User:Huligan0/History of FC Basel

Fussball Club Basel 1893 has a long and illustrious history, having competed at the highest level of football in Switzerland for many years, currently in the Swiss Super League. The club was founded on 15 November 1893. In the beginning the club played their home games in the Landhof stadium. In the early 1960's Basel then played their games in St. Jakob Stadium which was demolished in 1998. During the construction of the new stadium, between 1998 and 2001, the Stadion Schützenmatte was the clubs temporary home ground. Since 2001 Basel play home games at St. Jakob-Park, which is currently the largest club stadium in Switzerland.

The early years[edit]

Chart of FC Basel table positions in the Swiss football league system

Founder members

(Source: the documentation to the club's 50th anniversary)

Emil Abderhalden was first team player in the early days, a famous physiologist and head of the physiological institute at the University of Halle in Germany.
Max Born nothing is known about his private life.
Josy Ebinger was long-time player in the first team. He was active as a club official in various offices, club chairman from October 1902 to May 1903. He was vice president of the Swiss Football Association in 1900.
Max Geldner played at least six games for the club's first team in the first two years and was still a loyal friend and a patron of FC Basel 50 years later.
Roland Geldner was the first president of FC Basel. He was a well-known personality in the city and football player from the early days of football. A distinguished person, he was the soul of the club in the early years.
Wilhelm Glaser wore the red and blue colors as a center forward for years, played at least 14 matches. He was still follower with great interest of the FC Basel activities 50 years later
Jean Grieder was first and second team player, with at least one match for the first team. He was asset and liability manager and became the clubs first actuary. For years he held high honorary positions in his hometown.
Ferdinand Isler was a professor at the canton school in Frauenfeld. He was the first teams first captain, played at least 17 games during the clubs first three seasons. He later became actuary of the club. He was a great propagandist. He wrote brochures about the football game and translated the English rules of the game into German. He was one of the first sports journalists.
Wilhelm Oser was pharmacist by profession. His cheerful, spirited manner was highly valued in the club. An avid pioneer of the football movement.
Fritz Schäublin for many years he was the highly respected rector of the humanistic grammar school in Basel. With his excellent skills he served the club in various offices for many years. He was an excellent player in the early days, played four matches in the club's first two season. He was founder of the tennis department.
Lucien Schmoll nothing is known about his private life.
Richard Strub was still and quite, loyal member of the club. Very little is known about his private life.
John Tollmann was a proficient goalkeeper and played at least 23 matches during the club's first five years. He was the first secretary-treasurer of the Swiss Football Association. A personality with a very special character. Together with Roland Geldner, he was the club's driving force in the early days.
Charlie Volderauer was an excellent defender and played at least 33 matches. He was president December 1896 to December 1899. Arranged the first games in Switzerland against English professionals: Newcastle United and Celtic Glasgow. A rarely eager club member.

The club colours from the first day on were red and blue.

The first season[edit]

Eleven days after the club was founded the first game took place. Not much has been passed down from the first game that the FCB played on 26 November 1893. The club members met at the Landhof and played a game among themselves. It is considered as the first, but unofficial, game of FC Basel. The names of the players of both teams were recorded at that time, which can also be read in the annals of FC Basel, and the result was also passed on for posterity, Team 1 beat Team 2 by seven goals to two. Two weeks after this internal training match, the real premiere took place. Ferdinand Isler was selected as the teams first captain. The first football match that the club held was on 10 December against the football team of the club RTV/Realschüler-Turnverein (secondary school student gymnastics club). FCB won two goals to nil, the goal scorers were Glaser and Siegrist.^[1]^[2]

The next match was held six months later. Charles Volderauer, who as businessman had good connections, used them from the very beginning. As early as June 1894, he organised the journey to visit Strassburger FV. The team travelled by train to Strasbourg and played their first match against a foreign team, which ended with a 0–8 defeat.

The second[edit]

For this season club organised ten friendly matches for their first team. The first was a match against FC Gymnasia (from the Greek "gymnasion": place of physical training) a team formed by gymnasts and junior high school students and in 1884 the first football was purchased for their gymnastics lessons.^[3] Before and between the two games against Grasshopper Club, Basel played two games against RTV. These were their second and third comparisons and they were all quite rough fights.^[4] In the autumn Basel were hosts to FC Excelsior Zürich, the second well established club from Zürich. The return match was played during the spring and attracted over 2,000 spectators, a respectable number because at that time the city that had about 70,000 inhabitants.^[4] They were also hosts to locals Buckjumpers Club Basel, another club formed by gymnastic and high school students, and were hosts to French team FC Mulhouse, who were to become a regular friendly opponent in the next few years.

Another team to guest in Basel was the German team Karlsruher FC Kickers. The Kickers had played against the FC Old Boys Basel that morning and won 10–0. The Karlsruher FC Kickers competed with only four of their own players, the remaining seven were players from three other Karlsruhe clubs, so it was actually a Karlsruhe selection.

In May there was a game against Abstinenten-Fussballclub Patria Basel and the first game against newly formed FC Old Boys Basel.^[3]

Third[edit]

Roland Geldner had been the club's chairman, but he stood down at the club's AGM held on 1 September 1895 and Emanuel Schiess was elected as new chairman. At this AGM on it was announced that 31 footballers had joined the club since the first day, 14 members had since left and so they had 17 active footballers.^[5]

The Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFV) was founded on 7 April 1895. FC Basel were founder members, although they were not present at the founder meeting. Basel goalkeeper and local businessman John Tollmann joined the ASF-SFV board of directors and was the first secretary-treasurer. Local rivals Old Boys were soon to become ASF-SFV members. The idea of a Swiss national championship following the form of the English championship was discussed as priority.^[6]

Ferdinand Isler was selected as team captain, he was responsible for leading the team trainings and chosing the player line-ups. For this season club organised ten friendly matches for their first team. Six of these matches were held in Basel. In the autumn season Basel played twice against FC Excelsior Zürich, were defeated away and drew at home and in the spring they played them again twice and managed two victories. Basel played twice against French team FC Mulhouse, drawing away and winning at home. They also played twice against Grasshopper Club and won both games. Last season the team had lost the game against Buckjumpers Club Basel, this season they won the revenge. But the Buckjumpers were to dissolve their club at the end of the season, due to lack of members and therefore a number of their remaining members joined Basel before the beginning of the following season.^[3] At the end of November 1895 Basel also played their very first game against Anglo-American Club Zürich, the game ended with a defeat. The ten games ended with six victories, two draws and two defeats.

Fourth[edit]

The idea of a Swiss national championship came to review with the Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFV), that had been founded the previous year and of which Basel and local rivals Old Boys were a member. But such a championship had not yet been called to into life.

The club's chairman was Charlie Volderauer and he was chairman between 1896 and 1900. He was the third chairman in the club's history, following Roland Geldner (1893–1896) and Emanuel Schiess (1896). Volderauer was also the team captain this season. For this season club organised seven friendly matches for their first team. Four of these matches were held in Basel, one in the Landhof, two on the Schützenmatte and from the fourth the place of playing field is uncertain. Basel played two games in Mulhouse. The first against Strassburger FV was lost 3–4 and the second against FC Mulhouse was lost 2–3. Five games were played in November/December and the other two in March and June. Of the seven games, two were won, two were draw and the team suffered three defeats.

Fifth, unofficial national championship[edit]

Although the first national championship in Switzerland took place in 1897–98 it is considered as unofficial because it was not organized by the Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFV). FC Basel did not participate in this first championship, neither did local rivals Old Boys.

For this season FC Basel organised 10 friendly matches for their first team. Five were played at home in the Landhof and all five were won. Two friendlies were played in Zürich and both ended in high scoring defeats, 3–7 against Zürich and 0–7 against Grasshopper Club. The return game against local club Old Boys was drawn and the return game against Biel-Bienne was won 5–2. The friendly match against FC Bern was played on neutral ground in Aarau and Basel won this game 4–1. Of their 10 games Basel won seven, drew once and were defeated twice.

Sixth, Swiss Serie A[edit]

In 1898 Basel then joined the second Serie A championship^[7] which was organized by the ASF-SFV. The 1898–99 Series A championship was played as a knock out competition, divided into three regional groups, East (region Zürich) Central (regional north-west Switzerland) and West (Romandy). The winners of each group played the finals in a Round-robin tournament. Basel played in the central group against Old Boys. On 13 November 1898 the game was played in the Landhof stadium and ended in a 1–1 draw. Therefore a replay was required and this was played a month later on 18 December and also drawn 2–2 despite an agreed 20 Minute extra time. Because the Old Boys complained that one of the two FCB goals had been scored by the players hand they protested. The Swiss Football Association had to deal with the matter and subsequently the protest was approved. The disputed goal was simply deducted from the result and thus the Old Boys proceeded to the finals.^[8]

Seventh[edit]

Basel did not compete in the 1899–1900 Serie A championship this season. Georges Fürstenberger was appointed as team captain by the club’s board of directors under chairman Charlie Volderauer. Basel played 16 friendly games in the season, six were won, two drawn and eight ended with a defeat. Eleven of these friendly games were played at home in the Landhof, five were played away. As in the previous season, all the friendly games were played against Swiss teams. Among the opponents were reigning Swiss champions Anglo-American Club Zürich and Basel won both the home game and the return match. They also played twice against Zürich, but both games ended with a defeat. Further there were two games against local rivals Old Boys and these were both lost as well. The two games against FC Concordia Zürich ended with a win at home but a defeat away. The two games against Biel-Bienne ended with a home defeat, but an away win.

Eighth, second championship participation[edit]

The club's new chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, who took over the presidency from Volderauer at the AGM. Alphonse Schorpp was nominated as team captain by the club’s board of directors. In this season the team played eight friendlies and ten games in the league. The Serie A 1900–01 was divided into two groups, an east and a west group. Basel were with three teams from Zürich, Grasshopper Club Zürich, FC Zürich, Fire Flies Zürich and two other teams from Basel, Old Boys and Fortuna Basel. The start into the season with a home draw against Fire Flies and an away victory against local rivals Old Boys can be considered as good. However, in the remaining eight games the team managed only one more draw and a forfait win.

A further curiosity in this season was that captain Schorpp scored his first league goal for his club on 3 March 1901 in the away game against Grasshopper Club. In fact he scored two goals, but this could not save the team from a 3–13 defeat. The reasons for this high defeat can be explained with the fact that one of the players missed the train and that the team played with a number of players from their reserve team. Nevertheless, to date this remains the teams' highest and biggest defeat in the club’s history

Nineth, football ground[edit]

During the early years of the football sport, an adequate field that could be used as a football pitch was the biggest problem for all clubs. At the very beginning FC Basel were lucky to find the Landhof, which had just been taken over by Katharina Ehrler-Wittich from the inheritors of Andreas Merian-Iselin [de], a member of the Merian family. Straight after the club's foundation, she made the Landhof available, free of charge for the first few years, as a playing surface. From 1895 to 1901 the Vélodrome de Bâle, a cycle track, was also located around the grounds. As the Vélodrome club dissolved a new tenant was found and at the start of the 1901–02 season a new football ground had to be found, because the new tenants had built a concrete bowling lane right across the middle of the football pitch. FCB eventually found a space in the Thiersteinerallee, right next to the pitch that local rivals BSC Old Boys were using. The Landhof was to the north of the river Rhine and the Thiersteinerallee about eight kilometers south. The move from the former field to the new field was made late in the evening, the heavy goal posts and crossbars being carried manually across the town in the dark, so that no one would notice that the club was lacking money for the removals. This new pitch was used for one and a half years until the concrete bowling alley was eventually removed.

Alphonse Schorpp was the team captain for the third successive season. Basel played two pre-season friendlies and two during the mid-season. During the winter break and again at the end of the season the team travelled twice to France to play Mulhouse. Both games ended with a victory. Of the total 11 friendlies that the team played that season seven were won and four ended with a defeat.

In this season the team played in the Serie A 1901–02, which was divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with the Young Boys Bern and three other teams from the Basel region. FC Basel completed the division in second position, seven games, five victories and two defeats with ten points. But they were one point behind YB who qualified for the finals. FC Zürich won the championship.^[9]

Tenth anniversary[edit]

The 1902–03 season was the clubs tenth season in their existence. The clubs chairmann was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, who took over for his second period. Later that year Josy Ebinger took over the seat, becoming the fifth chairmann in the club's history. To the start of the previous season the club was forced to find a new playing field. They had eventually found a suitable field beside the Thiersteinerallee, in the south-east of the city. To the beginning of the 1902–03 Swiss Serie A season the teams also played their games there. Towards the end of the year 1902 the club met an agreement with the owner of the Landhof, Mrs Katharina Ehrler-Wittich, and the club was able to return to their original domicile. At the cost of 150 Swiss Francs the club members removed the bowling alley and made the pitch playable once again.

To the begin of this season, 15 clubs with more than 1,000 members had joined the Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFV). Most of the clubs had two or three teams, therefore the third tier of Swiss football was introduced this season and was called Serie C. From a local point of view this meant the following: Serie A with Basel, Old Boys, Fortuna Basel and Excelsior Basel. Serie B with Old Boys II, Basel II und Excelsior Basel II. Serie C with Columbia Basel, Fortuna Basel II, Gymnasia Basel and Nordstern Basel.

FCB participated in the 1902–03 Swiss Serie A and were allocated to the central group together with the Young Boys, FC Bern and two other teams from region Basel, these being Old Boys and Fortuna Basel. Fortuna were disqualified due to incidents in the match against the Old Boys, the results of the played matches being counted. Basel completed the central division after eight games with three victories and five defeats with a total of six points and 13 to 20 goals. Thus in third position in the table, six points behind YB who qualified for the finals.

Eleventh season[edit]

The clubs chairman was again Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, who took over the chairmanship for the third time in the club's history. With over 40 active footballers and over 70 patron members Basel were the second largest club in Switzerland at this time, larger was only Grasshopper Club Zürich. Basel's first team played in the Serie A and the second team in the Serie B. Daniel Hug (the team's most prominent, their best and their largest player) was named as team captain. The team played just one pre-season friendly at home against Grasshopper Club. There was another mid-season friendly against local lower tier Nordstern Basel. During the winter break Basel played two more friendly matches. These were the return game against the Grasshoppers which was drawn 6–6 and also an away game against west group team Montriond Lausanne which was won 3–2. At the end of the season Basel played against group winners Old Boys, which was played as warm up the finals. They also played a match against French club Mulhouse, which was lost 6–8, the highest scoring game of the season.

The Swiss Serie A season 1903–04 was again divided into three regional groups, east, central and west. Basel were allocated to the central group together with Old Boys Basel and Fortuna Basel as well as Young Boys, FC Bern and Floria Biel/Bienne. Basel ended the season in third position in the league table, obtaining 12 points, scoring 28 and conceding 25 goals, in ten games, with five victories, two draws and three defeats. The Young Boys and the Old Boys ended the group stage level on points and so a play-off match was arranged. The Old Boys won the play-off 3–2 and therefore qualified for the finals.

Twelvth, second last[edit]

The club's chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, who was chairman for the second consecutive year and Eugen Strauss was first team captain. The team played just two pre-season friendlies, one in France against Mulhouse and one in Zürich against Grasshopper Club. The game against Mulhouse was won 8–1 the return match four months later in the Landhof was only drawn. The match against the Grasshoppers ended in a defeat. In the winter break the team travelled to Germany. They played against 1. FC Pforzheim on Christmas day and were defeated 7–3. On boxing day they played a game against Karlsruher FV and managed a draw. At the end of the season the team travelled again to Germany and were defeated 5–1 by Freiburger FC.

The seventh league championship, Swiss Serie A season 1904–05, was divided into three regional groups, east, central and west. Basel were allocated to the central group together with the Young Boys, FC Bern, Weissenbühl Bern and Old Boys Basel. This season was a sportingly very disappointing season for Basel. There were just two victories from eight games, both times against Weissenbühl Bern. The away game was won 9–2 and the return match 3–0. Weissenbühl Bern lost all their eight games and were relegated at the end of the season with a goal tally of five scored and 52 conceded. Basel's other six games all ended in defeats and they landed in second last position in the group table, scoring 18 and conceding 20 goals.

Thirteenth, four times five goals in Italy[edit]

The club's chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, who was chairman for the third consecutive year, in his third presidential term. Daniel Hug was the first team's captain. Basel played six pre-season friendlies, three at home in the Landhof and three away. Two of the teams that Basel hosted were from Germany Freiburger FC and 1. FC Pforzheim. During the winter break the team travelled to Germany to play an away game against Mannheimer FG 1896. They also travelled to Italy and played twice against Genoa CFC, winning 5–1 on New Years Eve and 5–4 on New Years day. After the league season the team again travelled to Italy and played twice against AC Milan, winning 5–2 on Easter Sunday and 5–1 on Easter Monday.

The Swiss Serie A season 1905–06 was divided into three regional areas, a west, a central and an eastern, where as the east was divided into two groups. Basel were allocated to the central group together with Young Boys, FC Bern and Old Boys Basel. The league was played one match in October, two in November and again one match in February and two in Match. This season was disappointing for the team, because it resulted in solely two victories from six matches. Both victories were against local rivals Old Boys. Basel ended the qualification to the finals in bottom position in the group table. In their six championship matches they scored 11 and conceded 17 goals.

Fourteenth[edit]

Ernst-Alfred Thalmann remained as club chairman and he was chairman for the fourth consecutive year. Daniel Hug was team captain for the second season in a row. Basel played five pre-season friendlies, two against German team Freiburger FC, two against German team Karlsruher FV and one against Swiss team Grasshopper Club. Four of these games ended with a defeat, only one ended in a victory. During the first half of the season they played another two friendlies, again one against the Grasshoppers and one against Montriond Lausanne. During the winter break the team travelled to Frankfurt and played against FC Hermannia on Christmas day and against FSV Frankfurt on boxing day. Further winter break friendlies were played away against Freiburger FC and at home in the Landhof against Cantonal Neuchâtel. After the season Basel played two friendly games against Winterthur, who had been runners-up in the east group. The team then travelled to Italy and won both friendlies against AC Milan on Easter Sunday 31 March and Easter Monday 1 April and both by four goals to three.

The Swiss Serie A season 1906–07 was divided into three regional groups, east, central and west. Together with Young Boys, FC Bern, Aarau and the Old Boys, Basel were allocated to the central group. Basel played their first four games away, losing the consecutive games against Young Boys and Old Boys both 3–4. However, winning the next four consecutive games they climbed the table. As it came to the last group game of the season, at home against the Old Boys, Basel were leading the table two points ahead of their opponents. However, in this last match despite a two-goal lead, the goals being scored by Dr. Siegfried Pfeiffer and Max Senn, their local rivals turned the game and won three goals to two. Subsequently it came to a play-off to see who would advance to the finals. The play-off match was interrupted in the 50th minute due to a storm and following the restart it ended in a 1–1 draw. Thus, it required a reply one week later and this was also drawn 1–1. They played 2x 10 minutes extra time, but neither team scored. Therefore, both teams agreed to play a further 15 minutes, but neither team scored. Another week later it then came to a second replay which Basel decided with 4–1 for themselves.

Basel advanced to the finals for the first time in their history. The final was played as a round robin tournament. In the first match they were beaten 1–5 by west group winners Servette and in the second 2–3 by Young Fellows Zürich. Servette won the deciding match and became Swiss champions for the first time in their clubs history.

Fifteenth[edit]

The club's chairman was Dr. Siegfried Pfeiffer, it was his first presidential term. First, a mention to the football ground Landhof. The first ever international match between the Swiss national team and the German national team was scheduled to take place here in April 1908. Therefore the authorities decided to build the first spectator stand in Switzerland, at the cost of four thousand Swiss Francs and a building time of more than six months. Following this, the ground was used a number of times as international venue. Second, a mention to club chairman Siegfried Pfeiffer, who had joined the club in 1899. During his presidential term for the club, he played his only international game for his country. Pfeiffer scored two goals in this legendary 5–3 victory over Germany. Then, a mention to team captain Daniel Hug. It was his third year in succession as Captain and he also played in the afore mentioned international game. It would end out, that at the end of the season he would transferred to Italy, to play professionally for Genoa C.F.C. in the Italian football championship.

Before the season started, Basel played three test games, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in Freiburg im Breisgau and in Strassburg. They lost the first two games but came home with a 10–0 victory over FC Frankonia 1900 Strassburg. They also played four friendly games during the winter break. The first in their home stadium against Strassburger FV. The other three were away, the first game in Geneva. Over the Christmas period the team travelled to Mannheim and Hanau to play Mannheimer FG 1896 and 1. Hanauer FC 1893. The first was won the second ended in a defeat.

The 1907–08 Serie A was divided into two regional groups, an east group and a west group. Together with local rivals Old Boys, Basel were allocated to the east group. The other teams in that group were Aarau, Grasshopper Club, Zürich, Young Fellows Zürich, Winterthur and St. Gallen. The group was an evenly balanced group and at the end of the season the teams from second to eighth position were only separated by six points. Only Winterthur had a good run of results and were able to move clear at the top of the league table, winning the group with a six point advantage. Thus Winterthur qualified for the league final, which was held in Basel on 31 May 1908. Winterthur won the Swiss Championship title beating Young Boys Bern by four goals to one.

Sixteenth, a 2–9 home defeat[edit]

The club's chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, it was his seventh presidential term. Daniel Hug, who had been team captain for many years, left the club and transferred to Genoa CFC as professional. Emil Hasler was the new team captain. Basel played 14 friendly games and 14 matches in the Swiss domestic league. Of the 14 friendly games that the team played, four were won and 10 ended in defeats. Nine games were played in Switzerland, six of which at home in the Landhof. The other games were played in Italy, both against Genoa as transfer compensation for Hug, and four in Germany, each once against Karlsruher FV, Britannia Frankfurt, Mannheimer VfB Union and Freiburger FC in Freiburg im Breisgau.

The 1908–09 Serie A was divided into two regional groups, an east group with eight teams and a west group with seven teams. Basel were allocated to the east group, together with local rivals Old Boys Basel and Aarau, Zürich, Grasshopper Club, Young Fellows Zürich, Winterthur, and last but not least, St. Gallen. As mentioned Daniel Hug moved to Italy to play for Genoa CFC. Players such as Dr. Siegfried Pfeiffer, Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, Alfred Stöhrmann and Max Senn left the first team and were replaced by younger members. The newly formed team started the season in the worst possible way, six defeats in a row. The two 1–6 away defeats against Old Boys and Zürich, the 0–6 defeat away against Winterthur, together with the 1–2 home result against Young Fellows Zürich, the 4–5 home defeat against Aarau were only the beginning of the evil. The 2–9 home defeat against Grasshopper Club remains the highest home defeat in history until today. It was not until the seventh round, with a 3–2 win against St. Gallen on 22 November 1908, that Basel achieved their first points. After that they were only defeated once more, on 13 December 1908, a home defeat against Winterthur. Basel ended the season in the east group in sixth position. Winterthur won the east group, obtaining 25 points seven more than St. Gallen in second position in the league table. But Winterthur were defeated 0–1 by Young Boys Bern in the championship final, which was played on 6 June 2009 in Basel.

Seventeenth, the first Anglo-Cup[edit]

The club's chairman was once again Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, it was his eighth presidential term. Emil Hasler was team captain for the second season in a row. During the 1909–10 season Basel played a total of 37 matches, 25 friendly games, 10 in the domestic league and two in the newly created Anglo-Cup. Of the 25 friendlies 11 were played in the Landhof. The team travelled to France to play a good victory against FC Hagenau and to Germany to play Freiburger FC, but here they were defeated. During the winter break they again travelled to Germany. They played a draw with 1. FC Pforzheim on Christmas day and on boxing day were defeated by a combined team with players from Mannheimer FG Union and FC Phönix Mannheim. The team again travelled to France in January, playing a draw with Strassburger FV. Over Easter the team played a tour in Germany, losing 4–0 against Stuttgarter Kickers, losing 5–3 against 1. FC Nürnberg on Good Friday and losing twice against Deutscher FC Prag, 2–1 on Easter Sunday and 4–1 on Easter Monday. In total 8 games were won, 6 six were drawn and 11 ended in a defeat.

The Swiss Serie A 1909–10 was divided into three regional groups, seven team in the east group, six in the central and six in the west group. Basel were allocated to the central group together with local rivals Old Boys. The other teams playing in the Serie A central group were Luzern, Biel-Bienne, FC Bern and Young Boys. Basel ended the season in the fifth position in the group table, five points ahead of Luzern, who were relegated and three points behind the Young Boys, who won the group. YB continued to the finals and played against east group winners Aarau and west group winners Servette. YB won both games and became Swiss champions for the second time in a row.

