On the fringes of the Big Five, Swiss football is an emblematic case to be analysed in order to understand the dynamics of the professionalisation of elite football, between the rising performance of the national team and the slow relegation of clubs. Given that a football club’s performance depends on its players and therefore on its financial capacity to recruit and maintain a professional workforce, this analysis focuses on the implementation by the Swiss national institution for professional football (Ligue Nationale and from 2003 the Swiss Football League) of mechanisms and indicators to monitor the capacity of clubs to pursue an economic activity that guarantees their sustainability: a process called licensing in Switzerland. The aim is thus to show how the relationship between the league and the clubs is played out in an interaction that is both conflicting and complementary, for the purpose of maintaining and developing football structures.