the FC Hard group on facebook, to find out what's going on with your favourite local football team?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7057630965


Thanks for reading, dear listener, and I hope to see YOU soon!
StirB

[terryhall]

You forgot to mention that "FC Hard" is a quality name.

In all seriousness, I played for these lads for 2 seasons until I was lured away by the joys of hurling (the sport, not the post-alcohol disaster).

Personally for me it was totally worth it the first time that I did a UEFA Champions League style walk out / line up on the pitch before kick off to "wave to the fans". Brilliant.

[BoyD]

Cheers StirB!

Good to hear the FC Hard project is going from strength to strength.

As a grumpy, old, unfit family man these days I'll take the liberty of adding a few comments though:

"In our first seasons, we struggled a bit, and tended to finish in the bottom 3 of the 5th division table (no relegation from here luckily!), we had a good team, but a shallow squad, and people going on holiday etc really hurt us."

Season 1 we finished 3rd too and I reckon the original XI would spank the current first XI, all day long.

EF did contribute a big chunk, but our old site www.footylist.info (unfortunately also a bit neglected these days - anyone wanna take over?) was the front runner and for that a guy who used to go by the name Lob Rockster deserves a lot of credit too.

Lastly, a lot of the original lads did stick with the club, they just "graduated" (I use the term loosely) to the Seniors, who (as you can see below) we also managed to transform into promotion candidates after leaving FC Hard 1 to hang with the pensioners:

http://www.football.ch/fvrz/de/verein.aspx?v=1607

So, if you are older than StirB and fancy a game, give them a shout too.

Cheers

BoyD

[Upthehatters2008]

Sadly my Premier league footballing days are over...(Cablecom doesn't show the matches on my package)

Do you have a youth/U-18 team or looking to start one ? I know one or two young'uns that would like to join.

What about girlies - can they play ? (Obviously not, but I really mean can they participate...)

Haha, we can argue the relative strengths of the current and previous squads all day, it probably just comes down to who the keeper gets to play for

UTH2008, we don't have a youth/U18 team, but we have always had a few younger Swiss guys knocking about the first team. How old is your prospective player? To be honest, if they're good enough, they're old enough, so any 16 or 17 year old wonderkids would get a game!

Sorry, we don't have any girls playing for us, or a girls' team, but obviously should we find enough recruits, i daresay the club would be happy enough to start one.

Don't forget the Veterans who, at 40+, need help.

They're so bad I nearly left the country. But if there are Zurich EFers who are even moderately competent and 40 or over, this would help the Vets too.

Start with a goalkeeper who
a) does not put olive oil on his gloves before the match and
b) can kick more than 10 feet

FC Hard are, well, hard.

I also have it on good authority that footylist will support anyone who wants to get footy going in Zurich for the expats. Even if it just points into a Facebook page or something

[BoyD]

	Quote:	KB88111
	Don't forget the Veterans who, at 40+, need help. They're so bad I nearly left the country. But if there are Zurich EFers who are even moderately competent and 40 or over, this would help the Vets too. Start with a goalkeeper who a) does not put olive oil on his gloves before the match and b) can kick more than 10 feet FC Hard are, well, hard. I also have it on good authority that footylist will support anyone who wants to get footy going in Zurich for the expats. Even if it just points into a Facebook page or something

So, can we find a volunteer for the Footylist admin role?

[Rugbylad]

Gutted this is in Zurich, moving to Geneva in a week and love my footie as well as rugby!

[ximix]

	Quote:	Rugbylad
	Gutted this is in Zurich, moving to Geneva in a week and love my footie as well as rugby!

Why not start one in Geneva then if there isn't one already? There should surely be enough takers if you do.

I've rarely come across a footie and rugger lover. Normally it's one or the other.

I love footie meself!

[BoyD]

There is, the Geneva Scots are a friendly bunch who play regularly.

Club runs very well, give me a shout for the contact details.

[mirfield]

Gay Say
Hard
Young Boys

So many clubs to choose from.

[dodgyken]

Its been 4 years since I last played - I suspect rusty isn't the word!

And my best years (which were still pretty poor) are behind me - I'm not Ryan Giggs you know!

[larrylizzard]

	Quote:	Upthehatters2008
	Sadly my Premier league footballing days are over...(Cablecom doesn't show the matches on my package) Do you have a youth/U-18 team or looking to start one ? I know one or two young'uns that would like to join. What about girlies - can they play ? (Obviously not, but I really mean can they participate...)

Regarding youth teams or teams for girls. Most of the slightly bigger towns have many teams including girls team. I currently play for FC Uster seniors and they have around 10 youth teams of all ages and also a girls team. But obviously Swiss teams, however some people speak English and are friendly.

What area are you in?

[Rustygraben]

Could you provide more infos as to how often you train, where and how many "official" matches you play roughly in a month?

Hi Rusty,

We train twice per week - Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1900-2030 at Saalsporthalle, near Sihl City.

During the season, we have a first round of 9 games, from around August to November and a second round of 9 from around April to July.

I find that we play most weekends, which aren't holidays. We also have 'unofficial' matches (although they all appear on the Swiss FA's website!) during the close season, usually about 5 per half of the season, as warm up games.

Time for a good news update:

We just won our penultimate game of the season 3-1, despite some comedy own-goal defending / goalkeeping!

We now go into our last game on the 19th, against the team who have won the league, needing a win to put us in with a chance of promotion to the 4th league (as best scoring 2nd place team in the 5th league).

Fingers crossed!

[terryhall]

	Quote:
	Time for a good news update: We just won our penultimate game of the season 3-1, despite some comedy own-goal defending / goalkeeping! We now go into our last game on the 19th, against the team who have won the league, needing a win to put us in with a chance of promotion to the 4th league (as best scoring 2nd place team in the 5th league). Fingers crossed!

If you go into it with your fingers crossed, I anticipate more comedy own-goal goalkeeping...

Sadly, we narrowly missed out on a play-off place last season, as we lost the last game.

However, this season is far more positive.

http://www.football.ch/fvrz/de/verein.aspx?v=1607

We are now top of our league after 6 games (5 wins, one very very shoddy 3-2 loss, shouldn't have happened!). We have two games to go until the winter break, so if anyone fancies lending some support in one of our next games, one home, one away, it would be very welcome.

Anyone looking to join, now would be a good time to get involved, as we continue training (indoors!) through the winter.

Cheers,
StirB

[Tauras2]

Hi, guys,

i have just moved to Zurich and was glad to see some football action here.

Is it still possible to join the trainings? Are the the training times is on tuesdays and thursdays? And do you have the club fee or the trainings cost or something?

Thanks!

Hi Tauras,

It is certainly possible to join training.

Our annual fee for players is 220chf, this covers training facilities, insurance, admin fees with the league etc. Please send me a PM if interested.