The first Anglo-Cup was played this season. In the round of 16 on 10 April 1910 Basel won against Young Fellows Zürich, but were beaten by St. Gallen in the quarterfinals. St. Gallen continued to the final, but were beaten in the replay by Young Boys.^[10]

Eightteenth[edit]

By the 1 January 1911 there were 63 clubs with 7157 members that were organized in the Swiss Football Association.^[11]

Basel's club chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, it was his ninth presidential term, his third term in succession. Emil Hasler was team captain for the third consequtive season. During the 1910–11 season Basel played a total of 38 matches, 23 friendly games, 12 in the domestic league and three games in the Anglo-Cup. Of the 23 friendlies Basel won eleven, drawing three and they were defeated nine times. In the pre-season Basel travelled to Germany once, to play a 4–3 victory against Freiburger FC. The other pre-seasons were played against Swiss teams. During the winter break the team again travelled north and played a 2–2 draw against the Würzburger Kickers on Christmas day and on boxing day a 5–0 win against Ludwigshafener FG 1903. In January the team travelled to France and played a 5–0 win against Mulhouse. In March they travelled to Germany and travelled home with a 1–6 defeat after their game with Mannheimer FG 1896. At the end of season they travelled to Germany once more. On Easter Sunday they lost 2–4 against FV 1900 Kaiserslautern and on Easter Monday 0–1 against Mannheimer FC Phönix 02. One week later the team came home after a 1–5 defeat against Freiburger FC and yet another week later after a 2–3 defeat against Strassburger FV. Basel also played hosts to two British teams. They lost at home in the Landhof 1–7 against Newcastle United and 1–5 against Celtic. All together ten games were played abroad and five other away games were played in Switzerland against Swiss teams. Eight of the friendlies were played at home, four of the guest teams came from abroad, three guest teams came from clubs in Switzerland.

The Swiss Serie A 1910–11 was again divided into three regional groups. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with local rivals Old Boys. The other teams playing in the Central group were Biel-Bienne, FC Bern, Young Boys and Stella Fribourg. The Young Boys won the group and continued to the finals and eventually won the championship.

In the Anglo-Cup Basel were drawn against two of these lower classed locals. In the round of 32 away against FC Liestal, which ended with a 7–1 victory and in the round of 16 against Concordia, in which Basel ended victors 2–0. In the Quarterfinals Basel were drawn away from home against Young Boys Bern. This game ended with a 2–8 defeat. Young Boys went on to win the final against Servette.

Nineteenth[edit]

The club's chairman was again Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, it was his tenth presidential term altogether. Emil Hasler was the team captain for the fourth consequtive season. Basel played a total of 37 matches, 23 friendly games and 14 in the domestic league. Of the friendlies five of the games were played abroad and of the home games five were hosted against foreign clubs. Seven were played against German teams. On 27 August 1911 Basel hosted their first German opponent and this game against FV Baden-Baden was won 7–1. The other three pre-season matches were also won and all three against Swiss teams. During the winter break the team travelled to Italy. On Christmas Eve they were beaten 1–0 by Genoa and on Boxing day they played a 5–5 draw with SG Andrea Doria. At the end of the season the team made a short tour to Germany and played games against Kickers Offenbach and Karlsruher FC Phönix. Basel also hosted French team Mulhouse. Of these 23 friendlies 10 were won, 3 were drawn and 10 were defeats.

The Swiss Serie A 1911–12 was divided into three regional groups. Eight teams in the east group, eight in the central and seven in the east group. Basel were allocated to the central group together with local rivals Old Boys and newly promoted Nordstern Basel. The other teams playing in the Central group were Biel-Bienne, FC Bern, Young Boys, FC La Chaux-de-Fonds and Étoile-Sporting (La Chaux-de-Fonds). Basel started the season badly, losing three of their first four matches and they ended it badly, losing four of their last six games. During the seasin Basel won five league matches, drew two, but lost seven, scoring a total of 30 goals and conceding 34. Étoile-Sporting won the group and qualified for the finals. Aarau became Swiss champions.

Twentieth[edit]

The club's chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, alltogether it was his eleventh presidential term and his fifth season in succession. At the AGM Thalmann stood down and Karl Ibach took over. The club announced that to that point it had grown to have over 300 members and over half of them were active football players. Emil Hasler was the team captain for the fourth year running. In their 1912–13 season Basel played a total of 37 matches, 19 were friendly games, 14 were in the domestic league and 5 in the Anglo Cup.

Of the friendly games just three were played in the Landhof, six others were away games in Switzerland and ten games were played abroad. During the pre-season the team travelled to Germany twice, played against Karlsruher FC Phönix and Freiburger FC, and travelled to France to play Strassburger FV. During the winter break the team made a tour to North Rhine-Westphalia and before Christmas played VfR Mannheim, on Christmas day played ETB Schwarz-Weiss Essen and on boxing day played Düsseldorfer FC Fortuna 1911. The team came home with two victories and one defeat. At easter the team made a tour to eastern Germany. They played against SC Erfurt on easter Sunday, against Sportlust Dresden on easter monday and against SC Wacker Leipzig the day after. At the end of the season Basel played host to English club Preston North End. Of the friendly games 10 were won, three were drawn and six ended with a defeat.

The Swiss Serie A 1912–13 was divided into three regional groups, an east, a central and a west group. Basel were allocated to the central group together with local rivals Old Boys and Nordstern Basel. The other teams playing in this group were Young Boys, FC La Chaux-de-Fonds, Étoile-Sporting FC La Chaux-de-Fonds, FC Bern and Biel-Bienne. Basel started badly, with three defeats and a draw in the first four games. Despite seven victories and one draw during the next ten games, the team could not reduce the gap to the top of the league table. Basel ended the season in fourth position. They were four points behind group winners Old Boys, who continued to the finals. Lausanne Sports won the championship.

The Englishman Percy Humphreys was the first professional trainer that the club FC Basel had ever employed. Prior to Humphreys signing, it had always been the team captain who had taken over the function of the trainer. Under club chairman Karl Ibach, Humphreys signed his contract and began his duties on 1 April 1913. He had previously been head-coach for Hartlepool United in the English North Eastern League.^[12]

The Anglo-Cup was a forerunner to the Swiss Cup.^[13] It was held for the fourth time this season. In the first round Basel were drawn at home against lower classed Solothurn. In the second round, in the quarter-final and in the semi-final against East group teams, these being St. Gallen, Zürich and Winterthur and in that order. All these games were played at home in the Landhof and Basel won each game. In the final, which was played in the Hardau Stadium in Zürich on 29 June 1913, Basel played against lower classed Weissenbühl Bern and won 5–0. Humphreys led Basel to win their first national title. But memories of this soon faded, because the Anglo Cup was not played the following year and in fact it was discontinued completely due to the first world war.

Twenty-first[edit]

The club's chairman was Karl Ibach, but he stood down at the AGM on 25 September 1913. From that date Carl Albert Hintermann took over as club president. Percy Humphreys was the first professional trainer that the club FC Basel had ever employed. Under club chairman Karl Ibach, Humphreys signed his contract. Basel played 32 matches in their 1913–14 season. 14 of these matches were in the domestic league and 18 were friendly games. Six of these were home games, played in the Landhof, one other home game was played on the Margarethenwiese in Basel, five others were away games in Switzerland and five games were played abroad. Basel played seven matches against German teams, one against the English team Bradford City and the other ten opponents were Swiss. Of these friendlies 10 were won and 8 ended with a defeat. In these 18 games Basel scored a total of 57 goals and conceded 47.

The Swiss Serie A 1913–14 was divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with local rivals Old Boys and Nordstern Basel. The other teams playing in the Central group were Young Boys, FC La Chaux-de-Fonds, Étoile-Sporting FC La Chaux-de-Fonds, FC Bern and Biel-Bienne. Basel started well into the championship winning seven of the first eight games, the first four games straight off. After the new year break things turned against them and they were defeated three times. Basel lost contact to the Young Boys at the top of the table and ended the season in joint second position with FC Bern, they were three points behind the group winners.

Twenty-second[edit]

The professional trainer, Englishman Percy Humphreys, was due to continue his job this season, but due to the outbreak of the first World War he had to return home.

The war also caused further impingements to the football season. There were no pre-season matches and championship start was delayed. In their 1914–15 season, Basel played 11 matches. 6 of these were in the domestic league and 5 were friendly matches. Of these friendlies, 3 were won and 2 ended in a defeat. There was one home fixture played in the Landhof and four away games. In these friendly games, Basel scored 12 and conceded 12 goals.

Also due to the war, the Swiss Serie A 1914–15 was played as an interim Championship, there was no relegation and promotion between Serie A and Serie B. The Serie A was divided into four regional groups, an east, a west and two central groups. Basel were allocated to the central group A together with their local rivals Old Boys, Nordstern Basel and the reigning champions Aarau. Basel started into the championship with an away defeat against Aarau. Then they won both home games against the other two local teams. After the new year and the away draw against Nordstern, Basel lost the home game against Aarau and the away game against Old Boys, to finish in third position in the league table. In their six games, Basel scored 15 goals and conceded 14. Aarau continued to the semifinal, but there they were defeated by Brühl St. Gallen. Brühl also won the final 3–0 against Servette to become the new Swiss champions.^[14]

Twenty-third, second-last[edit]

The club's chairman was Philipp Leichner at the beginning of the season and during the season Franz Rinderer took over as chairman. It had been in planning for a few years and to the beginning of this season FCB founded their youth department and employed some part-time youth trainers. Right from the very first day there were over 50 youngsters who joined the teams. Amongst these youngsters, for example, was Walter Dietrich, who was 13 years old as he joined. Other youngsters were Karl Bielser, Max Galler, Theodor Schär and Ernst Zorzotti, who were all later to advance and become important first team players.

Because the holidays for the members of the Swiss Army were now becoming more frequent, a football championship as played in the pre-war years, could again be carried out as of the 1915–16 season. Team captain was Ernst Kaltenbach. Basel played a total of 28 matches in this season. 14 of these matches were in the domestic league and 14 were friendly matches. Of these friendlies, six were won, three were drawn and five ended in a defeat. The Swiss Serie A 1915–16 was divided into three regional groups, east, central and west. There were seven teams in the east group, eight in the central group and six in the west group. FC Baden could not participate because their field was used for agricultural purposes due to the war. Basel and the two other local teams, Old Boys and Nordstern Basel, were allocated to the Central group. Further teams playing in the central group were two from the capital, Young Boys and FC Bern, two from La Chaux-de-Fonds, FC La Chaux-de-Fonds, Étoile-Sporting FC La Chaux-de-Fonds and finally Biel-Bienne. Basel didn't start well into the championship, winning only one of the first eight games. They ended the season in second-last position with nine points.

Twenty-fourth[edit]

Franz Rinderer continued as the club's chairman. Peter Riesterer was team captain. Basel played a total of 28 matches in the 1916–17 season. 12 of these were in the domestic league and 16 were friendly matches. Over the Christmas, New Year period the team were taken to a training camp in Barcelona. On Christmas eve and on boxing day they played to friendlies against Barcelona. The first game ended in a defeat and the second was won. Two days later Basel played a friendly in same stadium, Camp de la Indústria, against La Chaux-de-Fonds and they were able to win this game too. On New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day Basel played two friendlies against local club Terrassa. Tarrassa were Serie B champions and played with five loaned first-class players. The first game was drawn and Basel won the second.

The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1916–17, was divided into three regional groups, an east, a entral and a west group. There were eight teams in the east and the west group, but only seven in the central group. Basel and the two other local teams were allocated to the Central group. The other teams playing in the Central group were FC Bern, Young Boys Bern, Biel-Bienne and Aarau. Basel played a good season, suffering only two defeats.

Twenty-fifth, second position[edit]

The club's chairman was Franz Rinderer and in 1917 he was elected as president of the Swiss Football Association. Before the first World War came to an end, over 420,000 square meters of the total of 920,000 square meters of Swiss footballs field had been converted into potato fields. In 1913 FCB founded an athletics section, in 1915 their youth football section, Therefore the club fought hard to keep their ground Landhof. In 1917 the club organised the Swiss athletic championships in their grounds. The first nine championships, in the years 1906 to 1916 (1914–15 was canceled) were all held in French-speaking Switzerland. 1917 was the first time that the championships were held in the German-speaking region. The event was a success, 17 clubs and over 100 athletics took part and it attracted about 4,000 spectators.

Basel's first team played a total of 23 matches in the 1917–18 season. 12 of these were in the domestic league and 10 were friendly matches. The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1917–18, was divided into three regional groups, an east, a central and a west. Basel and the two other local teams were allocated to the central group which had just seven teams, as opposed to the other two groups which both had eight teams. Baden could not participate because their field was used for agricultural purposes due to the war. The other teams playing in the Central group were FC Bern, Young Boys Bern, Biel-Bienne and Aarau. Basel played a good season, suffering only two defeats. They ended the season in second position with 17 points.

Between the two World Wars[edit]

Twenty-sixth[edit]

World War I was still being fought as the Swiss season started. The club's chairman was August Rossa who took over from Franz Rinderer at the club's AGM. Otto Kuhn was team captain. Basel played a total of 30 matches in their 1918–19 season. 14 of these were in the domestic league and 16 were friendly matches. There were nine test games played in the Landhof and seven away games. Because of the war, all but one of these friendlies were played against Swiss teams. The war ended on 1 November 1918 and six months later, on 18 May 1919 Basel hosted their only foreign opponents, the German team Freiburger FC. Nine of these friendlies were won and six ended in a sporting defeat.

The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1918–19, was divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West, each group with eight teams. FC Basel and the two other teams from Basel Nordstern and Old Boys were allocated to the Central group. The other teams playing in this group were Aarau, Luzern and Biel-Bienne and the two teams from La Chaux-de-Fonds, Étoile-Sporting and FC La Chaux-de-Fonds. FC Basel did not play a very good season, suffering six defeats. They ended the season in fifth position with 13 points.

Twenty-seventh[edit]

The club's new chairman was Bernard Klingelfuss. Otto Kuhn was the first team's captain. Basel played a total of 44 matches in their 1919–20 season. 14 of these were in the domestic league and 30 were friendly matches. From these 30 friendlies, 15 were against foreign opponents. Five were played against German teams. Basel travelled to Germany and played against Karlsruher FV, 1. FFC Germania 1894 and 1. FC Pforzheim. During the winter break the team travelled to Italy and on Christmas day played against Genoa C.F.C., on boxing day against SG Andrea Doria and the next day against US Biellese. They also played at home against Rapid Wien. At the end of the season Basel were hosts to Victoria Hamburg, Royal Charleroi SC, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, Budapesti EAC, Ferencvárosi TC, MTK Budapest and Wiener Amateur Sportverein. The former Hungarian international footballer Alfréd Schaffer joined Basel in April 1920 and played in 19 test matches and one league games, during which he scored a total of 27 goals.^[15]

The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1919–20, was divided into three regional groups, the east, the central and the west group, each with eight teams. FC Basel and the two other teams from Basel Nordstern and Old Boys were allocated to the Central group. The other teams playing in this group were Aarau, Luzern and Biel-Bienne and the two teams from the capital, Young Boys and FC Bern. FC Basel played a good season, winning seven matches, drawing four and suffering just three defeats. They ended the season in second position with 18 points.

Twenty-eighth, second last[edit]

The club's new chairman was Franz Rinderer who took over from Bernard Klingelfuss again. Walter Dietrich was team captain. Basel played a total of 40 matches in their 1919–20 season. 14 of these matches plus the playoff were in the domestic league and the other 25 were friendly matches. Of these 25 friendlies, 13 were played against German teams, one was against AS Strasbourg and one was against Juventus. Just before the end of the season Basel made a tour of north Germany and played three games in four days against Hannover 96, Victoria Hamburg and Kieler SV Holstein.

The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1920–21, was divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West, each group with eight teams. FC Basel were allocated to the Central group. As opposed to the good results in the friendly games, Basel played a very bad season. Eight of the first ten games ended in a defeat, in fact the first victory was the eleventh round match against FC Bern. Basel only moved off the last position in the league table because they won the playoff against Luzern. They ended the season in second last position with just six points. They only won two championship matches, drawing two and suffering ten defeats.

Twenty-nineth[edit]

The club's chairman was Carl Burkhardt who took over from Franz Rinderer. Basel played a total of 28 matches in their 1921–22 season. 14 of these were in the domestic league, one in the Och Cup and 13 were friendly matches. Of these 13 friendlies, seven were home games played in the Landhof and six were away games. Basel played eight of their friendly games against German opponents.

The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1921–22, was divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West, each group with eight teams. FC Basel and the two other teams from Basel Nordstern and Old Boys were allocated to the Central group. The other teams playing in this group were Aarau, Luzern and Biel-Bienne and the two teams from the capital, Young Boys and FC Bern. FC Basel played a mediocre season, 14 matches, winning six matches, drawing three and suffering five defeats, scoring 20 goals and conceding 21. With 15 points they ended the season in third position.

In the first round of the Och Cup, that had been newly created the year before, and is considered as the forerunner to the Swiss Cup, Basel played an away game against lower tier FC Olten. Basel lost 4–0 and were eliminated. The final was played on 6 August 1922 between Basel's lower tier rivals Concordia Basel and Étoile-Sporting. Concordia won 1–0 to win the trophy.

Thirtieth, no Swiss champion[edit]

The club's new chairman was Karl Ibach and it was his second period as chairman. At the AGM he took over the presidency from Carl Burkhardt. For the beginning of this season the club hired the ex German international Max Breunig as trainer. He came from Karlsruher FV where he had been trainer for two seasons. Basel played a total of 32 matches in this season. 14 of these were in the domestic league and 18 were friendly matches. Of these 18 friendlies, six were home games played in the Landhof and 12 were away games. Nine test games ended in a victory, four were drawn and five ended in a defeat. In these tests Basel scored a total of 45 goals and conceded 28. Of these 18 friendlies, seven were during the winter break and one was a mid season game eight were played after the domestic league season had been completed.

After just two pre-season friendlies Basel started in the 1921–22 Swiss Serie A. The domestic league was again divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West, each group with eight teams. FC Basel and the two other teams from Basel Nordstern and Old Boys were allocated to the Central group. With 15 points they ended the season in fourth position.

There was an outrage and scandal after the 8th round match at the Landhof on 12 November 1922 against BSC Young Boys. It came to some massive disagreements between Basel manager Breunig's co-trainer Mr Sutter, the players of both teams and some fans. The Swiss Football Association started an enquiry immediately. The club Basel was fined 200 Swiss Francs, co-trainer Mr Sutter was banned for three years, Basel's player Gustav Putzendopler was banned for six months, Young Boy's players Osterwalder and von Arx were both fined 20 Swiss Francs, Referee Josef Wieland received a life long ban for the top tier of Swiss football. The club Basel had to pay the costs of the court.

Another outrage and scandal was that the team Young Boys sportingly ended the season as Central group winners. But before the start of the championship play-offs, the qualification match FC Biel-Bienne versus FC Bern (the game had ended 3–1) from 25.02.1923 was awarded 0–3 due to ineligible players of FC Biel-Bienne. So both Young Boys Bern and FC Bern were level with 22 points and consequently a play-off was to be held for the regional championship. Young Boys withdrew from this match. Thus FC Bern continued to the finals, which they won. After the play-offs finals had been completed, the qualification match Basel versus FC Bern (the game had ended 0–4) from 04.02.1923 was awarded 3–0 forfait because FC Bern had played an ineligible player. After this decision Young Boys were again winners of the regional group. The date of this decision was in September 1923 and there was not enough time left for a new Play-off Final before the next season started. Therefore no Swiss championship was awarded for 1922/23 season.^[16]

Thirty-first, a lack of goals[edit]

The club's chairman was Karl Ibach and it was his second season as chairman in his second period as chairman. The ex-German international Max Breunig was the first team trainer for the second successive season. Basel played a total of 30 matches in this season. 16 of these were in the domestic league and 14 were friendly matches. Of these 14 friendlies, three were home games played in the Landhof and 11 were away games. Seven test games ended in a victory and seven ended in a defeat. In these tests Basel scored a total of 39 goals and conceded 35. Of these friendlies, six were during the pre-season, and one was a mid-season. Because the domestic league had no real winter break the other seven were played after group stage had been completed.

There were a few modifications to the Swiss football league system, this season the number of clubs was increased from 24 to 27 teams. Again, the league was again divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West, now each group with nine teams. The last team in each group had to play a barrage against relegation. FC Basel were allocated to the Central group and now there were four teams from the city of Basel. The others being Concordia Basel, who were newly promoted, Nordstern Basel and Old Boys Basel. The further teams allocated to this group were Young Boys Bern, FC Bern, Aarau, Luzern and Biel-Bienne. Basel started their season badly, losing four of the first five games. Despite improving during the rest of the season, they could not close the gap to the leading two teams and they finished the group in third position with 18 points, seven points behind Young Boys and eight behind local rivals Nordstern who won the group and continued to the finals. East group winners Zürich won the championship, Nordstern were runners-up and West group winners Servette were third. Basel won eight of their matches, drawing two and suffered six defeats. Basel scored 16 goals and conceded 15. The problem with the bad season seems to have come because of their strikers, because the team scored just 16 goals in 16 matches. Otto Kuhn was the team’s top league goal scorer in the league season with just four goals. Alfred Schlecht scored three, Heinrich Hess, Karl Putzendopler and Karl Wüthrich each scored two goals.^[17]

Thirty-second, the lack of goals continued[edit]

The club's chairman was Karl Ibach in his third successive season, in his second period as chairman. Coach Max Breunig left the club. Gustav Putzendopler was team captain this season and as captain he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. Basel played a total of 28 matches in their 1924–25 season. 16 of these were in the domestic league, and 12 were friendly matches. Of these 12 friendlies only two were played at home in the Landhof and 10 were away games, seven in Switzerland, one in Strasbourg and two in Zagreb. Only two test games ended with a victory, the other ten all ended with a defeat. In these tests Basel scored just 11 goals but they conceded 34.

This season the Serie A was again divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West, each group with nine teams. Basel were allocated to the Central group. Basel started their season well, only being defeated once in their first eleven games. They were always up with the table leaders, however at the end of the season three defeats against the other leading teams Aarau, Old Boys and lastly FC Bern, cost them their place at the top of the table. The team finished in fourth position, four points behind FC Bern, one point behind Aarau and level with Old Boys. During their league season Basel won seven of their matches, drawing five and were defeated four times. In their 16 league matches the team scored just 13 goals (the first game of the season ended 1–0, but later awarded 3–0). Emil Breh was Basel’s top league goal scorer with seven goals. Breh had joined the team before the season started and left the club at the end of it. Ernst Zorzotti was the teams second top scorer with just two goals. The problem this season was also because of their strikers.^[18]

Thirty-third, the first Swiss Cup was held[edit]

The club's new chairman was Carl Burkhardt. It was Burkhardt's second period as chairman. At the AGM he took over the presidency from Karl Ibach. The club did not have a head coach, but Karl Bielser was first team captain this season and as captain he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. Basel played a total of 33 matches in their 1925–26 season. 16 of these were in the domestic league, two were in the newly created Swiss Cup and 15 were friendly matches. Of these 15 friendlies four were played at home in the Landhof and 11 were away games, five in Switzerland and three each in France and Germany. Four of these games were won, four draws and seven defeats. 29 goals were scored, but 32 were conceded. During these friendly games, a highlight was the fixture in the Landhof as Huddersfield Town visited. Huddersfield had just won the English Football League championship for the third consecutive season. The game attracted 3,500 supporters. Basel lost the match against the English champions by five goals to one.

As in the previous seasons, this's season the Serie A was divided into three regional groups, each group with nine teams. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with local clubs Concordia Basel, Nordstern Basel and Old Boys Basel. The other teams allocated to this group were Young Boys Bern, FC Bern, Aarau, Grenchen and the newly promoted Solothurn. Basel visited the group newcomers for the first match and promptly lost 1–2. Following this initial shock, the team played twelve games in succession undefeated. However, only six of these games were won and six were drawn and at this point, despite having defeated the league leaders Young Boys, they were trailing by five points. Basel lost their last two home games and thus ended the season in second position. During their league season Basel won seven of their matches, drawing six and were defeated three times. They were nine points adrift of Young Boys, who continued to the finals. Servette won the championship, Grasshopper Club were runners-up and YB were classified third. In their 16 league matches the team scored 26 goals and conceded 14. Arnold Hürzeler, who had joined the team for this season, was the team's top league goal scorer with eight goals. He left the club after the season. Karl Bielser was second best league scorer with seven goals.

The very first Swiss Cup tournament was organised this season by the Swiss Football Association (and has been organised by them annually since then). In the first round Basel were drawn against lower tier FC Horgen and the game took place on 4 October 1925. Basel won their first cup match 8–1 and Arnold Hürzeler proved his goal scoring qualities by securing the victory for his team by scoring six of the goals. In the next round, however, Basel were eliminated against Aarau, after a draw, by toss of a coin. Grasshopper Club won the first Swiss Cup.^[19]

Thirty-fourth[edit]

The club's new chairman was Franz Rinderer. It was Rinderer's third period as chairman. He took over the presidency from Carl Burkhardt at the AGM. Karl Bielser was team captain for the second season in a row and again he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. Basel played a total of 32 matches in their 1926–27 season. 16 of these were in the domestic league, one was in the Swiss Cup and 15 were friendly matches. Of these 15 friendlies only two were played at home in the Landhof and 13 were away games, six in Switzerland, five in France and two in Germany. Eight of these games were won, one was drawn and six ended with a defeat. The team scored 33 goals in these friendlies, but conceded 37.

As in the previous year, this's season the Serie A was divided into three regional groups, each group with nine teams. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with local clubs Concordia Basel, Nordstern Basel and Old Boys Basel. The other teams allocated to this group were Young Boys Bern, FC Bern, Aarau, Grenchen and Solothurn. Basel played a mediocre season, winning eight matches, drawing three and suffering five defeats, scoring 29 goals and conceding 26. With 19 points they ended the season in fourth position. Grasshopper Club won the championship.^[20]

In the round of 64 in the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against Old Boys, but were eliminated in this round because they lost the match 0–2. Grasshopper Club won the cup.

