Former Swiss national footballer says he was asked to lose a game

Former national footballer Claudio Sulser (left) has experienced attempted bribery. Keystone-SDA

Former Swiss football star Claudio Sulser says he experienced an attempted bribe during his career. “An opposing player came up to me and asked if we would agree to lose the game on purpose,” he told Blick.

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This happened during Sulzer’s time in the Nati B (second division) with Vevey. The opponents were playing against relegation. “I gave the answer on the pitch,” said the former international in an interview published on blick.ch on Monday. “In the end, we won 2:0 and I scored both goals.”

Sulser, 69, has fond memories of his time as a footballer. Nevertheless, he describes himself as a “frustrated ex-national player who never achieved anything.”

“Although we occasionally beat the strongest teams in the world, we were never able to qualify for the [big tournaments],” he said. Although that was much more difficult back then than it is today, he is still a little disappointed about it.

Training versus studying

However, Sulser explained that he never put 100% into playing football.

“After about a year, I realised that playing football alone wasn’t enough for me. I needed a balance, so I started studying law. And while the others often went out and enjoyed life, I preferred to go to a symphony concert or see the sights at European Cup away games,” he said.

For other players, this would have caused some irritation. “The professionals around Roger Wehrli, Andy Egli and co didn’t understand that our goalkeeper Roger Berbig, who was studying medicine, and I missed training sessions because of our classes. We were criticised for this, especially when the results didn’t go our way,” said Sulser.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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