Keystone
The Swiss Football League (SFL) has nominated Peter Knäbel as Dominique Blanc’s successor as President of the Swiss Football Association (SFV).
Knäbel is the second candidate after Sandro Stroppa.
In Knäbel, the SFL has nominated a prominent and certainly valid candidate for the SFA presidency, which will be filled in May 2025. The league sees the 58-year-old’s election as an opportunity to “further promote the development and professionalization of Swiss football, represent the interests of all clubs, strengthen youth development as an essential part of this development and intensify cooperation between the various levels of Swiss football”.
Knäbel, a Swiss-German dual national who lives in Solothurn, has experience at all levels of football. Knäbel ended his professional career in Germany and Switzerland in 1999 with the promotion of FC Winterthur to the then NLB as player-coach. As an official, he served as Technical Director of the SFA from 2009 to 2014. In October 2014, Knäbel took over the position of Director of Professional Football at Hamburger SV. In 2018, he moved to Schalke 04, where he was a member of the board.
Last May, the regional associations had already proposed Sandro Stroppa as a candidate for the presidency. The 54-year-old from Effretikon is the president of the SFA’s amateur league.
With Blanc and previously Peter Gilliéron (2009 to 2019), the last two SFA presidents also came from the amateur camp.
SDA