Thirty-fifth[edit]

The club's new chairman was Karl Junker took over the presidency from Carl Burkhardt at the AGM on 8 July 1927. However Junker only remained as president until 15 September, then Karl Ibach took over for his third period. Karl Bielser was team captain for the third season in a row and again as captain he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. During the season Peter Riesterer took over as team captain and he acted as team coach from then onwards. Basel played a total of 27 matches in their 1927–28 season. 16 of these were in the domestic league, one was in the Swiss Cup and 10 were friendly matches. Of these 10 friendlies four were played at home in the Landhof and six were away games. Apart from the away game against Mulhouse all other matches were in Switzerland. The team won four of the friendly games and lost the other six. They scored 20 goals and conceded 26.

The 1927–28 Swiss Serie A was divided into three regional groups, each group with nine teams. Basel were allocated to the Central group. Basel played a good season, won ten matches, one was drawn and they suffered five defeats. Basel scored 27 goals and conceded 21. With 21 points they ended the season in third position, two points behind group winners and local rivals Nordstern. Nordstern advanced to the finals. Grasshopper Club won the championship, Nordstern were runner-up and Étoile Carouge were third.

In this season's Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against Young Fellows Zürich in the first round and were eliminated because they lost 0–1.^[21]

Thirty-sixth[edit]

The club's new chairman was Hans Rupprecht who took over the presidency from Karl Ibach at the AGM on 7 July 1928. The former Hungarian international footballer Gyula Kertész was appointed as coach/manager at the beginning of the 1928–29 Serie A season. After Percy Humphreys (1913–14) and Max Breunig (1922–23), Kertész was just the third professional trainer that the club had engaged up until this point. The decision to employ a professional football trainer/manager was made because FC Basel had slipped well below the level of their local rivals Nordstern, who had qualified for the finals three times in the last five years.^[22] Basel played a total of 29 matches in their 1928–29 season. 16 of these were in the domestic league, three were in the Swiss Cup and 10 were friendly matches. Of these 10 friendlies three were played at home in the Landhof and seven were away games. Apart from the away game against Mulhouse all other matches were in Switzerland. Basel scored 24 goals in these friendlies and conceded 32.

The 1928–29 Swiss Serie A was divided into three regional groups, each group with nine teams. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with the other three local clubs. This season was a very competitive one. After a defeat against YB in the first match, it was obvious that a professional coach was at work, because the team won eight of the next ten matches. The team rose to the top of the table, thanks to the good goal scoring of their best forwards Alfred Schlecht, Karl Bielser and Alfred Enderlin. But then, an unawaited 1–4 home defeat against lower placed local rivals Concordia changed everything. In the last five matches Basel managed only three draws and were defeated twice. The top five teams ended the season within four points of each other and each team won eight of their 16 matches. With 20 points Basel ended the season in second position, just one point behind group winners Young Boys, who advanced to the finals and then won the championship. Basel scored 48 league goals and conceded 32. Karl Bielser was the team's top league goalscorer with 15 goals, Alfred Schlecht was second top scorer with 14 goals and Alfred Enderlin scored nine.^[23]

In the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against Baden in the preliminary round, against Bülach in the first round, but were eliminated by Concordia Basel in the second round. Concordia continued the competition and reached the semi-final, there losing to Urania Genève Sport, who won the final against Young Boys 1–0, which was played in the Stade de Frontenex in Geneva.^[24]

Thirty-seventh, advanced to final round[edit]

The club's new chairman was former player Otto Kuhn who took over the presidency from Hans Rupprecht at the club's AGM on 6 July 1929. The former Hungarian international footballer Gyula Kertész was coach/manager for the second successive season. He coached the team in a total of 41 matches in their 1929–30 season. 20 of these matches were in the domestic league, 16 in the qualification round and four in the final round. Four matches were in the Swiss Cup and 17 games were friendly matches. Of these 17 friendlies three were played at home in the Landhof and the other 14 were away games. Of the 41 matches, 25 ended in a victory, six were drawn and 10 were defeats, 132 goals scored and 75 against.

The 1929–30 Swiss Serie A was divided into three regional groups, each group with nine teams. Due to the modification in the league system in the following season, the number of teams per group is to be increased from nine to eleven and therefore there were a few other small modifications this season. Basel played a good league season. The good work that the trainer Gyula Kertész was making with the players, was shown in the results. The first five games were won straight off, including a 5–1 in Solothurn, a 4–1 against both FC Bern and Grenchen, a 3–0 against Aarau and a 1–0 victory against local rivals Old Boys. There was a slip in the match against there closest rivals Young Boys. But the team continued their good run in the new year, beating Solothurn 4–1 and even managing a 9–2 against FC Bern. Alfred Enderlin scored four goals in that match. Basel won ten matches, four were drawn and they suffered only two defeats. They scored 46 goals and conceded 20. With 24 points they ended the group in top position, two points ahead of runners-up Young Boys.

FCB and YB continued to the final group. Here Basel played against Biel-Bienne and won, but lost the three matches against Lugano, Grasshopper Club and finally Servette, who won the Swiss championship. Basel finished the championship in fourth position, level on points with Lugano and YB.^[25]

In the preliminary, first and second round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn at home against FC Diana Zürich in August and FC Dietikon in October, then away against Lugano in November. But their second visit to the canton of Ticino in December ended in the away defeat against FC Locarno.^[25]

Thirty-eighth, advanced to final round again[edit]

The club's chairman was former player Otto Kuhn for the second successive year. Former player Gustav Putzendopler was appointed as new coach/manager, succeeding Gyula Kertész who had moved on to Hamburger SV. Putzendopler coached the team in a total of 31 matches in their 1930–31 season. 23 of these matches were in the domestic league, 19 in the qualification round and four in the final round. Further, one match was in the Swiss Cup and seven games were friendly matches. Of these seven friendlies three were played at home in the Landhof, one other game was played in Switzerland, two in Germany and one in Mulhouse. Of the friendly games two were won, two were drawn and three ended with a defeat. Of the entire 31 matches, 15 ended with a victory, five with a draw and there were 11 defeats.

The 1930–31 Swiss Serie A was divided into three regional groups, new each group with 11 teams, this due to the larger modification in the league system in the next season. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with the other local clubs Concordia Basel, Nordstern Basel and Old Boys Basel and newly promoted Black Stars Basel. The other six teams allocated to this group were Young Boys Bern, FC Bern, Aarau, Grenchen and Solothurn and newly promoted FC Luzern.

Basel played a good league season, out of the first nine games resulted just one defeat. The games in the new year were somewhat more problematic. In the last game of the season a defeat against Nordstern nearly cost them their place within the top two, because now these two teams were level on points. Basel and Nordstern had to play a barrage and put themselves through to the final by winning two goals to one.^[26] Leopold Kielholz was the team's top league goal scorer with 19 goals.

In the preliminary round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn at home against FC Locarno and the lost the game after extra time. The game had ended 2–2 after 90 minutes, after 120 minutes the score was 4–4 and so a further 2x 15 minutes were played. The final score was 4–5 and the winning goal was scored in the 150 minute.^[27]

Thirty-nineth[edit]

The club's new chairman Franz Rinderer, who took over the presidency from Otto Kuhn at the AGM on 11 July 1931. Last season's coach/manager Austrian Gustav Putzendopler stayed on for his second season as trainer. Fellow Austrian international Otto Haftl signed in from AC Sparta Prague to the team becoming Basel's first ever foreign fully professional football player. During his first season at the club he also acted as player-manager after Putzendopler laid down the job as trainer. The team played a total of 35 matches in their 1931–32 season. 16 of these matches were in the domestic league, six matches in the Swiss Cup and 13 games were friendly matches. Of these 13 friendlies four were played in the Landhof, six other games were also played in Switzerland. Only one was played in Germany against FV Lörrach and another one was played in France against CA Mulhouse. Of the friendly games, ten games ended with a victory, two were drawn and one match ended with a defeat.

The newly formed and renamed domestic league, now Nationalliga, started at the end of August. The new 1931–32 Nationalliga was now divided into two groups, each with nine teams, coming from the whole of Switzerland and no longer just regional groups. The top team in each group would advance to the finals. The two second placed teams would have a play-off to decide the third final place and the curiosity this season the second tier champions would also qualify to the finals. Basel were allocated to Group 1. The league season started very badly, they lost their first five games straight off, conceding 27 goals. Not only did Basel change their trainer, but they also changed their goalkeeper and various players. In the second half of the season things improved and with six victories in the last seven games Basel were able to rise from the foot of the table. They finished the season four points above the relegation zone. Zürich were group 1 winners and as second placed Urania Genève Sport won the play-off against Biel-Bienne, these two teams advanced to the finals with group 2 winners Grasshopper Club. As mentioned the second tier champions were also qualified for the finals, this being Lausanne-Sport. After the four teams had each played their three games, Zürich and Lausanne were then level, each with four points and a play-off decided the championship. The curiosity that a second tier team would become Swiss shampions happended, because Lausanne won the play-off 5–2.^[28]

In the first principal round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn away against and defeated lower classed SC Veltheim. They needed a reply in the second round to beat Lugano and were victorious against lower classed SC Brühl St. Gallen in the third round. Then a quarter-final victory over La Chaux-de-Fonds took the team into a semi-final against Grasshopper Club. However this ended with a rather hefty defeat 1–8 and that fits completely into the picture of a rather disappointing season. The Grasshoppers won the final 5–1 against Urania Genève Sport.^[29]

Fortieth, first national trophy[edit]

Basel did not have much of an early footballing success, waiting 40 years before winning their first trophy.

The club's chairman Franz Rinderer was confirmed at the AGM for the second consecutive period. At the beginning of the season the Austrian former international Karl Kurz was appointed as new head coach. The previous season Kunz had been head coach for FC Grenchen. He took over as club trainer from player-manager Otto Haftl who continued with the team as player. Basel played a total of 39 matches in their 1932–33 season. 15 of these matches were in the domestic league Nationalliga, seven in the Challenge National, six matches in the Swiss Cup and 11 matches were friendlies. Of these 11 friendly matches seven were played in the Landhof, two other games were also played in Switzerland and two were played in a tournament in Luxembourg. Of the friendly games, six games ended with a victory, one was drawn and four matches ended with a defeat. The team scored 42 goals and conceded 27.

A curiosity in this season was that in the middle the national championships there was an intermediate championship called Challenge National (Championnat intermédiaire). The competition participants were divided into two groups, with encounters between the two groups taking place among themselves. The winners of both groups were to play the final. The games were played in the winter months between November and February. Basel were allocated to group 1 Basel and finished in fifth position. Group 1 was won by Grasshopper Club but the Challenge National championship was won by the BSC Young Boys.

In the 36th Swiss championship 1932–33 Nationalliga was also devided into two groups. This year with eight teams in each group, coming from the whole of Switzerland and no longer just regional groups. Same curiosity as the previous season, the second tier champions would also qualify to the finals. Basel were allocated to Group 1 and finished in second position in the table, with seven victories and four draws from 14 games. With 18 points they were five behind group winner Grasshopper Club who advanced with group 2 winners Young Boys to the finals. Second tier (1st League) champions were FC Bern and they also advanced to the finals. The cross-over play-off game between the second placed teams from each group was played in Basel in the Stadion Rankhof. But Basel lost 3–4 against Servette, dispite the fact that Otto Haftl scored a hat-trick. As last team Servette advanced to the finals, which they finished level on points with Grasshoppers. Servette won the play-off match between these two teams and became champions.

In the Swiss Cup first round Basel were drawn at home in the Landhof against local team Concordia Basel, who in the meantime had been relegated to the third highest league. Basel won 4–2 and advanced to the next round. They played and won 3–0 at home against Blue Stars Zürich. In the third round Basel played away against AC Bellinzona and won 2–3 after extra time. The quarter-final was played at home against Lugano and was won 4–2. In the semi-final Basel were drawn with a home match against Lausanne-Sport. In another high scoring game Basel managed a 5–3 victory. Basel advanced to the Final, which was played in the Hardturm in Zürich. Twice Otto Haftl, once Alfred Jaeck and once Walter Müller scored the four goals for Basel. Basel won 4–3 defeating arch-rivals and reigning cup-holders Grasshoppers in what is still considered to be one of the best cup finals in Swiss football history. This was their first ever national title, apart from the Anglo-Cup in 1913 which was a forerunner to the Swiss Cup.^[13]

Forty-first, Karl Kurz[edit]

The club chairman Franz Rinderer, who was the president for the third consecutive period. The Austrian trainer Karl Kurz remained head coach for his second season and fellow Austrian Josef Haist was is co-trainer. Kurz was ill with leukaemia and his condition worsened. He died because of his illness during the evening of 26 November 1933, only hours the team's victory in the away game against Blue Stars Zürich. He was 35 years old. Josef Haist then took over the job as head coach. Basel played a total of 46 matches in their 1933–34 season. 30 of these matches were in the domestic league Nationalliga, four in the Swiss Cup and 12 were friendly matches. Of these 12 friendlies seven were played in the Landhof, three other games were also played in Switzerland and three were played in France. Of the friendly games, seven ended with a victory and four ended with a defeat.

The 1933–34 Nationalliga was reformed. The top division was no longer divided into two groups, but for the first time, all teams were in one group. The second tier league remained with two regional groups. The championship was contested by 16 teams and was played in a double round robin. Basel started the season well, winning six of the first nine games, suffering only one defeat. Following the death of trainer Kurz the team was disorientated, losing five of the next seven matches and thus losing contact with the two top teams. Then in March Basel caught their form and improved again to finish their Nationalliga season in fifth position in the table, with 15 victories from the 30 games and 36 points. Servette won the championship with 49 points.

In the first principal round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn at home against and defeated lower tier Solothurn. In the second round away against Lausanne-Sport winning 3–1 and third round at home against local rivals Nordstern Basel winning by three goals to one. Then in the quarter-final on 4 February 1934 Basel were defeated by Locarno and that fits, timely, completely into the entire picture of the seasons evolution. Grasshopper Club won the cup beating Servette 2–0.^[30]

Forty-second[edit]

The club chairman Franz Rinderer, who was the president for the fourth consecutive season. The Austrian trainer Richard (Dombi) Kohn was appointed as the new FC Basel trainer. He followed his fellow Austrian Josef Haist, who had taken over after the death of Karl Kurz during the previous season. The team played a total of 38 matches in their 1934–35 season. 26 of these matches were in the Nationalliga, five matches were in the Swiss Cup and seven were friendly matches. Of these seven friendlies six were played in the Landhof and the other game was played away against Luzern. Of theses matches four ended with a victory. However the visiting teams Racing Club Paris, Manchester City and Rapid Wien proved to be too strong for the home team.

The 1934–35 Nationalliga had been again reformed. The number of teams had been reduced by two teams. The championship was contested by 14 teams and was played in a double round robin. Basel started the season well, winning nine of the first eleven games. However the second half of the season was not that good and the team slipped in the table. They finished the Nationalliga season in fifth position in the table, with 12 victories from the 26 games and 28 points. They were 13 points behind Lausanne-Sport, who won the championship.

In the first principal round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn away against and defeated lower tier Bellinzona. In both the second and third round Basel were drawn at home against lower classed St. Gallen and Chiasso. The quarter-final was won at home against Lugano. In the semi-final Basel were drawn away against local rivals Nordstern Basel, but suffered a defeat. Lausanne-Sport won the final against Nordstern 10–0 and therefore they completed the national double.^[31]

Forty-third[edit]

Franz Rinderer was again voted as the club chairman and this was his fifth consecutive season as club president. Alwin Riemke was appointed as new team manager. He followed Richard (Dombi) Kohn who had moved on to manage Feyenoord. Riemke came from Lausanne-Sport, who had won the double in the previous Nationalliga championship season and the Cup. Riemke acted as player-manager and played four matches during the season. Basel played a total of 38 matches in their 1935–36 season. 26 of these matches were in the Nationalliga, one in the Swiss Cup and 11 were friendly matches. Of these 11 friendlies six were played at home and the others all in Switzerland. Of theses 11 friendly matches seven ended with a victory, one was drawn and three ended in a defeat.

The 1935–36 Nationalliga was contested by 14 teams and was played in a double round robin. Basel played a very mediocre season and ended the championship in 10th position. They won just eight of their 26 games and with 20 points ended the season 21 points behind Lausanne-Sport who won the championship for the second consecutive season. In the 1st principal round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn at home in the Landhof against lower tier Luzern. But they were defeated and thus knocked out. Young Fellows Zürich won the cup.^[32]

Forty-fourth, play-off against relegation[edit]

Emil Junker was the new club chairman and it was his second period as chairman, after his short period in 1927. Junker took over as club president from Franz Rinderer. Heinz Körner was appointed as new team manager. He followed Alwin Riemke who moved to Germany to manage SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Körner had been manager of Aarau the previous season. He was the tenth professional team manager/trainer in Basel's history, their tenth foreign trainer. How long Körner stayed with the club is not clearly stated, but he left during the season, and afterwards Fernand Jaccard took over as player-manager. Jaccard was the club's first professional Swiss trainer. Basel played a total of 40 matches in their 1936–37 season. 26 of these matches were in the Nationalliga, one in the Swiss Cup and 13 were friendly matches. Of these 13 friendlies eight were played at home in the Landhof, three others in Switzerland and one each as visitors to RC Strasbourg and to SC Freiburg.

Further league reforms took place before the season started. The number of teams in the 1936–37 Nationalliga was reduced by one team, thus contested by 13 teams and played as round-robin. Two teams were to be relegated and only one promoted to reduce the number of teams to 12 the following year. Basel played a very poor and un-consistent season. Only thanks to four consecutive victories towards the end of the campaign lifted the team to finish in joint second last position in the league table. Because La Chaux-de-Fonds and Basel both had 20 points, they had to have a play-off against relegation. This ended in a draw and so a replay was required. The replay was played in the Stadion Neufeld in Bern on 20 June 1937 and ended in a 1–0 victory for Basel and so they prevented relegation at the last possible moment.

In the 1st principal round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn at home in the Landhof against lower tier Concordia Basel and were defeated and knocked out of the competition. Grasshopper Club won both championship and cup.^[33]

Forty-fifth[edit]

Emil Junker was the club chairman and it was his second consecutive season as president. Fernand Jaccard who had taken over as first team coach during the previous season stayed on as player-manager this season. Basel played a total of 33 matches in their 1937–38 season. 22 of these matches were in the Nationalliga, three in the Swiss Cup and eight were friendly matches. Of these eight friendlies six were played at home in the Landhof, one in Espenmoos as guests to FC St. Gallen and one as guests to Le Havre AC in the north of France. Four of the friendlies were won, one was drawn and three ended with a defeat.

The number of teams in the 1937–38 Nationalliga was reduced by one team in comparison to the previous season. Thus 12 teams contested the championship this year, which was played as a round-robin, one team to be relegated and only one promoted from the two 1. Liga groups. Basel played an even and consistent season. 22 league games in total, 12 of them ended with a victory, three ended in a draw and the team suffered seven defeats. With 27 points Basel ended the season in fourth position, three points less than Lugano who became Swiss champions. The young forward Numa Monnard, who had transferred in at the beginning of the season from Cantonal Neuchatel, was the team's top goal scorer. With 20 goals he was the Nationalliga top scorer as well. He played 21 league games and in each of his first eight games he scored at least one goal. In total, including cup and friendlies, Monnard played 29 games for Basel, in which he netted 34 times.

In the first principal round of the Swiss Cup, as Basel played against lower tier FC Breite, Numa Monnard scored five times. In the next cup round Monard scored a hat-trick against Bellinzona. However, in the round of 16 Basel lost 0–1 against Grasshopper Club, who then proceeded and eventually won the cup.^[34]

Relegation, promotion, relegation, promotion[edit]

Forty-sixth, relegation[edit]

Emil Junker was the club chairman and it was his third consecutive season as club president. The club had financial and sporting problems over the previous few years and these continued this season. Fernand Jaccard who had been Basel's player-manager the previous season, continued for the club in the same position this season. Basel played a total of 29 matches in their 1938–39 season. 22 of these matches were in the Nationalliga, two in the Swiss Cup and five were friendly matches. Of these five friendlies two were played at home in the Landhof and the other three were also in Switzerland. Two friendly games were won, two drawn and one ended in a defeat.

According to statements in the 75th anniversary book written years later by author Jules Düblin (ex-player and ex-club chairman) the club had problems with the Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFA). The club was also having financial problems and these problems continued this season. The club suffered under the results of this confrontation with the ASF-SFA. These were mainly due to the transfer of the player Numa Monnard, who at the start of the season returned to his former club Cantonal Neuchatel.

12 teams contested the 1938–39 Nationalliga championship, which was played as a round-robin, one team to be relegated. The league season did not mean it well with FCB. Despite the fact that the players were well prepared for the season, as Düblin wrote in his summary, sportingly the season was very bad. Despite two victories over the two top clubs that season, Grasshopper Club and Grenchen, one catastrophic game followed the other. Of the 22 domestic league games only five ended with a win, 12 were defeats. The team ended in last position, two points behind Biel-Bienne and the Young Boys. Basel was relegated for the first time in the club history into the newly reorganized 1.Liga.

In the first principal round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn at home against lower tier local rivals Concordia Basel and won 3–2. In the second round Basel were also drawn at home against a lower-tier team, but Brühl St. Gallen proved to be a strong competitor and Basel were defeated 1–3 and were thrown out of the competition.^[35]

Forty-seventh, no promotion due to World War II[edit]

Albert Besse was the club's new chairman. He took over from Emil Junker at the AGM on 15 July 1939. Player-manager Fernand Jaccard had left the club after the relegation season to join FC Locarno. The former players Walter Dietrich and Max Galler took over as team co-managers.

After being relegated last season for the first time in the club's history, Basel played this season in the newly reorganized 1. Liga. Due to the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939 the start of the Swiss football championship was postponed until 22 October and the 1. Liga postponed until December. The 1939–40 Nationalliga was played as "Championnat Suisse de Mobilisation" due to the war and the 1. Liga divided into five regional zones. There was to be no promotion and no relegation. Basel were allocated to 1. Liga group 3 (North-West Switzerland) together with Solothurn, Aarau, Concordia Basel and FC Birsfelden. The group was played in three round-robins.

Basel played a good season, in total including test matches they played 29 games, winning 22, drawing three and suffering four defeats. In total they scored 98 goals conceding 50. After winning their four test games in October, Basel started the season well in December winning the first seven matches straight off before suffering their first defeat at the beginning of April. At the end of the group stage Basel had won nine games drawn two and were defeated just once and with 20 points were five points above second placed Aarau. Basel advanced to the play-off stage. In the semi-final they won the round-robin against group four winners SC Brühl St. Gallen and group five winners AC Bellinzona. Basel became 1. Liga champions winning the best of three final against Fribourg.^[36]

In the Swiss Cup Basel started with a victory in the 2nd principal round away against lower tier SC Zofingen. In the next round they were again drawn away from home against lower tier SC Schöftland. This was won 4–1. In the next round Basel played in the Landhof against Aarau but were defeated and knocked out of the competition.^[37]

Forty-eighth, missed promotion[edit]

Albert Besse was the club's chairman for the second consecutive season. Former Swiss international Eugen Rupf was appointed as manager. Basel played 27 matches in this season. 14 of these matches were in the 1. Liga, two in the play-offs, four in the Swiss Cup and seven were friendly matches. Of these friendlies three were played at home in the Landhof, four were away games. Five friendly games were won and two ended in a defeat.

Despite having been 1. Liga champions the previous season, Basel played this season in the 1. Liga as well because there had been no promotion to the top tier of Swiss football due to World War II. This season, however, two promotions were planned. 24 teams competed in the 1.Liga, which was divided into three regional groups. Basel were allocated to the Central Group, together with local rivals Concordia Basel and FC Birsfelden. The further teams in this group were Aarau, FC Bern, US Bienne-Boujean and Fribourg. Basel and Aarau dominated their group, both teams winning 11 of their 14 group games. Basel suffered one sole defeat, and that against Aarau, but won the group with 24 points, one point above them, because they had been defeated twice. But in the promotion play-offs Basel were defeated by Cantonal Neuchatel and drew the game with Zürich. Their two play-off opponents were thus promoted and Basel remained for another season in the 1 Liga.

Basel joined the Swiss Cup in the 2nd principal round and were drawn at home to and beat Old Boys 4–3. In round three Basel beat lower tier FC Allschwil and were drawn against higher tier Nordstern Basel in round four. After a 3–3 draw, Basel were knocked out when they lost the replay.^[38]

Forty-nineth, promotion and cup final[edit]

Albert Besse was the club's chairman for the third consecutive season. This was the club's third season in the 1st League (second flight of Swiss football) after being relegated from the Nationalliga in the 1938–39 season. Eugen Rupf was player-coach for his second season. Basel played 38 games in their 1941–42 season. 22 in the league group, two in the play-offs, 10 in the cup and 4 were test games. They won 27 and drew eight, they were defeated only three times. In total they scored 114 goals and conceded just 33.

