By Lulu
March 29 2005

Til Birnam wood remove to Duns inane I cannot taint with fear. A didactic play how to destroy a traditional club shortly Marc Roger, the former president of collapsed Swiss football club Servette Geneva will face charges of misconduct relating to the bankruptcy of the 17-times Swiss champions. This was the last act of a piece which was well imbued with human megalomania and downright shifty behaviour like Shakespeare’s most famous play, but with the slight difference that Scotland did not cease to exist after Macbeth became finally the Duffer in front of the "untimely ripp`d from his mother’s womb".

When the Frenchman Marc Roger first arrived, the club was allready in financial trouble, having been able to secure their licence for 2003/2004 only after selling young star Phillippe Senderos to Arsenal FC… and by falsifying their balance. An action for which they had to start the 2004/2005 season with 3 points deducted!

Many of Servettes financial problems was caused by the newly built "Stade de genève", a 30`000 all-seater which was also constructed with Euro 2008 in mind, where the hosts will be Switzerland and Austria.

The attempt to copy the euphoria and success the new stadium brought to Swiss champion’s FC Basel failed absolutely, and the average attendance was under 15`000, with the only sold out games being the ones against Basel.

Well, this weakened Club fell in summer 2004, in to the hands of Marc Roger, as he hailed himself as the saviour who would bring back the glory days to one of Switzerland’s most prestigious football clubs.

Not lacking in confidence Roger promised to pay the clubs 4.5 million Swiss francs debts with the help of former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz, and also pledged himself to challenge Basel in the Swiss league.

What now follows, is a didactic play how to destroy an 115 year old traditional club in a few months, with a little help of from excessive optimism and a severe loss of reality.

1. Buy dozens of overpaid ex-stars nobody else wants

To that end, he signed no fewer than 21 players in the summer, with the likes of Christian Karembeau and Viorel Moldovan being lured to Geneva by absurdly generous salaries.

2. Let the players with the highest income play no matter how poorly they are actually playing.

Without the time to gel as a team, Servette struggled and exited the uefa cup even before the group stages with a defeat vs. Ferencvaros Budapest. Things were little better in the league. Having started the season on minus three points, the first results were very unsatisfactory, so that Coach Marc Schällibaum was subsequently replaced by Adrian Ursea, with little improvement in results.

3. Calculate with money you do not have.

Off the pitch the things moved differently than in Rogers’s fantasy. He could of course not stand for Servettes financial commitments, although having the city forced to give him the exploitations rights to the clubs new stadium as he overtook presidency. He always counted on a cheque from Lorenzo Sanz which he expected "every day" would arrive. Sanz became more and more suspicious and was finally through with Servette and esp. Marc Roger himself.

4. Deny any problems although you are obviously messed up

Even as the noose became tighter and tighter to his and Servettes neck, he still was not ready to confess how serious the situation, turning to one pretended saviour after an other, all of which turned out to be castles in the air.

The figures around the club became more and more dubious and absurd. The most laughable was a certain Lebanese which claimed to own 7 billion (!) francs because of a patent for "extinguishing burning Iraqi oilfields". Marc Roger presented this person (with a Servette-scarf around his neck), which had never anything to do with
football, to an astonished band of journalists – the next day it came out that the patent was not valid and the obscure Lebanese disappeared as quickly as he had came. But Roger still could convince some of his players that the situation was not impossible.

"I firmly believe the club will be saved" said
former captain Karembeau just a few days before the end.

5.Create circumstances where nobody else gets the idea you need help

The situation of Servette became worse and worse. Nobody knew exactly what the amount of Servette debts truly was, and Roger continued to lie and deny any responsibility for the whole situation. Together with his president, the club lost its credibility and nobody was ready to take the risk. So the bankruptcy was finally inevitable.


The team, which played as the only one without interruption since 1900 in the highest Swiss league, was suspended from professional football and the Swiss championship continued with only 9 teams.

The poor Genevians have not only lost their club, they have now also the burden of an big football stadium without a club and only the perspective of three games at the Euro 2008… a money-burner which will cause a lot of headache for the tax payer of Geneva in the future.

The last few years have generally been very bad for many (esp. non German speaking) Swiss clubs. After Lausanne and Lugano, Servette is the third traditional club from ‘Latin’ Switzerland to go to the wall. Xamax Neufchâtel is now the only non German speaking club in the highest Swiss league.



So a warm applause for Marc Roger, who managed to take over Servette in the summer 2004 with the pretence to lead the Club in to the Champions league, and needed less than 8 months till the traditional side perished from the earth’s surface. This unworthy man has really a lot of dirt at his fingers.

Or like Lady Macbeth would say:

"All perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little French"