The Liechtenstein Squad for the matches against England and Slovakia  March & April 2003
Player	Birthdate	Age	Pos	Club	App	G
Beck, Matthias	5 October 1981	21	M	USV Eschen-Mauren	15	0
Beck, Thomas	21 February 1981	22	F	FC Vaduz	23	0
Büchel, Ronny	19 March 1982	20	M	FC Vaduz	18	0
Burgmeier, Franz	7 April 1982	20	M	FC Vaduz	6	0
D'Elia, Fabio	19 January 1983	20	D	Chur 97, Switzerland	7	0
Frick, Mario	7 September 1974 born in Switzerland	28	F	Ternano Calcio, Italy	38	4
Gerster, Andreas	24 November 1982	20	M	FC Vaduz	9	0
Gigon, Frédéric	13 February 1973	30	D	Stade Lausanne, Switzerland	18	0
Hasler, Daniel	18 May 1974	28	D	FC Wil 1900, Switzerland	44	1
Heeb, Martin	5 November 1969	33	G	USV Eschen-Mauren	20	0
Jehle, Peter K.	22 January 1982	21	G	Grasshopper Club Zürich, Switzerland	25	0
Nigg, Thomas	28 June 1983	19	M	USV Eschen-Mauren	9	0
Ospelt, Jürgen	16 January 1974	29	D	Chur 97, Switzerland	10	0
Ritter, Christof	18 January 1981	22	D	FC Vaduz	-	-
Stocklasa, Martin	29 May 1979	23	M	FC Vaduz	33	4
Stocklasa, Michael	2 December 1980	22	D	FC Vaduz	27	1
Telser, Martin	16 October 1978	24	M	FC Vaduz	35	1
Zech, Harry	25 February 1969	34	D	USV Eschen-Mauren	39	1

Squad details correct up to and including Liechtenstein's match against Turkey on 16 October 2002.

Diary

Sunday, 20 October 2002 - Tickets go on sale at a post office in a small town near Zürich tomorrow morning for England's next Euro 2004 qualifier. The match is in Liechtenstein in March, and the authorities and football associations in both countries are bracing themselves for trouble. UEFA are insisting the match take place in Vaduz despite security fears that increased after the trouble in Bratislava last week, where more than 5,000 England fans watched the team's victory over Slovakia. The capacity at the Rheinpark stadium is 3,500. Markus Schaper, general secretary of the Liechtenstein Football Association, stated that UEFA had turned down repeated requests from them to stage the game in nearby Zürich, at Grasshoppers' Hardturm stadium, which holds 18,500. Schaper confirmed that the FA have been allocated 942 of the 3,548 seats- far too few to satisfy demand from the England supporters' club, which has more than 20,000 members. Schaper says ticketless England fans will not find others available on the black market as almost everyone in the principality - population: 31,500 - wanted to see the match and would not sell their tickets.

Tuesday, 18 March 2003 - Ralf Loose has named an eighteen-player squad for the European Championship 2004 qualifying matches against England and against Slovakia.  Loose has made few changes from the squad which suffered a 5-0 defeat in the qualifier against Turkey in October.  FC Vaduz defender Christof Ritter is expected by local media to return to the starting line-up at left-back after a lack of match fitness forced him on to the bench against Turkey.  Young defender Remo Eberle, an unused substitute against Turkey, and Mario Wolfinger and Marco Nigg, both left out of the İstanbul match, were not selected.

All Liechtenstein clubs play in the various Swiss Football League divisions.  Mario Frick of Tirnana Calcio in Italy's Serie B is the only Liechtenstein player from a club side outside the Swiss League.   Only two squad members, Daniel Hasler and Peter Jehle, play for Swiss first division clubs; the rest are with clubs in the second, third and fourth divisions.

Only six squad members are full professionals:  Ronny Büchel, Mario Frick, Daniel Hasler, Peter Jehle, Martin Stocklasa and Michael Stocklasa.  Another five are semi-professional:  Thomas Beck,  bank clerk, Franz Burgmeier,  bank clerk, Andreas Gerster,  commercial employee, Christof Ritter, sales employee, and Martin Telser, sanitary worker.  The remaining seven are amateurs:  Matthias Beck, electronic engineer, Fabio D'Elia, student, Frédéric Gigon, teacher, Martin Heeb, groundskeeper, Thomas Nigg, groundskeeper, Jürgen Ospelt, surveyor, and Harry Zech, winegrower.

The world's fourth smallest nation, Liechtenstein has a population of 32,000.

Liechtenstein Form: last six games
L D D L D L   f 5:a 13 success: 25%
56	13 February 2002 - Faroe Islands 1 Liechtenstein 0 [1-0] Peyia Municipality Stadium, Paphos	Arge	Fr	NL
57	27 March 2002 - Liechtenstein 0 Northern Ireland 0 [0-0] Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz			HD
58	17 April 2002 - Luxembourg 3 Liechtenstein 3 [0-0] Stadion Holleschbierg, Hesperange	Strasser, Christophe, Cardoni Stocklasa (3)		AD
		Gigon, Beck
59	21 August 2002 - Faroe Islands 3 Liechtenstein 1 [0-0] Gundadalur Stadium, Torshavn	Jacobsen, Benjaminsen, Johnsson Frick (pen)		AL
60	8 September 2002 - Liechtenstein 1 FYR Macedonia 1 [0-0] Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz	Stocklasa Hristov	ECP	HD
61	16 October 2002 - Turkey 5 Liechtenstein 0 [0-0] Ali Sami Yen Stadyumu, İstanbul	Buruk, Davala, Mansiz, Akin (2)		AL

 

Liechtenstein's Rheinpark Stadion, capacity 3,548, located in the outskirts of the tiny nation's capital, Vaduz, against a picturesque mountain backdrop, hosted the biggest match in its history when England visited for the first match between the two countries, the European Championship 2004 qualifier on 29 March 2003.  The ground had only two small stands, and the Lichtensteiner Fussballverband asked UEFA for permission to erect temporary stands for the game.  Citing safety concerns, UEFA rejected the request, and only 900 tickets were allocated to the Football Association for England supporters.  That ensured that many English fans would try to journey to Vaduz without tickets, and security forces were bolstered with help from neighbouring Switzerland and Austria to cope with potential troublemakers.  The invasion of Iraq by armed forces from  the U.S. and the U.K. some 10 days before the match prompted concerns the event would become the focus of anti-war protests and that even the increased security forces would prove inadequate.  Eventually local authorities satisfied UEFA that proper security would be provided and the match went ahead without a hitch.
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CG/PY