There were twenty four teams contesting in the 1st League in the 1941–42 season, twelve in group East and twelve in group West. The winner of each group were to play a play-off for promotion to the Nationalliga the following year. Basel were allocated to group East together with the two other local teams Concordia Basel and FC Birsfelden. Basel started the league season well. On 31 August 1941 in the first league game against SC Juventus Zürich their striker Alex Mathys scored seven goals as Basel won by 10–1. In the game on 18 January 1942 against Schaffhausen Basel won 11–0 and Erhard Grieder scored five goals. Basel finished their season as winners of group East. Basel managed 18 victories and 3 draws from their 22 games, just one defeat. With a total of 39 points, scoring 77 and conceding just 15 goals Basel were five points clear of second placed Blue Stars Zürich. The promotion play-offs were then against group West winners FC Bern. The 1st leg was the away tie, this ended with a goalless draw. Basel won the 2nd leg at home at the Landhof 3–1 to achieve Promotion.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 2nd principal round and were drawn at home against local rivals Old Boys. Basel won 4–2 after extra time. In round 3 they were drawn at home and won 1–0 against another local team FC Birsfelden. The fourth round was another home tie and they beat the higher tier Nationalliga team BSC Young Boys by three goals to nil. The next round gave Basel another home tie against 1st League team Solothurn and they completed an easy victory, winning 6–1. The quarter-final draw saw them playing at home again, this time against Nationlige team Lugano. The game ended 1–1 after extra time. The two clubs could not agree on a date for the replay, therefore the winners were to be decided by lottery decision. Basel qualified on toss of a coin. The semi-final gave Basel their sixth home match and their third Nationalliga club FC Grenchen. On March 29 at Stadion Rankhof the semi-final between Basel and Grenchen ended with a goalless draw after extra time. A replay, on 4 April, was required. In the Gurzelen Stadion in Biel/Bienne the replay ended with a victory. Hermann Suter scored both Basel goals as they won 2–0. Basel thus qualified for the final which was just two days later on 6 April in the Wankdorf Stadion in Bern against the Nationalliga team Grasshopper Club. The final ended goalless after extra time and a replay was required here as well. The replay did not take place until the end of May because the Nationalliga championship had ended with a heat and thus a play-off was required here too between the Grasshoppers and Grenchen. The cup final replay was on 25 May, again in the Wankdorf Stadion, against the then Nationalliga champions Grasshoppers. Basel led by half time through two goals by Fritz Schmidlin, but two goals from Grubenmann a third from Neukom gave the Grasshoppers a 3–2 victory. Thus the Grasshoppers won the double.^[39]

Fiftieth[edit]

Albert Besse was the club's chairman for the fourth consecutive season. Eugen Rupf was the team's player-coach during this season and it was his third season as first team manager. Basel played 33 games in their 1942–43 season. 26 in the Nationalliga, three in the cup and four were test games. They won 12, drew five and lost 16 times. In total including the test games and the cup competition they scored 59 goals and conceded 67. Of the four test games three were won and one was drawn.

There were 14 teams contesting in the 1942–43 Nationalliga. The team that finished in last position in the league table would be relegated. Rupf and his team had won promotion the previous season and thus it was clear that this was going to be a difficult year. Things started badly and five of the first six games ended with a defeat. Shortly before Christmas, Basel suffered their biggest defeat of the season, a 1–9 dubbing by Servette. However, despite this defeat, with the following 3–0 away game victory against their direct opponents Luzern, who also playing at risk of relegation near the bottom of the table, and a 2–0 home game victory against their other direct opponents Nordstern, Basel ended the season with 18 points in 13th position, just two points above local rivals Nordstern, who ended the season on the relegation spot. Of their 26 league games Basel won seven, drew four and lost 15 times. They scored 29 league goals and conceded 57. Hermann Suter was the team's top league goal scorer with six goals. Erich Andres and Rodolfo Kappenberger were joint second best scorers, each with five goals.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 4th principal round with a home tie at the Landhof against lower tier local side FC Pratteln. This ended with an expected easy 6–0 victory. In the round of 16 Basel were also allocated with a home match against lower tier SV Schaffhausen. Hermann Suter and Fritz Schmidlin were both able to achieve a hat-trick and Basel won 9–2. Then in the quarter-finals Basel were drawn at home against top tier Lugano. However, a 0–2 defeat ended their presence in this season's cup competition.^[40]

Fifty-first[edit]

Team manager Eugen Rupf left the club following the last season and Willy Wolf was appointed as Basel's new team manager. Basel played 41 games in their 1943–44 season. 26 in the Nationalliga, five in the cup and ten were test games. They won 18, drew 11 and lost 12 times. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they scored 83 goals and conceded 65.

There were 14 teams contesting in the 1943–44 Nationalliga. The team that finished in last position in the league table would be relegated. Basel played a mediocre season, winning nine matches, drawing eight and suffered nine defeats they ended the season with 26 points in 9th position. Lausanne-Sport won the Swiss championship, Luzern were relegated. Alfred Weisshaar was Basel's top league goal scorer with 15 goals, joint second league scorer with Alfred Bickel (Grasshopper Club) behind top scorer Erich Andres (Young Fellows Zürich) who netted 23 times.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a home tie at the Landhof against lower tier local side Nordstern Basel. This was won 4–1. In the round of 16 they had a home tie and won 6–2 against St. Gallen. The quarter-final gave Basel another home tie and they won 5–1 against Young Boys. The semi-final was an away tie against Biel-Bienne. Hans Vonthron's goal was the only goal of the game and Basel qualified for the final. This was played on 10 April in Wankdorf Stadium in Bern against Lausanne-Sport. Two goals from Numa Monnard and one from Roger Courtois during the last five minutes of the match meant that Basel lost the game 0–3 and Lausanne won the national double.^[41]

Fifty-second, relegation[edit]

Emil Junker was the club's new chairman. He took over from Albert Besse following the AGM on 8 July 1944. Max Barras was appointed as new first team manager. Basel played 43 games in their 1944–45 season. 28 in the Nationalliga (including two replayed games), three in the Swiss Cup and 12 were test games. They won 14, drew 10 and lost 19 times. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they scored 86 goals and conceded 82.

There were 14 teams contesting in the 1944–45 Nationalliga A. The two teams that finished in last and second last position in the league table would be relegated. Basel played a bad season, winning just six matches, drawing six and they suffered 14 defeats, thus they ended the season with 18 points in 13th position, second last. Two of the games during the season were played under protest and were later replayed. These were the games on 24 September 1944 against Lugano and on 29 April 1945 against Grenchen. The protest was because Basel could not field their best teams due to the military duties of their players. Both replayed games ended with a defeat. Grasshopper Club won the Swiss championship, Basel and St. Gallen were relegated. After just three seasons in the top flight of Swiss football, Basel suffered relegation again.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 3rd principal round with an away tie against lower tier local side FC Allschwil and a 6–0 victory. In the round of 32 Basel had a home game at the Landhof against lower tier SC Zofingen which ended with a 3–1 win. In the round of 16 Basel travelled to an away game against St. Gallen and were knocked out of the competition.

Fifty-third, promotion[edit]

Emil Junker was the club's chairman. It was his second year as president of the club. Max Barras was first team manager for the second season. Basel played a total of 42 games in their 1945–46 season. Of these 26 in the Nationalliga B, three in the Swiss Cup and 13 were test games. The test games resulted with seven victories, one draw and five defeats. In total, they won 28 games, drew six and lost eight times. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they scored 141 goals and conceded 55.

Basel had suffered relegation the previous season and their clear aim was to obtain immediate promotion. The Nationalliga B was contested by 14 teams. The two teams that finished at the top of the division were to be promoted. Basel played a good season, winning 19 league matches, drawing five, losing only two matches. Thus they ended the season with 43 points in 1st position four points ahead of Urania Genève Sport in 2nd position and these two clubs won promotion.^[42]

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 3rd principal round with an away tie against lower tier local side SC Schöftland this ended with a 5–1 victory. In the round of 32 Basel had an away game against Nationalliga B team Fribourg which ended with a 4–0 win. In the round of 16 Basel had a home game at the Landhof against higher tier Servette and were knocked out of the competition.^[43]

Jules Düblin, chairman 1946–1959[edit]

Fifty-fourth, second cup title[edit]

Jules Düblin was the club's new chairman and took over this position from Emil Junkerat the club's AGM. Düblin had been player for FC Basel in the years 1919–1926 and had been on the club's board of directors. He was doctor, banker and politician, became author and private art collector. He presided the club during the period July 1946 until Mai 1959. Thus in the club's history he is the most permanent president that the club has had to date.^[44] As President of the club he joined the Swiss Football League (SFL) and was appointed honorary Member in 1965.

After his playing career the Austrian ex-international Anton Schall, who suffered from a rare heart condition, moved to Switzerland and took over Basel as club trainer for the 1946–47 season. Basel played a total of 39 games in this season. Of these 26 in the Nationalliga A, six in the Swiss Cup and seven were test games. The test games resulted with three victories, three draws and one defeat. In total, they won 21 games, drew eight and lost 10 times. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they scored 111 goals and conceded 65.

There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1946–47 Nationalliga A. Basel finished their season in fourth position in the table, with twelve victories from 26 games, scoring in total 60 goals. In the Swiss Cup Basel started in round 3 with a home match against local team Black Stars Basel, the game was won 3– 2. In round 4 they had an away tie against La Chaux-de-Fonds which was won 2–1. Round 5 gave Basel another home tie in the Landhof against another local club Nordstern and this ended with a 6–1 victory. Thus they advanced to the quarter-finals and were matched against the Grasshoppers. The Grasshoppers were beaten 2–1. In the semi-final goals from top scorers Traugott Oberer and René Bader gave Basel a 2–1 victory against Grenchen. Therefore, Basel advanced to the Cup-Final, which was played in the Stadion Neufeld in Bern on 7 April 1947. Basel won the final 3–0 against Lausanne Sport and thus their second cup title. In the Final Paul Stöcklin scored two goals and Bader the other. Schall led Basel to win the Cup, but he died shortly afterwards at the age of 40 years during a workout on the football field. Following this unhappy event captain Ernst Hufschmid later took over as team coach.

Fifty-fifth, Anton Schall[edit]

Düblin was the club's chairman for the second successive season. Anton Schall was to continue as first team manager, but he died at the age of 40 years, during a workout on the football field, shortly after the pre-season training had begun. Following this unhappy event captain Ernst Hufschmid then took over as player-manager. Basel played a total of 46 games in this season. Of these 26 in the Nationalliga A, four in the Swiss Cup and 16 were test games. The test games resulted with eight victories, three draws and five defeats. In total, they won 18 games, drew 13 and lost 15 times. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they scored 100 goals and conceded 93.

There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1947–48 Nationalliga A, the bottom two teams in the table to be relagted. Suffering under the shock of team manager Schall's death, the team started the season badly, losing six of their first eleven games without a single victory. With seven victories in the second half of the season the team were able to lift themselves out of the relegation zone. Basel finished the season in 10th position in the table, with seven victories from 26 games, ten draws and they lost nine times. The team scored 44 goals in the domestic league. Bellinzona won the championship.^[45]

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in round 3 with a home match against SC Balerna, the game was won 7–0. In round 4 Basel were drawn with a home tie against Zürich which was won 2–1. Round 5 gave Basel another home tie in the Landhof against Locarno and this ended with a 5–3 victory. Thus Basel advanced to the quarter-finals, where they were drawn away against La Chaux-de-Fonds. The hosts won the game by two goals to nil and continued to the semi-final and the final. The final was played on 29 March at Wankdorf Stadium in Bern against Grenchen and ended with a 2–2 draw. The replay three weeks later was also drawn 2–2 and so a second replay was required. This was played on 27 June in the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise in Lausanne. La Chaux-de-Fonds won the trophy, winning the game by four goals to nil.^[46]

Fifty-sixth[edit]

Düblin was the club's chairman for the third successive season. Ernst Hufschmid who had functioned as player-coach the previous season continued in the function as player-manager this season as well. Basel played a total of 36 games in this season. Of these 26 in the Nationalliga A, four in the Swiss Cup and six were test games. The test games resulted with two victories, three draws and one defeat. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they won 17 games, drew 11 and lost eight times. In the 36 games they scored 75 goals and conceded 49. There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1948–49 Nationalliga A, the bottom two teams in the table to be relelgated. Basel started the season badly, losing three of the first four away games. Things changed in Autumn and they lost only one of the following eleven matches and they climbed to the upper end of the table. At the end of the season Basel had risen to second position, but were seven points behind the new champions Lugano.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in round 3 with an away match against lower tier Winterthur, which was won 2–1. In round 4 Basel were drawn with an away tie against local rivals and lower tier Concordia Basel, this was won. In round five Basel were matched against Grasshopper Club with another away game. This was drawn and a replay was required, which was held at the Landhof on 22 January 1949, but ended with a defeat and GC advanced to the next round. Servette won the cup as they beat GC 3–0 in the final.

Fifty-seventh[edit]

Düblin was the club's chairman for the fourth successive season. Ernst Hufschmid, who had functioned as player-coach the previous two seasons, continued in this function this season. Basel played a total of 41 games in this season. Of these 26 in the Nationalliga A, five in the Swiss Cup and ten were test games. The test games resulted with three victories and seven defeats. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they won 21 games, drew five and lost 15 times. In the 41 games they scored 78 goals and conceded 75.

There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1949–50 Nationalliga A, the bottom two teams in the table to be relegated. Basel started the season well, winnung six of the first seven games and things continued well. Basel stayed in contention of the championship. But at the end of the season they lost their last two games and finished in second position, two points behind the new champions Servette who won their last two games. Basel won 14 games, drew five and were defeated seven times, they scored 48 goals as they gained their 33 points. Gottlieb Stäuble with 13 goals was the team's best scorer and 8th best league scorer.

Basel started in the third round of the Swiss Cup with an away match against lower tier FC Porrentruy. This was won. In round four Basel were drawn away against Grasshopper Club and this too was won. In the round of 16 and the quarter-final Basel played at home and won against Wil and then against Bellinzona respectively. However Lausanne-Sport won the semi-final and continued to the final and they won the trophy.^[47]

Fifty-eighth[edit]

Jules Düblin was the club's chairman for the fifth successive season. Ernst Hufschmid, who had functioned as player-coach the previous three seasons, continued in this function this year. Curiosity, Hufschmid played only in one match this season and it was his last active match as player and this he played as goalkeeper. On 10 August 1950 Football Club Basel played against Eishockey Club Basel. This was a return game for the ice hockey game EHC-FCB in December 1949. The football team won the football match 14–5. Goalkeeper Walter Müller played as striker and he scored six goals. Basel played a total of 40 games in this season. Of these 26 games were in the domestic league, three games were in the Swiss Cup and eleven were test games. The test games resulted with eight victories, one was drawn and two ended with defeats

As in the previous seasons, there were fourteen teams contesting in the 1950–51 Nationalliga A and the bottom two teams in the table to be relegated. Basel played a mediocre season and throughout the season they were in the midfield of the table. At the end of the season Basel won their last two games and finished in fourth position level on points with Zürich and Servette, six points behind the new champions Lausanne-Sport. Basel won 12 games, drew four and were defeated ten times, they scored 62 goals and conceded 51 as they gained their 28 points. Josef "Seppe" Hügi was the team's best scorer and 2nd best league scorer. He netted 21 league goals. In the 3rd principal round of the Swiss Cup on 29 October 1950 in the away match against FC Münchenstein Gottlieb Stäuble had a good day and scored a hat-trick as the team won 6–0 to qualify for the next round.^[48] In round 4 Basel were drawn away against Biel-Bienne and this too was won. In round 5 Basel were drawn at home against Locarno. In the 65th minute goalkeeper Walter Müller and defender Werner Wenk were both sent off and Locarno won the game.

Fifty-nineth[edit]

Jules Düblin was the club's chairman for the sixth successive season. Ernst Hufschmid, who had functioned as player-coach the previous four seasons, continued as team manager this season. Basel played a total of 42 games in this season. Of these 26 games were in the domestic league, five games were in the Swiss Cup and eleven were test games. The test games resulted with four victories, two were drawn and five ended with defeats. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they won 22 games, drew five and lost 15 times. In the 42 games they scored 123 and conceded 87 goals.

The newly built stadium Landhof was opened on the weekend of 18 and 19 August 1951. There were larger spectator stands, new meeting rooms, changing rooms and a brand new restaurant. The buildings had cost 700,000 Swiss Francs and had taken two years to complete, during this time the team had to play all their games at the Stadion Schützenmatte. The pitch had been newly laid out and its opening was accompanied by a two-day international football tournament, competed by Austrian team First Vienna, French team Sochaux-Montbéliard and Swiss teams Grasshopper Club Zürich. On both days there were over six thousand people celebrating the big party, even though their team lost 2–3 against Vienna and even 1–7 against Sochaux. It was a big hope that these new conditions would also change the fortunes of the club to the better, because nearly 60 years had passed since the club's foundation without a championship. The Basel fans were becoming frustrated, because 36 of the first 52 championships had gone to the cities of Zürich, Geneva or Bern. Even small towns such as Aarau, Neuchâtel, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Lugano, Bellinzona, Biel/Bienne, Winterthur and St. Gallen had been able to celebrate a championship. The championship had still had never been won by a team from Basel.^[49]

As in the previous seasons, there were fourteen teams contesting in the 1951–52 Nationalliga A and the bottom two teams in the league table were to be relegated. Basel played a good start to the season. They won the first six games straight off. But they lost four of the next five games and slipped in the league table. However, winning the last three games before and the first three games after the winter break, they were again in contention for the league championship. Suddenly, towards the end of the season, they lost five games in a row and lost contact to the table top. At the end of the season Basel finished in fourth position, seven points behind the new champions Grasshopper Club. The hopeful fans were again frustrated by this fact. The team Basel had won 14 games, drew three games and were defeated nine times. The team scored 68 goals and conceded 47 as they obtained their 31 points. Josef "Seppe" Hügi was team's and the league's best goal scorer with 24 league goals.

Basel started in the 3rd principal round of the Swiss Cup on 4 November 1951 with a home game against lower tier Wettingen and won 7–0. In the next round against Nationalliga A team Locarno they won 3–2 and again in the following round against Nationalliga A team Chiasso by three goals to one. In the quarter finals Basel beat Servette and faced Grasshopper Club in the semi-final. The Grasshoppers won this game in the Landhof and progressed to the final, in which they beat Lugano and thus won the double.

Sixtieth season and the first league title[edit]

Jules Düblin was the club's chairman for the seventh successive season. At the beginning of the 1952–53 Nationalliga A season, René Bader took over the job as club trainer from Ernst Hufschmid, who had acted as trainer the previous five years. Bader acted as player-manager and Willy Dürr was his assistant; Dürr stood at the side line when Bader played. Basel played a total of 43 games during this season. Of these 26 games were in the domestic league, four games were in the Swiss Cup and 13 were test games. The test games resulted with seven victories, three were drawn and three ended with defeats. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they won 27 games, drew 11 and lost only five times.

There were fourteen teams contesting in the league. Basel won 17 of the 26 games, losing only once, and they scored 72 goals conceding 38. Basel won the championship four points clear of Young Boys in second position and ten points ahead of Grasshopper Club Zürich who were third. It was Basel's first league title. Josef Hügi was the team's top league goal scorer. He shared the title of the league top scorer with Eugen Meier (Young Boys) both having netted 32 times during the season. In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 3rd principal round with a 10–0 win against Helvetia Bern and in the 4th round they beat Thun 5–0. In the next round they won 4–1 against Grenchen. All three games were home ties. In the quarter-finals Basel were drawn away against Servette Genève and the tie went into extra time, Basel then losing 3–4.

Sixty-first[edit]

René Bader continued as the team's player-coach, for the second consecutive season. Basel played a total of 41 games during their 1953–54 season. Of these 41 matches 26 were in the domestic league, one match was in the Swiss Cup and 14 were test or friendly matches. The test/friendly games resulted with five victories, one was drawn, but eight matches ended with a defeat. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, 16 games were won, three were drawn and 22 were lost. In their 41 games they scored 93 goals and conceded 111.

There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1953–54 Nationalliga A, the last two teams in the table were to be relegated. Basel won 11 of their 26 games and drew twice, but lost 13 matches. They scored 55 goals and conceded 62. Basel ended the championship with 24 points in 8th position. They were 18 points behind La Chaux-de-Fonds who became Swiss Champions. Josef Hügi was the Basel's top league goal scorer with 30 goals and thus the league top goal scorer. Basel joined the Swiss Cup in the 3rd principal round with a home match in the Landhof against Grenchen. The only goal of the match fell a couple of minutes before the final whistle and Basel were knocked out of the competition in this round.

Sixty-second[edit]

René Bader continued as the team's player-coach, for the third consecutive season with Willy Dürr as his assistant. However, in this season Bader only played in one test match. Basel played a total of 43 games during their 1954–55 season. Of these 43 matches 26 were in the domestic league, three matches were in the Swiss Cup and 14 were test or friendly matches. The test/friendly games resulted with five victories, two were drawn and seven matches ended with a defeat. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, 17 games were won, six were drawn and 20 were lost. In their 41 games they scored 101 goals and conceded 98.

In the league championship, Basel won 10 of their 26 games and drew four times and lost 12 times. They scored 47 goals and conceded 52. Basel ended the championship with 24 points in 9th position. They were 18 points behind La Chaux-de-Fonds who won the Swiss Championship for the second time in a row. Josef Hügi was Basel's top league goal scorer with 20 goals and he was third top goal scorer in the league behind Marcel Mauron from La Chaux-de-Fonds who had scored 30 times. Basel joined the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn away against lower tier local team FC Riehen, but the match was played at the Landhof and Basel won 6–0. In the fourth round they were drawn at home to lower tier FC Olten and Basel won 2–0. In the fifth round Basel were drawn at home to Zürich. But here they were knocked out of the competition.

Sixty-third[edit]

During the previous four or five years the number of players joining and leaving the club was increasing consideribly. The other Swiss clubs politics of buying new players was increasing strongly and transfer fees rose rapidly in this period. Basel, under the leadership of Jules Düblin, were trying to stay clear of this transfer trading. But because at the beginning of the previous season they had lost important players, such as goalkeeper Gianfranco de Taddeo to Cantonal Neuchatel, midfielder Kurt Maurer to La Chaux-de-Fonds and striker Walter Bielser to Biel-Bienne, the Basel board of directors were changing their approach to the subject. Düblin explained the situation at the AGM and the club members gave him the rights to strengthen the team. Béla Sárosi was hired as new team manager. Various transfers were made, Werner Schley returned from Grasshopper Club, Gottlieb Stäuble returned from Lausanne-Sport, Walter Bielser returned from Biel-Bienne, Silvan Thüler was hired from Solothurn and Peter-Jürgen Sanmann was hired from Concordia Hamburg. The exact amount that this all cost is not recorded, but the club needed to take up credits, one of which came from the city of Basel over the amount of 30,000 Swiss Francs.^[50]

As mentioned Béla Sárosi was hired in as new team manager. The Hungarian ex-international footballer had been team manager by Lugano the previous two seasons. He replaced René Bader who continued as player. There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1955–56 Nationalliga A, these were the top 12 teams from the previous season and the two newly promoted teams Urania Genève Sport and FC Schaffhausen. Again this season, the bottom two teams in the table were to be relegated. Basel won 10 of their 26 games and drew six times and lost 10 times. They scored 47 goals and conceded 50. Basel ended the championship with 26 points in 7th position. They were 16 points behind new champions Grasshopper Club.

Basel joined the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn away against lower tier local team SC Binningen, but because they waived the home advantage the match was played at the Landhof and Basel won 5–0. Rolf Keller scored a hat-trick in this game. In the fourth round they were drawn at home to lower tier FC Emmenbrücke and Basel won 6–2. Josef Hügi scored a hat-trick in this game. In the fifth round Basel were drawn at home to Biel-Bienne. Gottlieb Stäuble scored a hat-trick and Basel won 7–3. In the quarter-finals basel were drawn away against Cantonal Neuchatel, but here they were knocked out of the competition.

Sixty-fourth[edit]

The Hungarian ex-international footballer Béla Sárosi who had been hired in as new team manager the previous season continued as coach this season. Basel played a total of 41 games this season. Of these 41 matches 26 were in the domestic league, three matches were in the Swiss Cup and 12 were friendly matches. The friendly games resulted with five victories, two were drawn and five friendlies ended with a defeat. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, 21 games were won, seven were drawn and 13 were lost. In their 41 games they scored 78 and conceded 65 goals.

Basel won 15 of their 26 league games and drew four times and lost seven times. They scored 53 goals and conceded 48. Basel ended the championship with 34 points in 4th position. They were 11 points behind the new champions Young Boys. Basel joined the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn away against lower tier local team SC Burgdorf and won 1–0. In the fourth round they were drawn away to lower tier Luzern and this ended in a goalless draw after over time. The replay was held at the Landhof but here Basel were knocked out. La Chaux-de-Fonds won the competition.^[51]

Sixty-fifth[edit]

The Austrian ex-international footballer Rudi Strittich was hired as new team manager this season. Basel played a total of 42 games this season. Of these 42 matches 26 were in the domestic league, two were in the Swiss Cup and 14 were friendly matches. The friendly games resulted with seven victories and seven defeats. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, 17 games were won, six games were drawn and 19 games were lost. In their 42 games the team scored 107 goals and conceded 87.

Basel won nine of their 26 league games and drew six times and lost eleven times. They scored 59 goals and conceded 53. Basel ended the championship with 24 points in 9th position. They were 19 points behind Young Boys who were able to defend their championship title. Basel joined the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn at home at the Landhof against lower tier local team FC Olten on 2 November 1957. Hans Weber scored five goals during the second half of the game as Basel won 8–0.^[52] In the fourth round Basel were also drawn at home against lower tier FC Bern, but here Basel were knocked out. Young Boys won the competition and thus completed the double.

