Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

SCL Tigers

Swiss ice hockey club

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

The SC Langnau Tigers is a professional ice hockey team based in Langnau im Emmental, Switzerland. The team competes in the National League (NL), the highest league in Switzerland. The team plays its home games in the 6,050-seat Emmental Versicherung Arena.

01History

Originally formed as the Ice skating club Langnau, the team was founded on 30 January 1946. The 1948-49 season started in the summer due to the planing on the grounds of the Napro, where the ice rink was to be built. The ice rink began operation on 26 December 1948. SC Langnau, who had not yet completed any championship games, secured the "Begert Cup". Nine out of 16 games were won. The game against Rotblau Bern was attended by over 1000 spectators.

SC Langnau participated for the first time within the Swiss Championship, starting in the lowest league stage of the Swiss ice hockey. Opponents in the 1949-50 season were Roggwil, Olten, Münsingen and the second team of Red Blue Bern of the Serie B. In the season 1950-51, SC Langnau took part in the league operation of Serie B, Group 6 Central Switzerland. Langnau was group winner for the first time, but lost in the final against Bern. Langnau won the Cantonal Cup of the Serie B. In that season, the team completed a total of 23 games, including 16 at home.

The SCL Tigers, promoted to the NLA in 1998, are the successor club of the Schlittschuh-Club Langnau (SCL), which was outsourced to SCL Tigers AG in 1999 under the direction of President René Zeh. Zeh became the first chairman of the board. The club's club logo comes from the long-standing main sponsor, the long-established traditional company "Tiger Käse AG" (since 2004 " Emmi Fondue AG"), which has been sponsoring the club with its "Tiger" brand since the 1970s.

In October 2001, businessman Ruedi Soltermann took over Zeh's Presidency to lead SCL. In the summer of 2002, the club confirmed to have a debt amount of more than one million francs with the financial difficulties plaguing the club in the following years.

At the beginning of February 2005, Armin Müller was removed from the Board of Directors. According to the SCL, Müller, who was responsible for sponsorship, promised advertising revenues of nearly 1.3 million francs for the 2004-05 season, of which only a fraction arrived. The SCL Tigers announced that they would file charges for document forgery and misleading management. With SCL's long standing economical trouble's, an initiative "Save the Tigers" was founded in July 2009 with entrepreneur, Peter Jakob. In September 2009, Jakob became the President to the board of directors of SCL Tigers AG, and over the following years added financial stability to the Tigers and erasing their debts.

After their initial promotion in 1998, they played in Switzerland's top hockey level for 15 years. At the end of the 2012-2013 NLA season, they were defeated in the promotion/relegation games by Lausanne HC and were relegated to the National League B. SCL Tigers became the champions of the 2014-15 NLB season and gained the right to play against the worst team of 2014-15 NLA season in the promotion/relegation round. They returned to National League A for the 2015-2016 season after they defeated the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers in four games. Langnau was the eighth most attended team in the NLA for the 2015-16 season, averaging 5,868 (98%).

SCL Tigers versus SC Bern in an outdoor game on January 14, 2007
SCL Tigers versus SC Bern in an outdoor game on January 14, 2007

02Honors

Champions

Runners-up

03Players

Current roster

Updated 5 July 2024.

No. Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
28 Dario Allenspach C L 24 2024 Herisau, Switzerland
42 Phil Baltisberger D L 30 2024 Zofingen, Switzerland
19 Pascal Berger RW R 37 2016 Burgdorf, Switzerland
39 Luca Boltshauser G L 33 2022 Zurich, Switzerland
43 Claudio Cadonau D R 38 2022 Zurich, Switzerland
38 Stéphane Charlin G L 26 2022 Geneva, Switzerland
93 Nolan Diem C R 32 2018 Herisau, Switzerland
83 Darels Dukurs F L 23 2023 Sigulda, Latvia
72 Samuel Erni D L 35 2017 Frauenfeld, Switzerland
10 Joshua Fahrni C R 23 2024 Switzerland
66 Jiří Felcman C L 21 2023 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
21 Bastian Guggenheim D L 24 2020 Bern, Switzerland
87 Timo Jenni RW L 22 2024
13 Oskars Lapinskis F L 24 2021 Riga, Latvia
8 Saku Mäenalanen F L 24 2023 Tornio, Finland
15 Tim Mathys D L 21 2024 Huttwil, Switzerland
24 Noah Meier D L 23 2023 Switzerland
51 Claude-Curdin Paschoud D L 32 2024 Davos, Switzerland
82 Harri Pesonen (C) LW L 38 2021 Muurame, Finland
94 Patrick Petrini F R 24 2021 Switzerland
50 Juuso Riikola D L 32 2023 Joensuu, Finland
63 Dario Rohrbach RW L 28 2022 Langenthal, Switzerland
91 Matthias Rossi RW R 35 2023 Menziken, Switzerland
25 Aleksi Saarela C L 29 2021 Helsinki, Finland
46 Vili Saarijärvi (A) D R 29 2022 Rovaniemi, Finland
22 Joel Salzgeber C L 25 2020 Switzerland
40 Flavio Schmutz (A) C L 32 2020 Andwil, Switzerland
71 Julian Schmutz C R 32 2023 Bern, Switzerland
90 Jonas Schwab D L 22 2024 Bern, Switzerland
7 Ramon Tanner C L 27 2023 Appenzell, Switzerland
9 Brian Zanetti D L 23 2023 Lugano, Switzerland

Honored members

SCL Tigers retired numbers
No. Player Position Career No. retirement
12Todd ElikC1998-2000, 2002-2009,
15Markus GrafF1977-1983,
17Daniel AegerterD1992-2008,
26Martin GerberG1994-2001, 2004-2005,
44Walter GerberF1990-1991, 1994-1998,
Watch videos about SCL TigersExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article SCL Tigers, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.