Luxembourg: Something stirring in the Grand Duchy

BACK IN 1971, Chelsea played a two-legged European Cup-Winners’ Cup tie against Jeunesse Hautcharage, a village club from Luxembourg that had, rather surprisingly, won the domestic cup and qualified for Europe. It was a team that had four brothers, a bespectacled defender and a one-armed forward. Chelsea, needless to say, won 8-0 in Luxembourg and then thrashed the plucky amateurs 13-0 to run-up a record-breaking 21-0 aggregate score.

Luxembourg were minnows in 1971, in fact they have always been regarded as one of Europe’s no-hopers. With a population of 660,000 they could be nothing more than makeweights. The Grand Duchy has always a good head for business, though, and has long been considered an excellent destination for top talent. They are now developing young footballers that may soon be attracting the attention of clubs around the continent.

But in the European Championship qualifiers, Luxembourg made it through to the play-off games with the ultimate prize one of the remaining places in EURO 2024. They lost to Georgia 2-0, but five years ago, the prospect of Luxembourg even getting as far as they did would have been laughed at. 

Luxembourg has become football mad, although most fans inevitably follow Europe’s big clubs. There are 40,000 registered players and plenty of clubs and the national stadium, Stade de Luxembourg is an impressive structure, but the country is surrounded by more glamorous distractions from the football world. 

The national squad, headed by Luc Holtz, comprises players who are plying their trade abroad. Only two of Luxembourg’s recent call-ups are employed by domestic clubs; David Sinani of F91 Dudelange and Raplh Schon of Wiltz 71. The rest are usually in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and other European nations. 

The domestic game in Luxembourg was always dominated by the likes of Jeunesse Esch and F91 Dudelange, who have won the league 28 and 16 times respectively. Jeunesse Esch last won the title in 2010, but Dudelange were champions as recently as 2022. The last team from Esch-sur-Alzette to finish top of the National Division was Fola in 2021.

This season, Differdange 03 are top of the table and seven points clear of last year’s champions, Swift Hesperange, who lifted their first title after a barnstorming campaign in which they scored 100 goals in 30 games and lost just once.  Differdange won the Luxembourg Cup in 2023 with a team drawn from all over the world, including players from Argentina, Brazil, Congo and France. Luxembourg’s 16-team top flight has a relatively high level of foreign players – 59% – with teams like Swift, Differdange, Mondercange and Schifflange with well over 70%.

Swift appear to have the most coveted players in the league, such as the Austrian Raphael Holzhauser, Simào Martins of Portugal and France’s Clément Corturier. The club is owned by Prince Sébastien of Luxembourg and, in 2022, filed a lawsuit against UEFA for blocking a proposal for a cross-border Benelux league.

Swift were among Luxembourg’s hopefuls in European competition but were knocked out of the Champions League in the first qualifying round by Slovan Bratislava. They then tried their luck in the Conference League and managed to get past The New Saints of Wales before losing to Macedonia’s Struga in the third qualifying round. Progres Niederkorn, Differdange and F91 Dudelange both went out of the Conference League at the second qualifying round stage.

Spora were the first Luxembourg representative in Europe, but they found, like all teams from the Grand Duchy in those days, the opposition was far too strong. Spora were beaten in a play-off against Borussia Dortmund in 1956-57 by 7-0 and shortly afterwards, Stade Dudelange were thrashed 14-1 on aggregate by Red Star Belgrade. In the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, US Luxembourg suffered a 17-0 defeat at the hands of Köln and Leeds United inflicted upon Spora a 16-0 humbling. Likewise, the Cup-Winners’ Cup also highlighted the gulf between Luxembourg’s clubs and the rest of Europe; as well as the Chelsea game in 1971, Union were beaten 10-0 by TSV 1860 Munich. Such results are a thing of the past today.

Unsurprisingly, crowds are low in the Luxembourg National Division. The average in 2023-24 is currently 442, with Differdange and Jeunesse Esch enjoying crowds of 900 and 840 respectively.  Whether the national team’s recent success can drive up greater interest in the local game remains to be seen, but at least Luxembourg have started to make an impact on the game.

Slow Newsletter: Football regulator, Sheffield United, Copa libertadores, Luxembourg, Women’s Champions League

WITH THE announcement of the Football Governance Bill, there should be some questions about the powers of an independent regulator for the game. While everyone wants to see owners behave properly and with responsibility, the possibility of a regulator forcing an owner to sell their stake in a club should concern everyone. A forced divestment could have repercussions on the club concerned, in so far that would-be buyers could exploit the situation and reduce the value of a club. Regulation should certainly be stringent in order to protect any business as well as prevent cowboy capitalism, but stripping the right of an owner to run his or her club, unless the law has been broken, may be very shaky ground. Perhaps regulators should be looking at changing the status of clubs so they become an asset of community value. A regulator is absolutely needed, but they will need to be careful that excessive restrictions do not discourage future investment in football or spark-off a string of costly court cases.

Luxembourg could be on the verge of reaching their first major tournament as they prepare to meet Georgia in the semi-finals of the EURO 2024 play-offs. Luxembourg were one of Europe’s whipping boys for decades, but they finished third in their qualifying group, ahead of Iceland, Bosnia and Liechtenstein. Things have changed in the Grand Duchy and Luxembourg has been successful in developing young talent – for example, 20 players are employed abroad. Should Luxembourg beat Georgia on March 21 in Tbilisi, they will face Greece or Kazakhstan with a place in the European Championship the prize.

The Copa Libertadores group stage has been drawn and there is a notable absence from the participants – Boca Juniors. Last season’s runners-up did not qualify and are in the Copa Sudamericana where they will surely be one of the favourites. The Libertadores winners in 2023, Fluminense, have been drawn with Colo-Colo, Alianza Lima and Cerro Porteño, a group they should fairly easily navigate. Palmeiras and San Lorenzo are in the same group and Gremio and Estudiantes will also come face-to-face.

Chelsea made a huge stride towards the last four of the Women’s Champions League with a 3-0 win away at Ajax. A record 36,000 crowd for Dutch women’s football saw Emma Hayes’s side put on a very professional performance, with two goals from Sjoeke Nüsken and one from Lauren James. Meanwhile, Lyon’s women won 2-1 at Benfica in the other quarter-final played. The remaining ties are Hacken versus Paris Saint-Germain and Brann against Barcelona.

Sheffield United lost £ 31.5 million before tax in their promotion campaign of 2022-23, despite benefitting from parachute payments. In 2021-22, the club made a loss of £ 16 million. The increased deficit was attributable to a number of factors: a lower profit on player sales, down from £ 11.2 million to £ 4.4 million; a 15% drop in TV income; and a 15% increase in wages. Conversely, matchday income was up by 33% to £ 9.6 million and commercial earnings rose by 30%. Sheffield United have around £ 80 million of loans, £ 52 million of which is bank debt.