Sixty-sixth[edit]

Jules Düblin was the club's chairman for his 13th successive, but final, period. Düblin presided the club during the period July 1946 until Mai 1959 and in the club's history he is the most permanent president that the club has had to date.^[44] The Austrian ex-international footballer Rudi Strittich was team manager for the second successive season. The club directors and the team management strengthend the team following the previous disappointing season. Bruno Michaud returned from Lausanne-Sport, Fredy Kehrli, Jean-Jacques Maurer and Charles Turin were hired from Biel-Bienne who had suffered relegation the previous season. Roberto Frigerio was hired from Schaffhausen and Antoine Kohn from Karlsruher SC. But on 30 November 1958 Basel were beaten 0–2 by FC Moutier, a team from the 1 Liga (third highest tier of Swiss football), and because the Basel had lost their previous three league matches this was one bad result too many. Even for club chairman Jules Düblin, who was known as prudent and cautious, this was too much and he replaced Strittich through their ex-trainer René Bader.

Basel played a total of 50 games this season. Of these 50 matches 26 were in the domestic league, two were in the Swiss Cup and 22 were friendly matches. The friendly games resulted with twelve victories, five draws and five defeats. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, 24 games were won, 10 games were drawn and 16 games were lost. Basel started badly into the new season, losing the first game 1–2 against La Chaux-de-Fonds and then losing at home 1–4 against Grenchen. Then, despite two high wins, 5–0 away against Lausanne-Sport and 6–1 at home against Bellinzona, the afore mentioned three defeats against Young Boys, Zürich and Grasshopper Club caused the change in manager position. But under the new manager things did not change immediately, the lowest point was after round 15 as the team slipped to second last position in the table. But in the last 11 rounds the team lost only one more match and rose in the table to sixth position.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn at home at the Landhof against third tier local team Old Boys. The match was played on 26 October and despite the fact that former Basel goalkeeper Gianfranco de Taddeo, who now played for the Old Boys, held a penalty taken by Hans Weber, Basel won 3–0. In the next round Basel were drawn and lost against FC Moutier. Thus Basel's short and disappointing cup season ended here. As mentioned before, the consequence of this defeat was that team manager Rudi Strittich was fired. Grenchen won the cup this season.

Sixty-seventh[edit]

Ernst Weber was the club's new chairman taking over from Jules Düblin after the AGM on 27 May 1959. Düblin presided the club during the period July 1946 until Mai 1959 and in the club's history he is the most permanent president that the club has had to date.^[44] Jenő Vincze was hired as new team manager, following René Bader who had been trainer ad-interim. The Hungarian ex-international footballer Vincze had been team manager of Servette the previous two seasons. Hans Hügi moved on to Young Fellows Zürich after 11 seasons and 220 league and cup games for Basel. Hermann Suter, who had played 16 seasons for Basel and in 229 league and cup games had scored 104 goals, ended his active football career. Antoine Kohn moved on to play for Fortuna '54.

Basel played a total of 44 games this season. Of these 44 matches 26 were in the domestic league, four were in the Swiss Cup and 14 were friendly matches. Basel started badly into the new season, losing five of the first seven games. In fact, the team won only one of their first 16 games and were always in the lower regions of the league table. However, with five victories in their last ten league matches, the team lifted themselves to tenth position in the table. Reigning and new champions were Young Boys who won the championship for the fourth successive season. Basel's top league goal scorers were Roberto Frigerio and Josef Hügi both of who managed 15 league goals.

Basel entered the Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn away against third tier SC Derendingen and won 1–0 through a goal by their Hungarian striker Ferenc Stockbauer. In the next round Basel were drawn at home at the Landhof against lower tier team FC Porrentruy and this ended with a 5–2 victory. In the round of 16 Basel played a home 1–1 draw with the Young Boys, but then lost the replay 3–5. Luzern won the competition winning the final against Grenchen

Sixty-eigth[edit]

Ernst Weber was the club's chairman for his second consecutive season and Jenő Vincze was Basel's team manager also for the second season. Basel played a total of 43 games this season. Of these 43 matches 26 were in the domestic league, one was in the Swiss Cup and 16 were friendly matches. Of these test matches five were played as hosts and 11 were played away, 12 were won, two were drawn and two ended with a defeat. The two defeats were suffered at the Landhof against VfR Mannheim and in the St. Jakob Stadium against Santos. The match against Santos was one of the highlights of these test games despite the 2–8 defeat. Gottlieb Stäuble and Josef Hügi scored the goals for Basel. Coutinho scored five and Pelé scored three for Santos. 14,000 spectators paid for a ticket to see the game, much needed money in the bad financial situation that the club was suffering.

Despite a home defeat against Young Fellows in the very first match, Basel started the season well, winning six of their first eight matches. But then came a run with six consecutive defeats in which the team failed to score a single goal. Basel slipped from the table top down to the relegation zone before they managed to return to winning games. Basel ended the season in 5th position with 28 points, but were 18 points behind the new Swiss Champions Servette.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn away against third tier local club Concordia Basel and for Basel the game ended in a fiasco. Despite an early 1–0 lead and in total 18–0 corners, Werner Decker and Heinz Wirz each scored for the under dogs who had a very young Karl Odermatt in their team. Basel lost 2–1 and were eliminated form the competition.^[53] Odermatt's football skills were noted, later he and Decker would later transfer to Basel.

Sixty-ninth[edit]

Ernst Weber was the club's chairman for the third consecutive season. The former Czechoslovak footballer Jiří Sobotka was appointed as Basel's new team manager. Basel played a total of 44 games this season. Of these 44 matches 26 were in the domestic league, four were in the Swiss Cup, six were in the newly formed International Football Cup and eight were friendly matches. Of these eight friendly games four were played at home and four away from home. Four games ended in a victory, three were drawn and one ended in a defeat. The friendly match against 1. FC Köln at the end of the season was one of the highlights of these test games, it ended in a 4–4 draw. This was the farewell game for Josef Hügi who was moving on to play for Zürich the following season. René Burri, Roberto Frigerio twice and Hügi himself scored the goals for Basel. Karl-Heinz Thielen, Christian Müller, Breuer and Helmut Benthaus scored the goals for Köln. 14,000 spectators paid their entrance tickets to see the game, much needed money because the club was suffering under a bad financial situation at that time. An interesting point to note was the contact that was made between the club's chairmann, Ernst Weber, and the scorer of the final goal of the match, Benthaus. This contact would come in handy a few years later.^[54]

Basel were appointed as one of four Swiss representatives in the newly founded International Football Cup. The 1961–62 International Football Cup took place during in the summer break. Basel played in Group B4 together with Sparta Rotterdam, IF Elfsborg and SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin but finished the group in the bottom position.

The team played a mediocre league season, but not much more was expected from the young team, manager Jiří Sobotka was forming the team for the future seasons. Basel finished the season in the mid-field region of the league table in 7th position with 28 points, 12 points behind Servette who won the championship for the second time in a row. Basel won ten games, drew eight and were defeated eight times. Youngster Markus Pfirter was the team's top league goal scorer with nine goals and oldie Josef Hügi scored eight times that season.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. They were drawn at home against third tier club SR Delémont. Despite being 0–2 in arrear early in the game, they came back to win 3–2. In the fourth round they faced fourth tier local club FC Breite, with ex-FCB player Hans Hügi (who had retired from active football) in another home game. Older brother Hügi (I) defended against younger brother Hügi (II), but younger brother won the duel and scored two of the goals as Basel won 3–0 to continue to the next round. In the fifth round Basel won due to an own goal against Zürich, but in the quarter-final they were defeated by Bellinzona, who continued to the final, but here they were defeated by cup winners Lausanne-Sport after extra time.

Seventieth, cup win number three[edit]

Lucien Schmidlin was voted as new club chairman at the AGM to follow Ernst Weber, who had announced his retirement from the position. The Czechoslovakian manager Jiří Sobotka was the club manager at this time and it was his second season as head-coach. One of the biggest transfers made during this time was the transfer of the 19 year old Karl Odermatt from Concordia Basel. Odermatt joined in a swop, Hansueli Oberer and Silvan Thüler went to Concordia. Not only these two players left the squad, but also Paul Speidel moved on to Cantonal Neuchatel and Josef Hügi (Hugi II) was nearly at the end of his football career. "Seppe" Hugi had played 363 competition games for the club and in these had scored 272 goals, he moved on to play for Zürich.

Basel were appointed as one of four Swiss representatives in the International Football Cup (IFC). The 1962–63 IFC took place during in the summer break. Basel played in Group B3 together with PSV Eindhoven, HNK Rijeka and Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. Basel ended the group stage in third position, winners of the group were HNK Rijeka who thus advanced to the quarter-finals. Basel played a total of 51 games this season. Of these 51, 26 were in the domestic league, six were in the Swiss Cup, three in the Cup of the Alps, six in the International Football Cup (IFC) and ten were friendly matches. Of these friendly games, five were won, three drawn and two ended in a defeat. Basel finished the championship in sixth position with twenty six points, with ten wins and six draws from 26 matches, scoring 59 goals conceding 51. FC Zürich won the championship. Heinz Blumer was Basel's top scorer this season with 16 goals, Karl Odermatt their second best goal scorer with 14.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 3rd principal round, on 3 November, with a 4–0 home win, in the St. Jakob Stadium against Black Stars. In the 4th round, on 2 December, they played away against Young Boys winning 2–0. In the next round, on 30 December they won 7–1 at home against SC Burgdorf. In the quarter-finals, played on 24 February 1963, Basel were drawn away against Chiasso and Basel achieved a 2–1 victory. The semi-final was played on 24 March in the St. Jakob Stadium. Basel beat Lausanne-Sports 1–0 the winning goal scored by Markus Pfirter. The Wankdorf Stadium hosted the Swiss Cup Final on 15 April and Basel played against favorites Grasshopper Club Zürich. Two goals after half time, one by Heinz Blumer and the second from Otto Ludwig gave Basel a 2–0 victory and their third Cup win in their history.^[55] Peter Füri played in all games except in the final due to an illness.

Seventy-first[edit]

Lucien Schmidlin was club chairman for the second year running. Jiří Sobotka continued his job as club manager, it was his third consecutive year as manager. Basel played a total of 55 games this season. Of these 26 were in the domestic league, three were in the Swiss Cup, two in the 1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup, three in the Cup of the Alps and 21 were friendly matches. Of these 21 test games 12 were won, five drawn and four were lost. A well-documented curiosity was the fact that during the winter break of the 1963–64 season the team travelled on a world tour. This saw them visit British Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Mexico and the United States. First team manager Jiří Sobotka together with 16 players and 15 members of staff, supporters and journalists participated in this world tour from 10 January to 10 February 1964. Team captain Bruno Michaud filmed the events with his super-8 camara.^[56]

Basel started well into the league season, winning four of the first five matches. Despite three away defeats, up until the winter break the team were championship leaders with seven wins and three draws. The second half of the season, following the world tour, started with three straight defeats. Basel consequently slipped down in the league table and finished the championship in seventh position, with ten wins and six draws from 26 matches, scoring 42 goals conceding 48, with twenty six points, 13 points less than the new champions La Chaux-de-Fonds.^[57]

As title holders in the Swiss Cup, Basel started in the 3rd principal round, on 5 October 1963, with an easy away win against SC Schöftland in their attempt to defend this title. In the round of 32 they played away from home against local rivals Concordia which was also won with ease. In the round of 16 Basel were drawn against lower classed Porrentruy. However, this was indeed the best period in the Porrentruy club history. Their player-manager at that time was Basel's former striker Hügi (II) and game ended with a surprising 0–1 defeat, goal scorer in the 56 minute was another former Basel player René Jaeck. Basel's cup campaign came to an abrupt and disappointing end.

As Swiss Cup holders Basel were qualified for the 1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup competition. Here they were drawn against the Scottish cup holders Celtic. Both games ended very disappointingly (1–5 and 0–5) and thus ended with a disastrous aggregate result.

Seventy-second[edit]

Lucien Schmidlin was club chairman for the third consecutive year. The Czechoslovakian manager Jiří Sobotka was the Basel team manager and it was his fourth season as manager. Basel played a total of 51 matches un this season. 26 of these were in the domestic league, five were in the Swiss Cup, four matches were in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and 16 were friendly matches. Of these 16 test games eight were won, four drawn and four were lost.

A sad moment to be noted is, on 26 December 1964 FCB played against Grasshoppers Zürich in the quarter-finals of the Swiss Cup. They decided the match 3–1 for themselves in overtime, Hans Weber had scored the equaliser two minutes before the end of the regular time. This was to be the very last match for the popular Basler captain of that time, because just seven weeks later he died of cancer. Between his first appearance in 1949 and his death in February 1965 he made 380 appearances for Basel scoring 68 goals. 245 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 27 in the Swiss Cup, 8 were European Cup matches and 99 were friendly games. He scored 33 goals in the domestic league, 13 in the Swiss Cup, 2 in the Cup of the Alps and the other 20 were scored during the test games.

Fourteen teams contested the 1964–65 Nationalliga A. Basel ended the championship with eleven wins and five draws in their 26 matches, and finished in eighth position with 27 points. They scored 44 goals and conceded 54. For Basel it was a mediocre season with some very unusual and high scoring results, 5–4 at home against Grasshopper Club, 4–3 at home against Biel-Bienne and a 3–3 draw at home against the new champions Lausanne-Sport after a three goal lead before half time. There were also some high scoring defeats, 1–5 away against Grenchen, 0–6 away against Sion, 0–6 away against La Chaux-de-Fonds and a 1–6 away in the last game of the season against Young Boys. Roberto Frigerio was the team's top goal scorer with 13 goals. Lausanne Sports won the championship with 36 points.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 64, 10 October 1964, with a home win against lower classed Locarno. In the next round they played at home against Bern which was won 3–1 and, consequently, drawn at home against Lasuanne Sports in the round of 16 which ended in a 3–2 victory. After the quarter-final against Grasshoppers Zürich (mentioned above) Basel were drawn at home again for the semi-final. This game was against Sion and was played on 7 March 1965. Basel were defeated 2–3 and Sion continued to the final which they won against Servette.^[58]

Basel were qualified for the 1964–65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and in the first round they played CA Spora Luxembourg. A 2–0 home win and a 0–1 away defeat was enough to take them through to the second round. But two defeats against Strasbourg ended their Fairs Cup competition.

The era Benthaus[edit]

Seventy-third[edit]

Lucien Schmidlin was club chairman for the fourth consecutive year. To the beginning of the season Helmut Benthaus transferred in from 1. FC Köln and became player-coach. He replaced Jiří Sobotka as team manager, who went on to manage the Swiss national team. Benthaus was a graduate of the German Sport University Cologne and an experienced player trainer. Two seasons earlier Benthaus had won the 1963–64 Bundesliga as player-manager with Köln. Benthaus used his first season with Basel to observe, feel and classify. One of the biggest changes that he made, with the agreement of the board of directors, was introduce semi-profesionalism. There were only a few minor changes to the squad, Rade Ognjanović transferred to Grenchen and Heinz Sartor transferred to Offenburger FV. Three players stepped back from Nationalliga A football, Carlo Porlezza, Mario Grava and Fernando Von Krannichfeldt went to play for the reserve team. As replacements three youngsters came from the youth team and three more from the reserve team.

Fourteen teams contested the 1965–66 Nationalliga A. Basel finished the season in sixth position with 27 points. They ended the championship with ten wins, seven draws and nine defeats in their 26 matches. In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 on 7 November 1965, with a home win against Biel-Bienne. In the next round they played at home against Luzern with a 3–1 win. In the next round they were drawn away in the Wankdorf Stadium, Bern, against Young Boys. This ended in a 2–1 victory. In the semi-final they were drawn at home against Servette but were defeated 1–3. Zürich won the final and completed the double.^[59]

In the 1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Basel were drawn against Spanish team Valencia, but were beaten twice. In the Cup of the Alps Basel were drawn in the same group as Catania, S.S.C. Napoli, Juventus and Spal Ferrara. All four games ended in a defeat.

Seventy-fourth, the double[edit]

Harry Thommen took over as club chairman at the AGM from Lucien Schmidlin who stood down to become vice-chairman. During this season Helmut Benthaus was the club player-manager for the second consecutive season and there were only a few minor changes in the squad. In the 1966–67 season, Benthaus achieved his first league win with Basel. There were 14 teams contesting in the championship, and Basel finished just one point clear of FC Zürich. Basel won 16 of the 26 games, drawing eight, losing only twice and they scored 60 goals conceding just 20. Roberto Frigerio was the team's top goal scorer with 16 league goals, while Helmut Hauser was second-best with 14. In the highest scoring game of the season, a 10–0 win against FC Moutier Roberto 'Mucho' Frigerio managed to score four goals.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a 6–0 home win against Blue Stars and in the round of 16, also a home match, they beat FC Zürich 3–2. In the Quarter-final Basel won the replay against Biel-Bienne 2–1 to qualify for the semi-finals. Basel played an away match in the Stadio Cornaredo against FC Lugano in the semi-final which ended goalless and therefore a replay was required here too. The replay was played in the St. Jakob Stadium and goals from Karl Odermatt and Helmut Benthaus gave Basel a 2–1 victory to qualify for the final which was to take place three days later. In the Cup final Basel's opponents were Lausanne-Sports. In the former Wankdorf Stadium on 15 May 1967, Helmut Hauser scored the decisive goal via penalty. The game went down in football history due to the sit-down strike that followed this goal. After 88 minutes of play, with the score at 1–1, referee Karl Göppel awarded Basel a controversial penalty. André Grobéty had pushed Hauser gently in the back and he let himself drop theatrically. Subsequent to the 2–1 for Basel the Lausanne players refused to resume the game and they sat down demonstratively on the pitch. The referee had to abandon the match. Basel were awarded the cup with a 3–0 forfait.^[60]^[61]

Basel had won the double for the first time in the club's history.

In the first round of the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Basel were drawn against VV DOS Utrecht. The first leg was played in the Netherlands and ended in a 2–1 defeat, despite an early lead. In the return leg Basel led 2–0 but VV DOS were able to equalise and therefore won 4–3 on aggregate.

Seventy-fifth[edit]

The Chairman of the club's board was Harry Thommen for the second consecutive year. Helmut Benthaus was the club player-manager for the third consecutive season. He and his team were the defending league champions. There were no big amendments to the squad, one reserve goalkeeper left and one reserve goalkeeper advanced to them and defender Manfred Schädler joined from local club FC Birsfelden and striker Dieter Rüefli joined from Winterthur. Basel played a total of 42 matches in this season. 26 of these games were in the domestic league, two were in the Swiss Cup, two were in the European Cup, five were in the Cup of the Alps and seven were friendly matches. Of these seven test games five were won and two ended with a draw.

Again there were 14 teams contesting in the 1967–68 Nationalliga A. Basel, as reigning champions, played a mediocre season. Although they were within reach of the table top all the time, they messed everything up towards the end of the season as they lost five games out of seven. Basel won 13 of the league 26 games, drawing five, losing eight times, and they scored 49 goals conceding 33. Therefore they finished the season in fifth position. They were seven points behind the trio Zürich, Grasshopper Club and Lugano who all ended the season with 38 points. These three team then had to play a championship play-off round and Zürich won both games and became champions. In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a home match against lower classed FC Le Locle. But the game had to go into overtime. After Le Locle took the lead just after half time break, Roberto Frigerio netted the equaliser shortly before the end. In the overtime player-manager Helmut Benthaus managed the winning goal. In the next round Basel played an away game against FC Zürich, but were defeated 0–1 and this campaign was ended very quickly.

As reigning champions Basel were qualified for the 1967–68 European Cup. In the first round they were drawn against Danish team Hvidovre. The first leg was in the St. Jakob Stadium. Despite an early lead scored by Helmut Hauser, the Danes turned the game and won. In the return leg in stadium Idrætsparken in Copenhagen, Hauser again scored the early lead. Again the Dames turned the match and shortly after half time went into a 3–1 lead. This time Basel were fighting against the defeat and drew level at 3–3 but could not manage to score a winning goal, which would have put them through to the next round.

Seventy-sixth, third league title[edit]

Harry Thommen was the club's chairman of the board for the third consecutive season and Helmut Benthaus was the club's player-manager for the fourth consecutive season. Paul Fischli joined the team coming from Young Fellows Zürich. Jürgen Sundermann signed in from Servette and Walter Balmer joined from Thun. In the other direction Hanspeter Stocker left the club after eight years and moved to Baden for his last season before retiring from his active football career. Markus Pfirter left the club after seven years and went on to St. Gallen. Roberto Frigerio also left the club after a total of seven years and he moved on to Bellinzona. Moscatelli left after five years and went to Lugano.

Basel played a total of 52 matches in this season. 26 of these games were in the domestic league, three were in the Swiss Cup, five were in the Cup of the Alps, two were in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and 15 were friendly matches. Of these 15 test games 12 were won and two ended with a draw and one ended in a defeat. Seven were played at home and eight played away. There were 14 teams contesting in the 1968–69 Nationalliga A. Basel finished the league season as champions one point ahead of Lausanne Sports in second position, who they defeated 4–0 in the second last match of the season, and six points clear of FC Zürich who finished third. Basel won 13 of the 26 games, drawing ten, losing three times, they scored 48 goals conceding 28.^[62]

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a 2–1 away win against Thun and in the round of 16, with a home match, they beat Luzern 3–1. In the Quarter-final Basel played an away game against Servette but lost this 1–0. In the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Basel were drawn against Bologna the first leg away from home on 18 September the return leg in Basel on 2 October. Bologna won both games. In the 1968 Cup of the Alps the team managed to win the group and played in the final against FC Schalke 04 but were defeated 1–3 after extra time.

Seventy-seventh, second consecutive league title[edit]

Harry Thommen was the club's chairman for the fourth consecutive season and Helmut Benthaus was player-manager for the fifth consecutive season. The championship title from the pervious season meant that Basel could embark on another European adventure, but again they failed to overcome the first hurdle; this time it was Celtic of Scotland. The first leg, which played on 17 September 1969 in the St. Jakob Stadium in front of 37,587 spectators, ended in a goalless draw. The return leg on 1 October in Celtic Park attracted 49,976 spectators. Celtic won the game 2–0 and advanced to the next round.

Nationally in the 1969–70 season, Basel won the league for the fourth time. They played a good season. Despite a bad run with four defeats in eight games between the end of September and the beginning of December, they won 11 of the last 14 games during the second half of the season. Basel won the championship a point clear of Lausanne Sports who ended in second position and three points ahead of FC Zürich who finished third. Basel won 15 of the 26 games, drawing seven, losing four times.

On 14 September 1969 Basel started in the Swiss Cup in the round of 32 with a 10–0 home win against Minerva Bern (as result of merger later renamed Breitenrain Bern). In the round of 16 played on 12 October Basel had a home match against Grenchen which was won 3–2. In the quarter-final, played in November, Basel had a two legged tie against Xamax-Sports NE (later renamed Neuchâtel Xamax). This was won 7–2 on aggregate. The semi-final was also a two legged tie and this against Servette Genève. Basel won both legs and 6–1 on aggregate. The final was played on 18 May 1970 in the Wankdorf Stadium, but was lost against Zürich after extra time.^[63]

Seventy-eigth, defeated in the play-off[edit]

Félix Musfeld was the club's new chairman. Helmut Benthaus was player-manager for the sixth consecutive season. There were only very few changes in the squad. Bruno Michaud retired from active football after winning his third championship title. He had played 14 seasons with Basel. During his time with Basel Michaud played a total of 355 competitive games and scored 22 goals. Dieter Rüefli moved on to play for St. Gallen and Janos Konrad moved on to Vevey-Sports. In the other direction Edoardo Manzoni joined the squad on loan from Xamax. Benthaus did not want any other transfers and relied on young players who came up from the reserve team to help, when needed in the first team. Basel played a total of 55 matches during this season. 27 of these games were in the domestic league including the play-off for the championship. Three of these games were in the Swiss Cup, four were in the European Cup, five were in the Cup of the Alps and 16 were friendly matches. Of these 16 test games 13 were won and three were drawn.

Basel won 18 of their 26 league games, drawing six, losing just twice, they scored 67 goals conceding 26. They finished the regular season level on points with Grasshopper Club Zürich and so these two teams had to contest a play-off game on 8 June 1971 to decide the title winners. Grasshopper won the play-off 4–3 after extra time.^[64]

On 1 November 1969 Basel started in the Swiss Cup in the round of 32 with a 5–1 home win against CS Chênois. In the round of 16 played on 29 November Basel had a home match against Bellinzona which was won 2–0. In the quarter-final, played on 28 February 1971, Basel had an away tie against Mendrisiostar (after club merger later renamed FC Mendrisio-Stabio). However, this was lost 0–2 after extra time. Servette won the cup competition at the end of the season.

In the European Cup Basel were drawn against Spartak Moscow. The first leg, which was played on 16 September 1970 away from home, was lost 2–3 with Odermatt and Benthaus scoring for the guests during the last 12 minutes, after they had gone three down with just a quarter of an hour left to play. In the second leg played in the St. Jakob Stadium Basel won 2–1, the goals being scored by Siegenthaler und Walter Balmer. Thus the tie ended 4–4 on aggregate. Basel won on away goals and advanced to the second round. Here they were drawn against Ajax, first away from home, but they suffered a 0–3 defeat. The second leg at home also ended with a defeat, 1–2, despite the fact that Odermatt put Basel one up with a penalty after 36 minutes.

