Marked for Francisco Bareiro
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Luzern may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Luzern
Oscar Kabwit and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match31 Oct 2026
A goal on 96 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad2 Nov 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Luzern will feel it on Saturday.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Luzern have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Luzern
Position 9 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market21 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match19 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Luzern
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Luzern
Pascal Loretz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Luzern come up short against Thun
Thun left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Oscar Kabwit gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Edimilson Widmer left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Severin Ottiger dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Francisco Bareiro arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Francisco Bareiro has, at Luzern, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leonardo Bertone and Luzern agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Luzern
Leonardo Bertone was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Luzern
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo di Giusto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.