In the 1970 Cup of the Alps Basel were in the Swiss Group together with Lugano, Young Boys and Zürich. They played against each of the four Italian teams Fiorentina, Lazio, Sampdoria and Bari. Basel won the Swiss group and in the final they faced and beat Fiorentina 3–2.^[65]

Seventy-ninth, fifth championship title[edit]

The club's chairman was Félix Musfeld for the second year in a row. Helmut Benthaus was again player-manager, but toward the end of his playing career Benthaus stood on the side line as team manager and he only substituted himself into the game if it was not running as he wanted it. In this season Benthaus substituted himself in during just one single game. This being the second last home match of the season on 27 May against Luzern. Benthaus retired from playing in at the end of the season aged 36. He made only minor adjustments to his squad at the beginning of the season, Rolf Blättler joined from Lugano, René Hasler from Zürich and youngster Ottmar Hitzfeld was brought in from FV Lörrach from the lower German league.

Basel remained undefeated in the league during the first 24 rounds. Of their 26 league games Basel won 18, drawing seven, losing just once, scoring 66 goals conceding 28.^[66] Basel won the championship four points ahead of Zürich and five points ahead of the Grasshoppers.^[67] Ottmar Hitzfeld was Basel's top league goal scorer with 16 league goals

For Basel the Swiss Cup started in the round of 32 on 24 October 1971 with a 3–1 home win against Monthey. On 21 November in the round of 16 Basel played away from home against La Chaux-de-Fonds. The match resulted with a 3–0 success. The quarter-final was played on 12 March 1972 in Zürich against Grasshopper-Club. The tie ended with a 1–1 draw and this meant a replay three days later. Basel won the replay 3–2 and continued onto the semi-finals against BSC Young Boys. In the Wankdorf Stadium on 3 April Karl Odermatt and Walter Balmer each scored a goal to give Basel a 2–0 victory. The final was played on 22 May 1970 also in the Wankdorf Stadium but Basel were defeated 0–1 by Zürich through a goal by Jeandupeux in extra time of the first half.

The 1971–72 UEFA Cup was the inaugural year of the UEFA Cup (now known as the UEFA Europa League), which effectively replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In the first round Basel were drawn against Real Madrid. The first leg, which played on 15 September 1971 in the St. Jakob Stadium attracted 32'059 spectators but ended for Basel with a 1–2 defeat. Madrid won thanks to goals from Francisco Aguilar and Santillana, who turned the result around after the Swiss scored the opener through René Hasler. The return leg on 29 September in Santiago Bernabéu Stadium was watched by 61'861 spectators and also ended with the same result. The same two Spanish international players were the heroes once again, each scoring a goal, to ensure Real Madrid their passage to the next round.^[68]

Eightieth, double with the Swiss League Cup[edit]

The 1972–73 season was Benthaus' eighth season as manager. There were only small amendments to the squad during the pre-season. Roland Paolucci was loaned out to Winterthur and Stefan Reisch left the team and moved on to Kickers Würzburg where he ended his active playing career. Basel did not transfer any players in, because Benthaus relied on the young players who came up from the reserve team to help, when needed in the first team. Basel played a total of 55 matches during this season. 26 of these games were in the domestic league championship, seven of these games were in the Swiss Cup, four in the Swiss League Cup, two were in the European Cup, four were in the Cup of the Alps and 12 were friendly matches. Of these 12 test games four were won, four were drawn and four were lost.

Basel started the league season badly, losing the first two games and drawing the next two. The first victory was recorded in the fifth round and during the next nine rounds Basel won eight games. After the winter break Basel were only defeated once. They won the championship four points ahead of Grasshopper Club and six ahead of the Sion. Basel won 17 of their 26 league games, drew five and lost four. Ottmar Hitzfeld was the leagues joint top goal scorer with 18 league goals.

In the Swiss Cup Basel played the round of 32 on 5 November 1972 at home to Martigny-Sports in the St. Jakob Stadium. The round of 16 match on 26 November 1972 was played away against BSC Young Boys and Basel left the Wankdorf Stadium with a 4–0 victory. The quarter-finals were two legged fixtures, the first leg played on 10 December 1972 in Stadio Comunale was won 2–0 against Chiasso and the second leg played one week later was won 5–3. The semi-finals were also two legged fixtures. Basel were matched against Biel-Bienne and won 6–1 on aggregate. Walter Balmer scored a hattrick in the home game. The final was played on 23 April 1973 in the Wankdorf Stadium against Zürich. The game ended goalless after 90 minutes. In extra time Peter Marti (92) and Fritz Künzli (101) scored the goals to give Zürich the title for the second consecutive time in a final against Basel.^[69]

The 1972 Swiss League Cup was the inaugural Swiss League Cup competition. It was played in the summer of 1972 as a pre-season tournament to the 1972–73 Swiss football season. Basel beat Servette 8–0, Lausanne Sports 2–1 aet and Sion 6–1 to reach the final. This was won by Basel who defeated FC Winterthur 4–1 in the final which took place on 11 November 1972 at the Letzigrund in Zürich. Ottmar Hitzfeld scored a hattick in the final.^[70]

Basel were beaten by Újpesti Dózsa 2–0 in the first leg of the first round of the 1972–73 European Cup away from home in the Ferenc Szusza Stadium. The return match was on 27 September 1972 in St. Jakob Stadium. Basel won 3–2, the goals coming from René Hasler (65) and Walter Balmer (75 + 83), but they were beaten 4–3 on aggregate. In the 1972 Cup of the Alps Basel played twice against Olympique Lyonnais, losing the away tie, winning at home game. They played twice against Bordeaux, winning the away game but losing the home game, but because Bordeaux won their other two games they continued to the final.^[71]

Eighty-first[edit]

The club's chairman was Félix Musfeld for the fourth season in a row and this was the ninth season with Helmut Benthaus as first team manager. To the beginning of the season Urs Siegenthaler moved on to play for Xamax and Rolf Riner left to play for Servette. In the other direction Rudolf Wampfler joined from Sion, Arthur von Wartburg joined from Concordia Basel and Roland Paolucci returned from his loan to Winterthur. But the most notorious transfer was that of Teófilo Cubillas from Alianza Lima. However, Cubillas only remained at the club for six months, which was not long enough for him to show the extent of his talent. Basel played a total of 54 games in their 1973–74 season. 26 in the domestic league, four in the Swiss Cup, one in the Swiss League Cup, six in the European Cup and 17 were friendly matches.

Zürich won the championship 12 points ahead of Grasshopper Club, 13 ahead of the Servette and FC Winterthur. Basel finished in fifth position and were 16 points behind the new champions. Basel won 13 of their 26 league games, drew three and lost ten games. Basel's striker Ottmar Hitzfeld was the league's joint top goal scorer with Ove Grahn of Lausanne-Sports who both scored 18 league goals.

In the Swiss Cup Basel played the round of 32 on 22 September 1973 away against Biel-Bienne in the Gurzelen Stadion and won 2–1. In the round of 16 on 6 October 1973 they played away again against Mendrisiostar and won 4–1. In this game Cubillas scored two goals. The quarter-final was a two legged fixtures. The first leg played on 31 October 1973 in Stade Tourbillon was a 1–0 defeat against Sion. The second leg played on 4 November 1973 in the St. Jakob Stadium ended in a 2–2 draw, thus Sion won 3–2 on aggregate. In the 1973 Swiss League Cup Basel were drawn with an away game against Neuchâtel Xamax in the first round and were eliminated.

As reigning Swiss Champions, Basel were qualified for the 1973–74 European Cup. In the first round, drawn against Iceland's champions Fram, Basel won with the aggregate score 11–2. In the second round they were drawn against Club Brugge. In the exiting second leg Basel won 6–4 and thus 7–6 on aggregate. In the quarter-final Basel won the first leg against Celtic 3–2 and in the second leg Celtic won by the same score. During extra time Scottish international Steve Murray scored the decisive goal in the 114th minute. Celtic continued to the semi-final but did not reach the final.

Eighty-second, fifth Swiss Cup[edit]

Félix Musfeld was club chairman for the fifth consecutive period and Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the tenth consecutive season. There were a few amendments to the team. Josef Kiefer, now coming to the end of his active career, went on to play for FC Breitenbach. Kiefer had been with the club for 12 seasons. Between the years 1962 and 1974 he had played a total of 355 games for Basel, 170 of these games were in the domestic league. He had won the championship five times and the Swiss Cup once. A number of other players also left the club, Teófilo Cubillas went on to Porto, Rudolf Wampfler to Fribourg, Peter Wenger went on to Nordstern Basel and Felix Tschudin moved on to local club SC Binningen. In an inwards directions Fritz Wirth joined on loan from Grenchen, Roland Schönenberger signed from Wangen bei Olten and Danish international Eigil Nielsen signed from Winterthur. Basel played a total of 51 games in their 1974–75 season. 26 in the domestic league, seven in the Swiss Cup, four in the Swiss League Cup, five in the Cup of the Alps and nine were friendly matches.

Zürich won the championship six points ahead of both BSC Young Boys who were second and Grasshopper Club who were third. Basel finished in fourth position with 31 points. They won 11 of their 26 league games, drew nine and lost six games. They scored a total of 49 goals conceding 33. Ottmar Hitzfeld was the team's top goal scorer with 13 league goals. The poor results in this and the two previous seasons were now also being reflected in the match attendances. Where as in the 1971–72 season each but one match had attracted more than 10,000 spectators, this season only two games were attended by more than 10,000 people. The average number of spectators had halved within just three years.

In the 50th Swiss Cup tournament Basel played the round of 32 on 21 September 1974 away against Chiasso in the Stadio Comunale and in the round 16 away against Zürich in the Letzigrund. The quarter-finals were two legged fixtures. Basel played the first leg on 30 October 1974 away in Stade de la Fontenette and the return leg on 3 November 1974 in the St. Jakob Stadium against Étoile Carouge. Both games ended with a 2–1 victory and so Basel qualified 4–2 on aggregate for the next round. The semi-finals were played in March against Chênois and was also a two legged fixture. In the first leg, played in Stade des Trois-Chêne, Basel achieved a 4–1 victory and the second leg ended with a 2–1 victory. The final was played on 31 March 1975 in the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern against Winterthur. Otto Demarmels scored the opening goal for Basel, E. Meyer equalised and so the game went into extra time. Walter Balmer scored the winning goal for Basel after 115 minutes. Basel were Swiss Cup winners for the fifth time in the club's history.

The Swiss League Cup ended for Basel in the semi-final as they were beaten 1–3 at home against Grasshopper Club.

Eighty-third[edit]

Félix Musfeld was club chairman for the sixth consecutive period. Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the eleventh consecutive season. There were a number of changes in the team during the pre-season. Goalkeeper Marcel Kunz would have liked to have stayed for another season, but his contract was not prolonged, so he moved on to Nordstern Basel one tier lower for one season before he retired from active football. Karl Odermatt would have stayed with the club, but the board of directors refused to pay the desired wages, so he moved to Young Boys. After four seasons with the club Ottmar Hitzfeld moved on to VfB Stuttgart, for him this was a large step forward in his career. Walter Balmer retired from active football, he had been with Basel seven seasons. Roland Paolucci was also reaching the end of his career, but he decided to add another season with Nordstern Basel. In the other direction Swiss international Peter Marti signed in from Swiss champions Zürich, Serge Muhmenthaler signed in from Young Boys and Walter Geisser joined from local club Nordstern Basel who played one tier lower. As seen in the previous years Benthaus relied on young players who came up from the reserve team to help, when needed in the first team.

Basel played a total of 56 games in their 1975–76 season. 26 in the domestic league, seven in the Swiss Cup, two in the Swiss League Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps, five in the Cup of the Alps, two in the 1975–76 European Cup Winners' Cup and 17 were friendly matches. Basel won six friendly games, drew six and lost five. In the Cup of the Alps Basel were in a goup with Stade de Reims, Olympique Lyonnais and Lausanne-Sport. Two wins and two draws were enough for Basel to qualify for the final. But here they faced Servette in the Charmilles Stadium and lost 0–3. Basel played a good domestic league season, but reigning champions Zürich ran away with the title. Zürich won the championship with 44 points, five points clear of second placed Servette and ten points clear of third placed Basel.

As cup winners in the previous season, Basel were qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the first round of the 1975–76 European Cup Winners' Cup Basel were drawn against Spanisch Cup 1974–75 runners-up Atlético Madrid. Atlético had been beaten in the final by Real Madrid 3–4 after a penalty shoot out, but because Real became Spanish champions they thus entered the 1975–76 European Cup and Atlético competed in this competition as runners-up. The 1st leg was played in St. Jakob Stadium in front of 33,000 spectators and Basel took an early lead through Roland Schönenberger in the third minute. But a double strike from José Eulogio Gárate and Rubén Ayala in the 65th and 68th minute turned the game and Basel were defeated 2–3. In the return leg in Vicente Calderón Stadium, with over 25,000 spectators, Heraldo Bezerra put Atlético in the lead in the 74th minute, Otto Demarmels leveled the score, but this was not enough to stop Atlético advancing to the next round.

Basel started in the Swiss Cup tournament in the round of 32 on 25 September 1975 away against lower tier Grenchen and won this game 2–0 to qualify for the round of 16. Here they were drawn away against Young Boys and here the competition came to an end because they were defeated 1–3. In the Swiss League Cup Basel started in the round of 32 on 9 August away against St. Gallen and won 4–1. In the round of 16 Basel played away against second tier Young Fellows Zürich and won this easily 8–1. Lower tier Grenchen were drawn as hosts for the quarter-finals and Basel won this easily as well 6–2. Basel were drawn as hosts in the semi-final against Young Boys. There was no revenge for the defeat in the Swiss Cup earlier this season because YB won this clash as well, in overtime 3–5.

Eighty-fourth, seventh championship[edit]

René Theler was voted as new chairman at the AGM and took over from Félix Musfeld, who had been the club chairman over the previous six seasons. Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the twelfth consecutive season. There were only a few changes in the team squad this season. Detlev Lauscher joined from 1. FC Köln and had played five seasons for 1. FC Köln in the German Bundesliga. Jean-Pierre Maradan joined from lower tier Grenchen and he quickly became a key player. Basel played a total of 56 games in their 1976–77 season. 33 in the domestic league, two in the Swiss Cup, two in the Swiss League Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps, four in the 1976–77 UEFA Cup and 11 were friendly matches. Basel won eight of their friendly games, drew two and lost one of them.

The Swiss Football Association had reformed the Swiss football league system that year reducing the number of teams in the Nationalliga A from 14 to 12. The 1976–77 Nationalliga A was played in two stages. The qualification phase was played by all teams in a double round-robin and, after completion, was divided into two groups. The first six teams contended in the championship group (with half of the points obtained in the qualification as bonus) and the positions seventh to twelfth contended the relegation group. Basel finished the qualification phase in second position with 33 points from 22 games and so entered the championship group with a bonus of 17. At the end of the championship phase Servette and Basel were level on 29 points. They therefore had to play a play-off for the championship. This play-off was held at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern in front of 55,000 supporters. Basel won the match 2–1 and their seventh championship title.

In the Swiss Cup Basel won away from home against lower tier Fribourg in the round of 32 and in the round of 16 were drawn away against Xamax but were defeated. Young Boys won the competition. In the Swiss League Cup they won away from home against lower tier Grenchen. Then in the round of 16 were drawn away against Luzern and here they were defeated. Young Boys won this competition as well.

In the first round of the 1976–77 UEFA Cup Basel were drawn against Northern Ireland team Glentoran F.C.. Basel won 5–3 on aggregate. In the second round they were drawn against Spanish team Athletic Bilbao. After a draw in the first leg, they but were defeated 1–3 in the second leg and thus 2–4 on aggregate.

Eighty-fifth[edit]

René Theler was confirmed by the club members at the club's AGM for his second period as chairman. Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the thirteenth consecutive season. During the off-season there were only two changes in the squad. Goalkeeper Hans Küng joined from Xamax and Hansruedi Schär joined from lower tier FC Oensingen. All other mutations were internal between the first team and the reserves. The team played a total of 54 games in their 1977–78 season. 32 in the domestic league, four in the Swiss Cup, four in the Swiss League Cup, two in the European Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps and eight were friendly matches.

Basel played in the 1977–78 Nationalliga A. This was contested by the first 10 teams from the previous season and the two newly promoted teams Etoile Carouge and Young Fellows Zürich. The domestic league was played in two stages. The qualification phase was played by all 12 teams in a double round robin, and after completion of this stage, the teams were divided into two groups. The first six teams contended in the championship group (with half the obtained points in the first stage as bonus) and the positions seventh to twelfth contended the relegation group (also with half the obtained points as bonus). Basel ended the qualification round in fourth position and ended the championship group in third position with 27 points, two points behind Grasshopper Club and one behind Servette. They failed their championship aim, being beaten 2–4 by the Grasshoppers in the very last game of the season. Basel scored a total of 74 goals conceding 48 in their 32 domestic leaguw games. Roland Schönenberger was the team's top goal scorer with 16 league goals.

In the first round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against FC Lerchenfeld Thun and this was the first time that these two clubs had ever played against each other. Basel won this away game 4–2. In the next round they beat Zürich away 3–1 and St. Gallen at home 4–1 in the quarter-final. Therefore Basel advanced to the semi-finals before being knocked out of the competition by Grasshopper Club. Servette won the competition this season. In the first round of the Swiss League Cup Basel were drawn against Wettingen. Also in this competition Basel advanced to the semi-finals before being knocked out. St. Gallen won the competition beating Grasshopper Club 3–2 in the final.

As reigning Swiss champions Basel were qualified for the 1977–78 European Cup and in the first round they were drawn against Austrian champions FC Wacker Innsbruck. After a home defeat and an away win, this competition was concluded after the first round, Wacker won 3–2 on aggregate. In the Coppa delle Alpi Basel played in group B together with Bastia, Olympique Lyonnais and Lausanne-Sport. But with only one win and three defeats they ended the group stage in last position in the table.

Eighty-sixth[edit]

Again René Theler was confirmed at the club's AGM for his third period as chairman. Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the fourteenth consecutive season. There were only a few changes in the squad. Eigil Nielsen moved on to Luzern. Serge Muhmenthaler was forced to terminate his playing career early due to his injury. Muhmenthaler would return a few years later as referee. Walter Mundschin retired from active football. During his time with Basel from 1965 to 1978, Mundschin played a total of 437 games and scored 67 goals. There were also a few new players in the squad. Robert Baldinger joined from Wettingen, Erwin Meyer joined from SC Emmen and Rolf Schönauer joined from local club SC Binningen. All other mutations were internal between the first team and the reserves. Benthaus led the team in a total of 59 games in their 1978–79 season. 32 of these games were in the domestic league, three in the Swiss Cup, six in the Swiss League Cup, two in the 1978–79 UEFA Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps and 12 were friendly matches.

Basel played in the 1978–79 Nationalliga A. This was contested by the first 10 teams from the previous season and the newly promoted teams Nordstern Basel and Chiasso. After a double round-robin in the qualification phase, the top six teams played in a championship group for the title and the bottom six teams in the relegation group. The teams in these two groups started with the bonus of half the points from the qualifying phase (rounded up). Basel ended the qualification round in fourth position and finished the Championship Group in sixth position with 18 points. They ended the season 17 points behind championship winners Servette who won all ten matches in the championship stage.

In the first round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn against FC Glattbrugg and this was the first time that these two clubs had ever played against each other. The game was played on 7 October 1978 and Basel won 7–0. In the second round Basel were drawn away and won against Zürich. In the third round Basel were away against Xamax and were knocked out of the competition. In the final on 20 June 1979 in the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern Servette were matched against Young Boys and won the cup winning the game 3–2. The Cup winners were to qualify for the 1979–80 European Cup Winners' Cup, but because Servette became champions the runners-up inherited this slot. In the first round of the Swiss League Cup Basel were drawn against Grenchen. This was played as a two legged affair, winning the home game and losing away game, Basel advanced 4–3 on aggregate. Basel won in the round of 16 against Nordstern Basel. In the quarter-final they won against Luzern and in the semi-final they won against Xamax to reach the final. The final was played on 5 May 1979 in the Wankdorf Stadium. This was against Servette and after extra time the score was 2–2. In the end Servette won 4–3 on penalties and completed the national treble, Championshup, Cup and League Cup.

In the 1978–79 UEFA Cup Basel were drawn against VfB Stuttgart. The first game was lost 2–3 in St. Jakob Stadium and the away game in the Neckarstadion was lost 1–4. VfB Stuttgart won 7–3 on aggregate and continued to the second round. In the Coppa delle Alpi (to English Cup of the Alps) Basel played with Stade de Reims and Sochaux in Group B together with Lausanne-Sport. Lausanne-Sport won the group and thus advanced to play in the final only to lose this against the winners of group A, Servette FC, 0–4.

Eighty-seventh[edit]

René Theler was the club's chairman for the fourth consecutive season. Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the fifteenth consecutive season. There were a number of players that left the squad during the off-season. Midfield player Urs Siegenthaler moved on to Schaffhausen after eight years and 112 league games with the club. Stricker Roland Schönenberger moved on to Young Boys after four seasons, he had played 110 league games and scored 41 league goals. Defender Paul Fischli ended his professional career. After ten years with the club he moved on to local amateur team FC Münchenstein as player-coach. Between the years 1968 and 1979 Fischli played a total of 395 games for Basel scoring a total of 22 goals. In the other direction the experienced René Hasler and youngster Ernst Schleiffer both signed in from Xamax. Joseph Küttel signed in from Young Boys. Two local players joined both from the other side of the border. French player Serge Gaisser joined in from St. Louis and German Manfred Jungk joined from SV Weil. Basel played a total of 57 games in their 1979–80 season. 36 matches were played in the domestic league, two in the Swiss Cup, one in the Swiss League Cup and 18 were friendly matches. The team scored a total of 160 goals and conceded 62. All of their friendly games were played away from home. Of their 18 test games, 14 were won, two were drawn and two ended with a defeat. One of the defeats was against the Swiss national team.

After the success of the 1976–77 season, Basel endured two seasons of below-par performances and mid-table finishes until glory returned. Following the poor two seasons before Basel started the season as outsiders. Reigning Champions Servette together with the two clubs Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Zürich were favorites. Benthaus declared qualification to the UEFA Cup as the team's primary aim. Basel ended the qualification round in second position, two points behind Servette and one ahead of the Grasshoppers. In the championship group the points obtained in the qualification were halved as a bonus (rounded up). Basel won the Championship with 33 points, two ahead of both second place Grasshopper Club and third placed Servette. Basel scored a total of 91 goals conceding 38 in the 32 league games. This was the club's eighth championship title in their history and the seventh and last under trainer Benthaus.

All NLA teams entered the Swiss Cup in the round of 32. Basel were drawn away against Mendrisiostar where they won 3–1. In the second round, again away from home in the Wankdorf Stadium and this against Young Boys. In the Swiss League Cup Basel were also drawn away from home against the Young Boys. Basel lost both duels and thus without further cup matches to contest they had enough strength and energy to win the Swiss championship.

Eighty-eigth[edit]

Pierre Jacques Lieblich was voted as new club chairman, he replaced René Theler who stood down at the AGM. Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the sixteenth consecutive season. There were only a few changes in the squad this off-season. Erwin Meyer moved on to Luzern and Robert Baldinger moved to lower tier Aarau. Serge Duvernois joined from Saint Louis and Martin Mullis joined from St. Gallen. Basel played a total of 52 games in their 1980–81 season. 26 matches were played in the domestic league, three in the Swiss Cup, one in the Swiss League Cup, four in the 1980–81 European Cup and 18 were friendly matches. Of their 18 test games, 10 were won, five were drawn and three ended with a defeat.

Basel played in the 1980–81 Nationalliga A. The league had been reformed and there were no more championship play-offs. Basel played a mediocre season and ended the Nationalliga in sixth position, 12 points behind Zürich who became champions. In their 26 league games Basel won nine, drew ten and lost seven matches, which meant that the totaled 28 points. They scored 48 goals, conceding 44. Erni Maissen was the team's top goalscorer scoring ten league goals.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the round of 32. Here they were drawn away against Fribourg and they won the match 3–0. In the round of 16 they were drawn at home against Martigny-Sports and this match was won 6–0. In the quarterfinal, on 28 March 1981, Basel were drawn to play away from home against Zürich in the Letzigrund. The hosts won the tie 3–0. Basel were out of the competition and Zürich continued on to the final and won the trophy. In first round of the Swiss League Cup Basel were also drawn away against Zürich. They lost the home game 1–2 and Zürich continued in this competition and won this trophy as well.

As reigning Swiss champions Basel were qualified for the 1980–81 European Cup. In the first round they were drawn against Club Brugge. The first leg was played in Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges and Basel won 1–0 through a goal scored by Erni Maissen in 65th minute. The return leg was won 4–1, the goals coming from Markus Tanner (14), Jörg Stohler (48), Arthur von Wartburg (55) and Walter Geisser (81) after Brugge had taken an early lead through Jan Ceulemans (3), but their goalkeeper Leen Barth was sent off in the 17th minute. In the second round Basel were drawn against Red Star Belgrade. Basel decided the first leg for themselves 1–0, the goal scored by Detlev Lauscher. In the second leg, however, Basel were defeated 0–2 and were eliminated from the competition.

Eighty-ninth[edit]

Pierre Jacques Lieblich was club chairman for the second year running. Helmut Benthaus was first-team manager for the seventeenth consecutive season. During the off-season four players left the squad, Ernst Schleiffer moved on to Grenchen, Peter Marti to Aarau, Markus Tanner to Luzern and Joseph Küttel moved on to Lugano. During the season Hansruedi Schär was loaned out to Nordstern Basel and during the winter break Detlev Lauscher moved on to Luzern. In the other direction goalkeeper Walter Eichenberger joined from Young Boys and defender Bruno Graf joined from Chiasso. Basel also signed two youngsters, Alfred Lüthi from FC Subingen and Beat Sutter joined from local club FC Gelterkinden. The biggest transfer this summer was that of former West German international Harald Nickel from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Basel played a total of 54 games in their 1981–82 season. 30 matches were played in the domestic league, six in the Swiss Cup, three in the Swiss League Cup, five in the Cup of the Alps and 10 were friendly matches.Of their 10 test games, six were won and four ended with a defeat.

Basel played in the 1981–82 Nationalliga A. The league championship format was expanded from the 1980–81 season to include sixteen teams and the last two teams were to be relegated. Basel ended the season in eighth position, 21 points behind Grasshopper Club who became champions. In their 30 league games Basel won eleven, drew six and lost thirteen matches, which meant that the totaled 28 points.

Basel entered into the Cup in the round of 64. Here they were drawn away against Sursee and on 26 September they won the match 9–1. In the round of 32 they were drawn away against Bellinzona and this match was on 31 October and Basel won 1–0. In the round of 16 they were drawn away from home against Aarau on 30 March 1982 and this match was won 3–2. In the quarter-final Basel played at home against Lausanne-Sport and this ended with a 2–1 victory. The semi-final was played on 4 May in the St. Jakob Stadium against SR Delémont and Basel won 3–0. The Final, played in the Wankdorf Stadium, was against Sion. After a free kick on the sideline, in the 21st minute, a headed goal from Alain Balet secured Sion the trophy. In first round of the Swiss League Cup Basel were also drawn at home against Young Boys and a 1–0 victory took them to the next round. Here they played away against Grenchen and came away with a 2–1 victory. In the quarterfinal Basel played on the Stadion Brügglifeld but were eliminated by Aarau.

Basel played in the Coppa delle Alpi. They played together with Lausanne-Sport in Group A against Bordeaux and Bastia. Basel won the group and continued to the final, which was played on 29 September 1981 in Basel against Sochaux. They game ended 2–2 after extra time and Basel won on penalties.

Ninetieth[edit]

Roland Rasi was appointed as the club's chairman at the AGM, he replaced Pierre Jacques Lieblich who stood down. Rainer Ohlhauser was the new first team manager. He had taken over from Helmut Benthaus, who had been manager for 17 years between 1965 and 1982, and who had moved on to take over as manager of VfB Stuttgart. A number of players left the squad, Ernst Schleiffer moved on to Grenchen, Peter Marti went to Aarau, Markus Tanner to Luzern and Joseph Küttel to Lugano. In the other direction Winfried Berkemeier joined from Young Boys, Ruedi Zbinden joined from local rivals Nordstern Basel and Nicolas Keller joined from Chiasso. There were also a number of youngsters who advanced from the youth team, Roger Bossert, Guido Rudin and Thomas Hauser. Basel played a total of 51 games this season. 30 matches were played in the domestic league, three in the Swiss Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps and 14 were friendly matches. The Swiss League Cup was no longer played this season. Of their 14 test games, ten were won, two drawn and two ended with a defeat.

The 1982–83 Nationalliga A was contested by 16 teams. Basel ended the season in eleventh position. In their 30 league games Basel won ten, drew five and lost fifteen matches, obtaining 25 points. They were 24 points behind Grasshopper Club Zürich who became new champions.

Basel entered into the Swiss Cup in the round of 64. Here they were drawn away against FC Breitenbach and on 9 October they won the match 4–0. In the round of 32 Basel were drawn at home against Lausanne-Sport. The game was played on 12 March 1983 and Basel won 2–1. On 4 April the away defeat against Mendrisio meant the end of this cup season. In the Coppa delle Alpi Basel were drawn against AJ Auxerre and Metz. Two draws against Auxerre and one victory and a defeat against Metz left them in third position in the Swiss teams group table.

Ninety-first[edit]

Urs Gribi was the newly appointed club chairman, he replaced Roland Rasi who stood down at the AGM after just one year chairmanship. Ernst August Künnecke was appointed as Basel’s new first team manager and Emil Müller was appointed as his assistant. They had taken over from Rainer Ohlhauser, who had been manager for just the previous season. Künnecke had not played as professional footballer, but had played in the highest amateur levels before becoming professional head coach in Belgium. A number of players left the squad. Hans Küng retired after having been with the club six years. Peter Marti move to Aarau after havong been with the club seven years. Serge Duvernois and Serge Gaisser moved on to play for FC Mulhouse. Further Bruno Graf moved to Wettingen, Winfried Berkemeier to FC Raron and Roger Bossert to local club FC Laufen. In the other direction a number of new players joined the club. Three came from Wettingen, goalkeeper Urs Suter and the two defenders Martin Andermatt and Rolf Lauper. Uwe Dreher joined from Stuttgarter Kickers and René Botteron from 1. FC Nürnberg. Two youngsters were brought in from local clubs, Thomas Süss from Nordstern Basel and Fredy Grossenbacher from Concordia Basel. Another youngster, Peter Nadig, advanced from Basel's own youth team.

Künnecke coached Basel in a total of 58 games in their 1983–84 season. 30 matches were played in the domestic league, two in the Swiss Cup and 26 were friendly matches. Of their 26 test games, 17 ended with a victory, one was drawn and eight ended with a defeat.

The 1983–84 Nationalliga A was contested by 16 teams. As the season advanced it became increasingly apparent that Künnecke's ideas were not reaching the entire team squad at all times. Basel's youngsters played well during this season, Fredy Grossenbacher, Martin Jeitziner, Peter Nadig, Thomas Hauser and Beat Sutter advanced well under Künnecke. But Künnecke's ideas were not being accepted by the older, experienced players. At home, in the St. Jakob Stadium the team was playing well and winning the games, the first five home games were all won. However, the first seven away games all ended with a defeat. After the winter break Basel lost their first home game against La Chaux-de-Fonds 0–1. Künnecke reacted immediately and this was the last game that the three veterans Arthur von Wartburg, Jörg Stohler and Jean-Pierre Maradan played in the team. The supporters had noted the differences and the final home game of the season attracted only 2,000 spectators. Basel ended the season in ninth position. In their 30 league games Basel won eleven matches, drew six and lost thirteen. Basel obtained 28 points, scored 55 and conceding 59 goals. They were 16 points behind Grasshopper Club and Servette both of whom finished level on 44 points. A play-off match was to decide the championship and this was who by the Grasshoppers who became champions for the second consecutive year.

Basel entered into the Swiss Cup in the round of 64 and here they were drawn away against local lower league club FC Birsfelden. The match was a one-sided affair and Basel won 8–0. In the round of 32 they had a home fixture against Luzern but were beaten 0–3. Servette won the Cup beating Lausanne-Sport 1–0 in the final.

Ninety-second[edit]

For the second year running the club's chairman was Urs Gribi. It was Ernst August Künnecke's second year as first team manager with Emil Müller as his assistant. Künnecke made amendments to the team, Walter Geisser retired and Jean-Pierre Maradan, Jörg Stohler as well as Arthur von Wartburg who had been thrown out of the squad the previous season all moved on to Grenchen. Künnecke persuaded Adrie van Kraay to join the team from Waterschei Thor. The youngsters Beat Feigenwinter (from Nordstern Basel), Livio Bordoli (from Hessen Kassel) and Ertan Irizik (from Concordia Basel) were transferred in. Basel's own youngsters Peter Nadig, Beat Sutter, Thomas Hauser, Fredy Grossenbacher and Dominique Herr were formed into team leaders. In this season Basel played a total of 63 games. 30 matches were played in the domestic league, three in the Swiss Cup and 30 were friendly matches. Of their 30 test games, 24 ended with a victory, two were drawn, four ended with a defeat.

The 1984–85 Nationalliga A was contested by 16 teams, including the top 14 clubs from the previous season and the two sides promoted from the second level, Nationalliga B, the previous season, these being SC Zug and Winterthur. But the good results in pre-season test matches, including a draw against Borussia Dortmund and victories against Karlsruher SC, SC Freiburg and Bayern Munich could not be taken over in to the domestic league games. Basel lost three of their first four matches. Then, following a run of five defeats and five draws with only one win, the team suffered one defeat too many against Lausanne-Sport on the 11 November. Basel's club chairman Urs Gribi fired Künnecke. The SC Zug match was declaired forfait at a later date. Gribi installed Müller as head coach until the end of the season and Müller was able to lead the team away from the relegation zone. Basel ended the season in eighth position, 15 points behind Servette Genève who became Swiss champions that year. In their 30 league matches Basel won eleven, drew nine and lost ten games.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the round of 64 with an away game against lower classed FC Dürrenast. This was won 4–0. In the second round they had a home match, also against a lower classed team FC Langenthal. This match resulted in a 6–0 victory. However, with the third round home game against Servette Basels cup season came to an end because they lost the match 0–1.

Ninety-third[edit]

Urs Gribi was the club's chairman for the third consecutive year. Helmut Benthaus returned as first team manager, after his successful three-year term with VfB Stuttgart in which they won the Bundesliga in the 1983–84 season. He took over from caretaker manager Emil Müller. A number of players left the squad. Former Netherlands international Adrie van Kraay retired from active football. Swiss international player Martin Andermatt moved on to Grasshopper Club and Livio Bordoli moved on to Locarno. Two players, Beat Feigenwinter and Nicolas Keller, left the first team squad and went to play for the reserve team. In the other direction Gerhard Strack signed in from 1. FC Köln, André Ladner and Marco Schällibaum both signed in from Grasshopper Club, Francois Laydu signed in from La Chaux-de-Fonds and local lad Enrique Mata joined after a three season period by Xamax. Further, another local lad Stefano Ceccaroni returned from his one season loan to Baden. In this season Basel played a total of 51 games. 30 matches were played in the domestic league, five in the Swiss Cup and 16 were friendly matches. Of their 16 test games, 12 ended with a victory, one was drawn, three ended with a defeat.

Basel played in the 1985–86 Nationalliga A, which was contested by 16 teams. Basel ended the season in tenth position, 14 points behind BSC Young Boys who became that seasons champions. In their 30 league championship matches Basel won ten games, drew ten and also lost ten, which meant that they obtained 30 points.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the round of 64 with an away game against lower classed Concordia Basel. The game was played in the St. Jakob Stadium, in which Concordia had home team status, in front of 1,800 spectators and Basel won 9–1. They continued to the round of 32 in which they had a home game against FC Vernier, which was won 6–0. In the round of 16 they had a home game against Lausanne Sports, which ended in a 4–1 victory. The quarterfinal was played as visitors to lower classed FC Lengnau and with a 6–0 victory, Basel advanced to the semifinal. The semi final was played at home in front of 12,000 spectators against Servette on 15 April 1986 and Servette took an early three-goal lead. A hat trick form Gerhard Strack in the last 22 minutes of regular time meant that the match had to go into overtime. But with a penalty goal against them in the 4 minute of the extra time meant that Basel did not reach the final. Sion beat Servette in the final and won the Cup.

Ninety-fourth[edit]

Peter Max Sutter was the club's newly appointed chairman. Helmut Benthaus had returned first team manager the season before, this was his second consecutive season as coach. There were a number of changes in the team. The defenders Ertan Irizik moved on to St. Gallen, Francois Laydu moved on to Locarno, Stefano Ceccaroni moved to FC Laufen and Alfred Lüthi moved on to Grenchen. Further the midfielder Martin Jeitziner moved on to Young Boys, and the two forwards Beat Sutter moved on to Xamax and Ruedi Zbinden moved on to Grenchen. In the other direction, Stefan Bützer who had won the championship with the Young Boys the previous season signed in for the club. Then Jean-Pierre François and Markus Füri both signed in from local team Concordia Basel and Markus Hodel signed in from local club Nordstern Basel. Further Bruno Hänni joined from lower tier club FC Oensingen and as reserve goalkeeper Patrick Mäder joined from lower tier club Schaffhausen. In this season Basel played a total of 52 games. 30 matches were played in the domestic league and then another four in the promotion/relegation play-offs, three games were in the Swiss Cup and 15 were friendly matches. Of their test games, nine ended with a victory, four were drawn and two ended with a defeat.

Basel played a mediocre season, although they won only two of their first ten games, they were always placed in the middle of the table and kept this position after the winter break with three wins against lower placed teams. But then with seven defeats in the last ten games meant that they slipped in the table. Basel ended the main season with only 24 points in 12th position and so had to enter into this knock-out round. Here they were drawn against Bulle (3rd in the Nationallaiga B) in a two-legged promotion/relegation play-off semi-final. Both games ended with a two all draw, but decisively Basel defeated Bulle 5–3 on penalties. Basel then defeated FC Wettingen 8–2 on aggregate (1–2 and 7–0) in one of the two promotion/relegation finals and managed to save their slot in the highest tier of Swiss football. Xamax won the championship.

In the Swiss Cup Basel entered in the round of 64 with an away game against Nationalliga B team FC Köniz and Basel won 9–2. They continued to the round of 32 in which they had a home game against third tier Fribourg and this was won 3–1. The cup season came to an end in the round of 16 as Basel lost the home game against lower classed Kriens. Young Boys and Servette advanced to the final, which was traditionally always played in the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern. After 90 minutes the game ended 1–1, but YB won the trophy 4–2 after extra time.

Financial problems, then relegation[edit]

Ninety-fifth[edit]

Charles Röthlisberger was the club's newly appointed chairman. Following the poor previous season, as the team only escaped relegation in the play-out round, Helmut Benthaus retired as head coach and there were also a number of players who left the club. Former Swiss international midfielder René Botteron retired from active football. German former international Gerhard Strack returned to Germany to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf. Another German player also moved to Germany, Thomas Süss moved on to play for Karlsruher SC. French player Jean-Pierre François moved back to France to play for AS Saint-Étienne. Also Fredy Grossenbacher and Marco Schällibaum both moved to Servette, André Ladner moved to Lugano and Erni Maissen transferred to Young Boys. Further reserve goalkeeper Patrick Mäder moved on to Baden and Luiz Gonçalo moved on to Old Boys. Urs Siegenthaler was appointed as new first team coach and because 11 players left the squad he had to build a new team. But the club was suffering financial difficulties and there was no money to spend. However, one interesting transfer was that of Scottish Gordon Smith coming from Admira Wacker. Another interesting transfer was that of German Uwe Dittus from FC Winterslag. Another two experienced players were Frank Eggeling joined from Grenchen and Ruedi Zahner from Aarau. All other new players were youngsters, goalkeeper Bernard Pulver joined from lower tier FC Bern, Peter Bernauer from German team SV 08 Laufenburg, Remo Steiner from local club FC Aesch, Ralph Thoma from local club FC Rheinfelden, Mathias Wehrli from local club FC Laufen. Six players were brought up from the youth team. These being Philipp Baumberger, Massimo Ceccaroni, Bernd Schramm, Adrian Sedlo, Fotios Karapetsas and Patrick Rahmen. Another interesting transfer was that of Varadaraju Sundramoorthy from Singapore FA. Sundramoorthy became only the second player from Singapore to play in Europe.

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) had changed the form of the domestic league for this season. The number of teams in the Nationalliga A had been reduced from 16 to 12. Basel started the season badly, losing the first five league games straight off, conceding 17 goals, scoring just three. In the third round on 15 August they were defeated 1–9 by Xamax. Up until today this is still the highest score defeat that Basel have suffered in their domestic league history. Xamax manager at that time was Gilbert Gress. The team never recovered from the bad start and even lost seven of the eleven return games. They ended the qualifying stage of the championship with just 13 points in 11th position. This meant that they had to play in one of the two Promotion/Relegation groups. Despite a good start in this phase, they won their first three matches, they were defeated by Bellinzona and then by Wettingen. Basel thus lost contact to these two teams in the top two positions in the league table. The first two places would qualify for next seasons top flight. In their last six games Basel could not achieve a single victory and therefore they slipped to fifth position in the table and were relegated to the Nationalliga B.

In the Swiss Cup, in round of 64, Basel were drawn against local rivals Old Boys. The game ended with a 1–2 defeat and therefore the cup season was ended much earlier than expected. In the final Grasshopper Club won the cup with a 2–0 victory over Schaffhausen.^[72]

Ninety-sixth[edit]

Charles Röthlisberger was the club's chairman and this was his second year in this position. Following their relegation the season before this was their first season in the second tier of Swiss football since the 1945–46 season. Urs Siegenthaler was first-team coach for the second consecutive season. Due to the relegation there were many modifications in the squad. Ruedi Zahner retired from active football. Both goalkeeper moved on, Bernard Pulver to Young Boys and Urs Suter to Zürich. Stefan Bützer and Frank Eggeling both transferred to Emmenbrücke. Thomas Hauser and Varadaraju Sundramoorthy went to play for local rivals Old Boys. Dominique Herr moved on to Lausanne-Sport. The two forwards Adrian Knup transferred to Aarau and Peter Nadig to Luzern. Scottish ex-international Gordon Smith moved home to Scotland and joined Stirling Albion before ending his football career. Adrian Sedlo moved to Mulhouse and with four other players the contracts were not prolonged.

The club's financial problems had worsened during the previous few seasons, this also due to the sinking number of spectators. But because an immediately to the top flight was the priority, 12 new players were signed in. Goalkeeper Remo Brügger was signed in from Luzern and his back up Roger Glanzmann from FC Therwil. The experienced players Andre Rindlisbacher transferred in from Aarau, Rolf Baumann from VfB Stuttgart, Mario Moscatelli from St. Gallen and Lucio Esposito from Luzern. There were a number of new players who joined from lower division clubs. For example Michael Syfrig, who had played a big role in the promotion of FC Glarus the previous season, signed in on his first professional contract. Then local youngsters Germano Fanciulli joined from local rivals Old Boys and Andre Cueni from FC Laufen. Further Beat Aebi came from FC Volketswil, Kurt Spirig came from Diepoldsau and Patrick Liniger was brought from the youth team.

Basel were assigned to the East group. They ended their 22 matches in the Qualifying Phase with 14 victories, four draws and four defeats with 32 points. They were group winners. Thus Basel qualified themselves for a Promotion group. Basel were assigned to group A. Also qualified for this group from the Nationalliga B were Zürich, CS Chênois, Grenchen, ES Malley and the Old Boys. The team's goal scoring quality was missed during the Promotion stage. In the fifth, sixth and seventh round Basel lost the two away games against Lausanne-Sports 1–4 and St. Gallen 0–3, as well as the home match against local rivals Old Boys 0–1, therefore losing very valuable points. Basel ended the group with just 19 scored goals and just 14 obtained points in fourth position and thus they missed promotion.

Basel entered into the Swiss Cup in the 2nd principal round. Here they were drawn away against local team Oberwil. The game was won easily, 5–0. In the next round Basel were drawn against higher classed Young Boys. Basel mastered their opponents well, winning 4–1. In the round of 32 and round of 16 Basel had two ties against lower tier teams winning both to qualify for the quarterfinals. Here their cup season came to an end because they lost against top-tier team Aarau.

Ninety-seventh[edit]

Charles Röthlisberger was the club's chairman for the second consecutive year. For the third consecutive season Urs Siegenthaler was first team coach. After missing promotion the season before the club's repeated priority aim was to return to the top flight of Swiss football. Due to the poor results during October Urs Siegenthaler lost his position as first team coach and in November he was replaced by Ernst August Künnecke. As was previously noted during the off-season period over the previous few years, again this season there were many changes in the squad. Remo Brügger, who had recovered from his car accident injuries, moved on to St. Gallen. This was in a player swop with goalkeeper pendant Thomas Grüter who did not want to return there, following his six-month loan with Basel, following Brügger's accident. Michael Syfrig moved on to higher tier Aarau and Lucio Esposito also moved on to a higher-tier club, Bellinzona. Seven other players left the squad because their contracts had not been renewed. In the other direction Erni Maissen returned from Young Boys. Ruedi Zbinden returned to the club and Sascha Reich signed in from Bellinzona. Miodrag Đurđević was taken on contrcat from Dinamo Zagreb and Uwe Wassmer from Schalke 04. Further there were the signings of young local newcomers, like Manfred Wagner from FC Steinen-Höllstein, Vittorio Gottardi from SC Dornach, Jörg Heuting from Concordia Basel and René Spicher from Old Boys. Other newcomers were Olaf Berg from Viktoria Buchholz and Boris Mancastroppa from Red Star Zürich.

The 24 teams in the Nationalliga B were divided into two groups, an east and a west group, to first play a qualification round. In the second stage the tops six teams in each group and the last four team of the Nationalliga A would play a promotion/relegation round, also divided into two groups. The top two teams in each group would play in the top flight the next season. Basel were assigned to the West group. The Qualifying Phase started well and after ten rounds with six victories and only one defeat Basel led the group. Then however, a run of bad results, including home defeats against lower positioned teams ES Malley and Etoile Carouge and a 4–0 dubbing away against Yverdon-Sports cost head-coach Urs Siegenthaler his job. The team ended their 22 matches in the Qualifying Phase with 11 victories, five draws and six defeats with 27 points in a disappointing fifth position in the league table. Basel qualified for the promotion stage and were assigned to group A. Basel started well, winning the first four matches, but could only manage draws at home against both Servette and Zürich. The return matches against these two teams both ended in defeats and thus Basel could only reach third position in the table behind these two rivals and thus missed promotion.

Basel entered into the Swiss Cup in the 2nd principal round. Here they were drawn away against lower tier FC Moutier. The game was won convincingly 8–0 with seven different goal scorers. In the third round they were drawn against lower tier SC Burgdorf and this won easily (3–0) as well. In the round of 32 they were drawn away against Schaffhausen. Despite an early red card for Miodrag Đurđević, the match ended with a 1–0 victory. In the next round Basel had an away game against Bulle and mastered this with a 6–0 victory. Basel advanced through the first four rounds without conceding a single goal and had scored 18, with 11 different goal scorers. However, in the quarterfinals Basels cup season came to an end after a 0–1 defeat away from home in the Hardturm Stadium against higher tier Grasshopper Club. The Grasshoppers went on to win the trophy, for the third season in a row, beating Xamax 2–1 in the final. In fact the Grasshoppers achieved the national double that season.^[73]

Ninety-eigth[edit]

Following their relegation in the 1987–88 season this was their third season in the second tier of Swiss football. Charles Röthlisberger was the club's chairman for the third consecutive year. Ernst August Künnecke returned to the club, having taken over from Urs Siegenthaler as first-team coach during the previous. After missing promotion the previous two seasons, the club's repeated priority aim was to return to the top flight of Swiss football. Only a few players left the team. Andre Rindlisbacher transferred to Bellinzona, Uwe Wassmer to Aarau and Ralph Thoma returned to his club of origin FC Rheinfelden. Rolf Baumann ended his active football career and returned to his hometown club VfL Kirchheim/Teck as head-coach. Four other players left the squad because their contracts were not renewed. In the other direction Brian Bertelsen and Reto Baumgartner moved in from Wettingen. Maximilian Heidenreich transferred in from Hannover 96. Three young players came in from local, lower-tier teams, Roman Künzli from FC Breitenbach, Roman Hangarter from FC Brüttisellen and Christian Marcolli from FC Aesch. Seven young players were brought up from the Basel youth team.

Basel were assigned to the South East group. The first stage ran very moderately, there was no consistency in their games and matches were lost that should have been won. They ended their 22 matches in the Qualifying Phase with 9 victories, 8 draws and 5 defeats with 26 points in a disappointing fourth position in the league table. Basel qualified for a Promotion group and were assigned to group A. Also qualified for this group from the Nationalliga B were Chiasso, Yverdon-Sports, Fribourg, Baden and Etoile Carouge. Fighting against their relegation from the Nationalliga A were St. Gallen and Wettingen. At the start of this phase Basel lost two games, away against Yverdon-Sports and at home against St. Gallen and therefore they were in arrears right from the beginning. Even the away victory against Wettingen didn't help much, because they were defeated at home by FC Baden just two rounds later. A few weeks later the back to back home defeat against Wettingen and the defeat in the Espenmoos against St. Gallen decided the promotion/relegation phase to the benefit of these two teams. Basel ended their 14 matches in the Promotion/Relegation Phase with just four victories, four draws, suffering six defeats with 12 points in a very disappointing fourth position in the league table and missed promotion again.

In the Swiss Cup second round Basel were drawn with an away game against lower tier, local club FC Pratteln. But Basel were sent home suffering an embarrassing 4–0 defeat. A red card for Peter Bernauer just after half time, as the game was still goalless, made Basel very unsure. Pratteln took the lead and Basel were not able to give an adequate answer. In fact, in the last few minutes of the game, they fell completely apart and gave up two counter goals within less than 60 seconds. Sion won the cup, beating Young Boys 3–2 in the final.

Ninety-nineth[edit]

Charles Röthlisberger was the club's chairman for the fourth consecutive year. Ernst August Künnecke was first-team coach for the second consecutive season. After missing promotion in the previous season, the club's repeated priority aim was to return to the top flight of Swiss football. There were a number of changes in the squad. Erni Maissen retired from his professional playing career. Between the years 1975 to 1982, 1983 to 1987 and again from 1989 to 1991 Maissen played a total of 551 games for Basel scoring a total of 222 goals. Enrique Mata also retired from his professional playing career and moved on to FC Laufen. Further players who left the club were Sascha Reich and Patrick Rahmen who both transferred to Young Boys. Brian Bertelsen left the club as well and transferred to St. Gallen, Germano Fanciulli moved on to play for Grenchen and Roman Hangarter returned to FC Brüttisellen. The contracts with Roman Künzli and Patrick Liniger were not prolonged. In the other direction Patrick's brother Micha Rahmen joined from Grasshopper Club, Robert Kok transferred in from Zürich and André Sitek joined from Baden. A number of youngsters joined from their local clubs, Olivier Bauer and Christian Marcolli joined from FC Aesch, Walter Bernhard joined from SV Muttenz, Adrian Jenzer joined from Rapid Ostermundigen, Mourad Bounoua came from French club Mulhouse, Thomas Schweizer from German club SC Freiburg and Gilbert Epars came from Servette. There were also a number of youngsters who were brought up internally.

The 24 teams in the Nationalliga B were divided into two groups, a South/East and a West group. Basel were assigned to the West group. Also in this group were local rivals Old Boys. In the two local duals, Basel lost the away game against the Old Boys, 0–4, and could only manage a goalless draw against them in their home stadium. For Basel the season ran well, despite three defeats in the first six games, including this nasty defeat against the Old Boys, Basel had a good run staying unbeaten for the next 15 rounds, winning 11 of these matches. Basel then ended the Qualifying Phase in top position in the league table. In the 22 matches Basel totaled 31 points with 13 victories, five draws and four defeats. Basel qualified for the promotion stage and were assigned to group A. However, the promotion-relegation phase started badly; Basel could only draw four games and lost two from the first six games. Trainer Ernst August Künnecke was released from his position. The two former players Karl Odermatt and Bruno Rahmen took over as coaches ad interim until the end of the season. The results there after were better, but the gap to the leading teams could not be closed. The team ended their 14 matches in this stage with just four victories, six draws, suffering four defeats with 14 points in a very disappointing fourth position in the league table. Therefore, they missed their aim of promotion once again.

In the second round of the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn away from home against lower-tier FC Einsiedeln and in the round of 64 away against lower tier FC Willisau. Both games were won easily (6–2 and 2–0). In the round of 32 Basel were drawn at home against Bulle and the game ended with a 1–1 draw after extra time. Basel secured the victory in the penalty shoot-out. In the next round they were drawn at home against FC Bern (5–1 victory). But in the quarterfinals Basel were drawn at home against Lugano. Because this match ended in a 2–3 defeat they were eliminated. Lugano continued and later reached the final, but in the final they were beaten 3–1, after extra time, by cup-winners Luzern.

Anniversary 100th season[edit]

Peter Epting took over as the club's chairman that season from Charles Röthlisberger at the AGM in March 1993. Friedel Rausch was appointed as new trainer, following the iterim coaches Karl Odermatt and Bruno Rahmen. The duo had taken over ad interim after Ernst-August Künnecke had been sacked toward the end of the previous season. A number of players left the squad. Robert Kok, who had only been with the club the previous season, retired from active football. Three players moved on to Germany; Mourad Bounoua transferred to TuS Celle, Maximilian Heidenreich and Thomas Schweizer both moved on to SC Freiburg. Other players transferred within the Swiss League, Walter Bernhard transferred to Fribourg, Gilbert Epars transferred to Urania Genève Sport and Boris Mancastroppa to Schaffhausen. In the other direction Christian Reinwald joined from Chur as the new second goalkeeper. Then there were two transfers from Germany, Dirk Lellek transferred in from VfL Osnabrück and Ørjan Berg transferred in from 1860 Munich. Within the Swiss League, Mario Uccella joined from Winterthur, Marco Walker from Lugano and Pierre-André Schürmann from Lausanne-Sport. Two players joined from Xamax, Admir Smajić transferred in and Frédéric Chassot on loan. Patrick Rahmen returned to his club of origin from Young Boys and youngster Gaetano Giallanza signed his first professional contract, coming from Old Boys.

The 24 teams in the Nationalliga B were divided into two groups. Basel were assigned to the West group, together with local rivals Old Boys. In the two local duals, Basel won both games and both with 3–0. Basel ended the Qualifying Phase in second position in the league table. Basel thus qualified for the promotion stage and were assigned to group A. Further teams assigned to this group from the Nationalliga B were Delémont, Chênois, Luzern, Locarno and Wil. Assigned to this group and fighting against relegation from the Nationalliga A were Bulle and Grasshopper Club. Basel ended the promotion stage in a very disappointing fourth position in the league table and missed promotion yet again.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the second round. Here they were drawn away from home against lower-tier local team FC Baudepartement Basel and they won 6–0. In the third round they were drawn at home to local rivals Old Boys and this was won 4–0. Basel were drawn away against lower-tier SC Young Fellows Juventus in the third round and this was won 3–0. In the round of 16 they were again drawn at home, also against a lower-tier team, FC Savièse. All four games were won without the team conceding a single goal. However, in the quarterfinals Basel played at home against higher-tier Xamax. Because this match ended with a 2–3 defeat they were eliminated from the competition.

101st, promotion[edit]

Peter Epting was confirmed as the club's chairman at the AGM for the second period. Claude Andrey was appointed as new first team trainer. He came from Sion where had had been trainer for the previous six months and he came as replacement for Friedel Rausch who had only been trainer with the club for the previous season. A number of players left the club during the off-season. Last season's top scorer André Sitek moved on to score his goals for Locarno, another goal scorer Frédéric Chassot returned to Neuchâtel Xamax after his loan period had expired and defender Dirk Lellek transferred to VfB Oldenburg. Christian Marcolli and Manfred Wagner both moved on to local rivals to Old Boys and Patrick Rahmen moved on to play for SR Delémont. In the other direction Swiss international goalkeeper Stefan Huber transferred in from Lausanne-Sport. Two new defender were also transferred in, Andre Meier from Chiasso and Samir Tabakovic from NK Belišće. The midfield was stregthend with the signings of Mario Cantaluppi from Grasshopper Club, Sergei Derkach from Dynamo Moscow and Didier Gigon from Lausanne-Sport. More notable transfers were those of Swiss international strikers Dario Zuffi and Philippe Hertig who both came from Lugano.

Basel were assigned to the Nationalliga B West group, together with local rivals Old Boys and SR Delémont. Basel started somewhat sloppily into the season with two home defeats against Old Boys and Grenchen in the first three games of the season. But the newly formed team soon found themselves and they recorded eight victories in the next nine games. Etoile Carouge ended the qualifying phase as group winners, two points above second placed Basel. As second placed team in their qualifying group, Basel qualified for the promotion stage. To help with their promotion attempt Axel Kruse was signed in on loan from VfB Stuttgart until the end of the season, but because of injuries he only played three league games. Basel's start in the phase of a somewhat slow stance and three draws in the first four matches and despite an away defeat against Xamax in round six they played well at the top of the group table. Not being defeated in the last eight matches, winning five, drawing three, they ended the group in first place. They were level on points with St. Gallen and Xamax and won promotion.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the second round. Here they were drawn away from home in the Herti Allmend Stadion against lower-tier team Zug and final result was 10–0 win. In the third round Basel were drawn at home in the St. Jakob Stadium against higher tier Aarau and despite being a goal down through an own goal at half time, Basel again turned up the pressure again in the second half and turned the result to win 4–1. In round four another higher tier team were to visit Basel in their home stadium, but Basel won 2–0 against Lausanne-Sport. Round five gave higher tier Xamax the journey to St. Jakob Stadium and the host team achieved a 1–0 victory. The fourth higher top flight team to make the visit to the stadium was Yverdon-Sports. The match was goalless after 90 minutes, thus went into over-time. Zuffi gave the hosts a 1–0 victory after extra time with a goal in 118th minute. The semi-final also gave Basel a home game against Schaffhausen, who had suffered a 3–0 defeat here in the domestic league exactly two weeks earlier. But this time the hosts played under capabilities, the game ended goalless, even after extra time. The penalty shoot out was decisive. Schaffhausen goalkeeper Erich Hürzeler held striker Zuffi's attempt, Basel keeper Huber held Engesser's attempt and after 12 penalties things were level at five all. Keeper Hürzeler then held Tabakovic's attempt and so Steffen Ziffert's final penalty gave Schaffhausen the upset.

102nd[edit]

Peter Epting was the club's chairman for the third period. Claude Andrey was the Basel trainer for the second consecutive season. After gaining promotion during the last season, the club's priority aim was to remain in the top flight of Swiss football. Andrey tried to keep the time together after the team's promotion and only a relatively low number of players left the squad. Axel Kruse's loan period had ended and he returned to VfB Stuttgart and Sergei Derkach returned to Dynamo Moscow. Reto Baumgartner retired from active football and turned to professional beach soccer and played for the Swiss national team. Micha Rahmen and Mario Uccella moved on to local amateur club FC Riehen, and Olivier Bauer and Frank Wittmann moved on to local team Old Boys. In the other direction Lars Olsen signed in from Seraing, Asif Šarić signed in from Arminia Bielefeld, Mart van Duren came from Groningen and Alexandre Rey transferred in from Sion.

Two further youngsters joined the team during the winter break. Because Goalkeeper Stefan Huber was injured, Andreas Niederer was signed in as second goalie from local amateur club FC Allschwil and he came to four appearances after second keeper Thomas Grüter also injured himself. Hakan Yakin signed his first professional contract in January 1995 coming in from local club Concordia Basel. He played his League debut for Basel on 12 April 1995 in the match against Lausanne Sports. He was brought on in the 60th minute as replacement for Alexandre Rey. With his first touch of the ball, just 18 seconds later, Yakin scored his first league goal for his new club with a header.

The 1994–95 Nationalliga A was contested by 12 teams, but for Basel the season started very badly, the team lost four of the first six games and they did not record a win until the 9th round. After the first half of the qualifying phase, Basel and Young Boys were joint bottom of the league table with just six points. The second half of the Qualifying Phase was better and Basel rose to 7th position in the league table. During the entire phase Basel scored just 18 goals, thus being the poorest attacking team and conceded just 15, thus being the defensive best in the league.

Basel were qualified for the Champions Round. Here things started better, three wins in the first three games. But two back to back dubbings in Lugano (1–4) and as guests to Xamax (1–5), as well as the return game home defeat against Lugano, put an end to the hopes of a higher placed finish. Basel ended the 1994–95 Nationalliga A in seventh position in the table, but were qualified for the newly UEFA-administered Intertoto Cup 1995.

In the Swiss Cup Basel were drawn away from home against lower tier FC Bözingen 34 in the 3rd principal round. This resulted in a 5–0 victory. In the 4th round Basel faced Aarau at home in the St. Jakob Stadium and won 3–0. In the round of 16 Basel played in the Stadion Allmend but lost 0–2 to the hosts Luzern.

103rd[edit]

Peter Epting was the club's chairman for the fourth period. Claude Andrey was again the club's manager, this was his third period as head-coach. There were a few players that left the squad. Mart van Duren retired from active football, Martin Jeitziner also retired from professional football and moved on to Old Boys, Ralph Steingruber moved onto St. Gallen, Asif Šarić returned to Germany and joined Sportfreunde Siegen and Thomas Karrer was on loan to Grenchen. The club's priority aim was to remain in the top flight of Swiss football. Therefore the club made a number of new signings as the season started, these included the Nigerian national team goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu, who signed in from Shooting Stars, Gabriel Okolosi, from Africa Sports National, and Alex Nyarko, from Sportul. Another promising player was Vilmar who signed in from Ferroviária. David Orlando was signed in from Sion, the young Bruno Sutter from Young Fellows Zürich and Daniele Moro signed in from Xamax.

The reform of the Nationalliga had been completed the previous season and the domestic league was contested by 12 teams. However, there was one change at the start of the 1995–96 Nationalliga A season and that was that the Swiss Football Association introduced the three points for a win standard. In 1995, FIFA formally adopted this system and it subsequently became standard in international tournaments, as well as most national football leagues. The season started well for Basel, three wins in the first four games. But then, between the sixth and sixteenth round Basel suffered eight defeats in 11 games. It was at this point that Claude Andrey lost his job as head-coach and the reasons were not just of sporting nature. Oldrich Svab took over on an interim basis on 28 October and continued until Karl Engel was appointed as new head-coach. The team caught themselves and qualified for the championship round. In the 22 games, Basel won nine, drew three and suffered ten defeats. The team had collected 30 points and they were three points above the dividing line. In the championship round Basel did not record a victory until the ninth round, but they finished the season in sixth position and thus qualified for the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In the second stage of the league season Basel managed just three victories, four draws and suffered seven defeats.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the third round. Here they defeated the lower tier club Subingen 6–1. In the fourth and fifth round they defeated lower tier clubs Gossau 3–1 and Biel-Bienne 4–1. Thus Basel advanced to the quarter-finals and here they travelled to la Maladière in Neuchâtel, but were knocked out of the cup by Xamax 2–1 after extra time. Sion won the cup.

In the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup Basel managed a home win against Sheffield Wednesday and an away win in Poland against Górnik Zabrze. But the other two games ended with defeats, at home against the Karlsruher SC and an away game against Aarhus GF. As group winners Karlsruhe continued to the next round.

104th[edit]

Peter Epting retired from the chairmanship and René C. Jäggi became the club's new chairman following the AGM which was held in November. Karl Engel was trainer at the start of the season, but he was replaced by Heinz Hermann in March 1997. Hermann only remained manager for a few weeks and was replaced by Salvatore Andracchio (ad interim) until the end of the season. A number of players had left the club during the off-season, Ike Shorunmu transferred to Zürich, Mario Cantaluppi moved to Servette and Gabriel Okolosi to Young Boys. Both Davide Orlando and Alexandre Rey moved back to Sion. Further players who left the club were Marco Walker, who moved to German team 1860 Munich, Lars Olsen returned to Denmark and joined Brøndby and Andre Meier moved on to FC Schaffhausen. To balance this, the club made some new signings as the season started. Adrian Knup returned to the club, signed in after a short spell by Galatasaray. Other players who joined from foreign clubs were, Adrian Falub who came from Universitatea Cluj and Mariano Armentano from Racing Club. A number of players also transferred from the domestic league, Gaetano Giallanza and Jean-Pierre La Placa both signed in from Sion, Mario Frick came from St. Gallen and Yann Poulard signed in from SR Delémont.

The season did not start too well, it took until the twelfth round until the team recorded their third victory and one of these three was a forfeit victory because YB had used an unqualified player. As the first half of the season came to an end, the team had gathered five victories, ten draws and had suffered seven defeats. Nevertheless, the team had qualified for the championship round. During the winter break Markus Schupp signed in on loan from Hamburger SV, Franco Foda signed in from VfB Stuttgart and Fabrice Henry signed in from CD Toledo. Also during the winter break Admir Smajić transferred out to Young Boys. In the championship round the team suffered six defeats in a row. During this period head-coach Karl Engel was fired and was replaced by Heinz Hermann. The football did not improve and after just a few weeks Hermann was replaced by Salvatore Andracchio. Basel ended the championship round with nine defeats in twelve games. They had won only three games and so they ended the group in the last position in the league table.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup in the third principal round. The opponent here was lower tier FC Münsingen. Basel won the match after extra time. In the fourth round hosted the game against Young Boys and won 2–1. In the round of 16 Basel hosted Servette but they were knocked out, losing 1–4.

In the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup Basel played in group 7 together with Rotor Volgograd, Antalyaspor, Shakhtar Donetsk and Ataka-Aura Minsk. Basel won in Turkey against Antalyaspor and at home in the St. Jakob Stadium against Minsk. They drew at home with Shakhtar, but lost in Russia against Volgograd, who ended at the top of the group and continued to the next round. Basel ended the competition as second-placed team in the group league table.

105th[edit]

René C. Jäggi was the club's chairman following the AGM the year before and was confirmed in this position for this season. The club's priority aim was to remain in the top flight of Swiss football.Jörg Berger was appointed as the new trainer at the start of the season, but in October 1997 he was sacked and was replaced by Salvatore Andracchio (ad interim) until Guy Mathez was appointed as trainer from 1 January 1998. The club made many new signings as the season started. Amongst these, there were many experienced players, such as Oliver Kreuzer from Bayern Munich, Marco Sas from Bradford City, Maurizio Gaudino from Eintracht Frankfurt, Jürgen Hartmann from Hamburger SV and Nestor Subiat from Grasshopper Club. There were also young players such as Marco Pérez from Vaduz, Jan Berger from Grasshopper Club and Fabinho Santos from Joinville (Brazil) as well as Luís Calapes and Alexander Frei from the club's own youth section.

Goalkeeper Thomas Grüter retired from professional football. Many other players also left the club, under them Mariano Armentano who transferred to Vélez Sarsfield, Adrian Falub who returned to Universitatea Cluj and Alex Nyarko who transferred to Karlsruher SC. The loan contracts with Franco Foda and Markus Schupp came to an end and because Basel did not opt to buy them, they both moved on to Sturm Graz. The youngsters Bruno Sutter transferred to Zürich and Hakan Yakin transferred to Grasshopper Club. At the end of the transfer window teo further players left the squad, last season's top scorer Gaetano Giallanza transferred to Nantes in September and Jean-Pierre La Placa signed for Toulouse.

The football league season did not start the way that head-coach Berger had hoped. Four of the first six games ended in a defeat, the team conceding 12 goals and scoring just three. Berger was put under pressure by the club's board of directors, but things did not improve. After six consecutive defeats Berger was sacked. He was replaced ad interim by trainer Salvatore Andracchio, who had helped out the previous season. The team managed to improve their results, but could not correct the slip into the Relegation Group. During the winter break Guy Mathez was appointed as new head-coach. Soon after this the newly signed Nemtsoudis left the club and Nestor Subiat's loan contract was ended and the contract with Marco Sas was dissolved. Under new trainer Mathez, the first few games were good. But after a period with three away defeats and two home draws, it seemed that the team were heading for relegation. A dramatic finish with three straight victories over the three better placed teams Young Boys, SC Kriens and finally Solothurn saved Basel from the relegation drop.

Basel entered the Swiss Cup with a bye in the third and fourth principal round and started in the fifth. The opponents here were lower tier SC Buochs. Despite an early lead, Basel were down 1–2 just after the break and it stayed that way right up until the 86th minute. Then Nestor Subiat poked the ball into the goal out of the crowd of players who had gathered in the six yard box, it was the equalizer. In the extra period Basel had no further problems and the Buochs players had no more stamina. Two more Subiat goals, two from Adrian Knup and the final goal from Fabrice Henry was followed by the final whistle. Basel won 7–2 after extra time. In the round of 16 Basel's opponents were Xamax, who were stronger and they won by two goals to nil. The cup final was played between Lausanne-Sport and St. Gallen, this ended with a draw after extra time. Lausanne won the penalty shoot out, thus winning the trophy.

106th[edit]

René C. Jäggi was the club's chairman for the third year. Guy Mathez, who had taken over the coaching in January of that year, was appointed as the new trainer at the start of the season, but on 14 May 1999 he was sacked and was replaced by Marco Schällibaum (ad interim) until the end of the season. The club made many new signings as the season started, these included Mario Cantaluppi who returned from Servette. Also from Servette came the Romanian international Dan Potocianu and, on loan, the youngster Carlos Varela. Aleksandr Rytchkov was signed from 1. FC Köln and Philippe Cravero signed in from lower classed Etoile Carouge. The Ivorian international Ahmed Ouattara and the young Brazilian Abedi were signed in from Sion. Benjamin Huggel was signed in from local amateur club FC Münchenstein, he had played the previous season for FC Arlesheim, in the fourth tier of Swiss football. In the other direction Adrian Knup, Daniel Salvi and Jürgen Hartmann all ended their football careers. Dario Zuffi returned to his club of origin Winterthur after having playing five years for the club. Jan Berger moved to Aarau and youngster Alexander Frei was loaned out to Thun. Fabinho Santos returned home to Joinville in Brasil.

The first half of the season, until 13 December 1998, Basel's home ground was the St. Jakob Stadium. From 7 March 199 they played their games in the Stadion Schützenmatte and this because the old stadum was demolished and the new stadium was to be built on the same ground. The construction of the new stadium was to take a little more than two years. The new stadium, the St. Jakob-Park, was to be an all seater, the old stadium had standing places on three sides.

The club's priority aim was to remain in the top flight of Swiss football. The season started fairly well, with five victories and three draws in the first ten rounds. However, seven defeats in the next nine rounds let the team slip down into the bottom areas of the table. Basel ende the qualification stage with eight victories, four draws and ten defeats, with 28 points in sixth position in the league table. With this tally they were qualified for Champions Group for the second half of the season. With an average second half of the season, winning five games, drawing four and losing five, Basel finnished in the league tables in fifth position.

All eyes were set on the cup season. But despite a draw against lower classed Stade Nyonnais, Basel's cup season came to an abrupt end, because they were unable to pass this hurdle, losing the match on penalties. Lausanne-Sport won the Swiss Cup final on 13 June 199 in the Wankdorf Stadium, winning 2–0 against Grasshopper Club.

107th[edit]

René C. Jäggi was the club's chairman for the fourth year. On 15 June 1999 Christian Gross was appointed as the new first team trainer and he assigned Ruedi Zbinden as his co-trainer. Forming his new team, Gross made a number of signings before the season started. These new signings included defensive players such as Alexandre Quennoz, who signed from Sion, Ivan Knez from Luzern and Murat Yakin who came from Fenerbahçe and forwards such as George Koumantarakis who signed in from Luzern, Didier Tholot from Sion and Thomas Häberli from Kriens. The most interest was raised in the signing of Pascal Zuberbühler in a goalkeeper swap with Stefan Huber who then went to Grasshopper Club. In the outwards direction Mario Frick transferred to Zürich, Abedi to Yverdon and Fabrice Henry to Hibernian (on loan). Before the domestic League season started on 7 July Basel had little time to get things ready. They organised one test game against lower tier SR Delémont, which was played in Laufen and won 2–0, and they entered the Sempione Cup, which was played in Balsthal. Here Basel played the semi-final against Brasilian team Ituano FC, which was lost, and the third place match against Croatian Dinamo Zagreb, in which they also suffered a defeat.

The qualifying round of the 1999–2000 Nationalliga A season was contested by twelve teams. The first eight teams of the First Stage (or Qualification) were then to compete in the Championship Round. The season started on 7 July. Basel's priority aim was to reach the Championship stage and end the season in the top three. The season started sub-optimal, the team remained unbeaten, but with just three wins and four draws in the first seven rounds, they lost contact to the table leaders. Following their first defeat, in the away game against Lausanne-Sport, Basel improved their position in the table with another three victories. Basel suffered their first home defeat on 2 October against Yverdon-Sports, but they ended the Qualification Round in second position in the league table. The Championship Round started on 12 March 2000. The participating teams took half of the points (rounded up to complete units) gained in the Qualification as bonus with them. Basel played amongst the table leaders and in the tenth round they even managed a 3–1 victory against league leaders St. Gallen. However, in their last four matches Basel won only two further points and dropped to third position behind champions St Gallen and Lausanne, against whom the final game of the season ended in a 0–3 home defeat on 7 June 2000. Nevertheless, Basel qualified for the 2000–01 UEFA Cup.

Basel's clear aim for the Swiss Cup was to win the title. In the round of 32, they were drawn away against Mendrisio. In the next round a home game against Grasshopper Club, ended in a draw and was eventually won in the penalty shoot out. The quarterfinal against Lausanne-Sport ended the cup run. Lausanne continued and advanced to the final, but here they were beaten by Zürich in a penalty shoot-out.^[74]

Basel were qualified for the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup. The first round was played against Slovenian team Korotan Prevalje on 20 and 26 June 1999 and won 6–0 on aggregate. The second round draw brought the Czech Republic club Boby Brno to Basel on 4 July. The return leg a week later gave Basel a 4–2 victory on aggregate. Although the first leg of the third round was won away from home against Hamburg, the Germans won the second leg in the Stadion Schützenmatte and Hamburg proceeded due to the away goals rule.

108th[edit]

René C. Jäggi was the club's chairman for the fifth year. FC Basel played their home games in the alternate Stadion Schützenmatte while the new stadium was being built and as of 15 March 2001 in the brand new St. Jakob-Park. Christian Gross was the first team trainer for the second season. Still forming his team, Basel made a number of signings before the season started. Goalkeeper Miroslav König, André Muff and Hakan Yakin signed in from Grasshopper Club. The two strikers Hervé Tum, from Sion, and Jean-Michel Tchouga, from Yverdon-Sports, joined to strengthen the attack. Ivan Ergic joined from Juventus and Carlos Varela was loaned from Servette. In the other direction Luís Calapes moved out to Xamax, Didier Tholot and Thomas Häberli to Young Boys and Agent Sawu to Wil. Also Pascal Zuberbühler went on a one-year loan to Bayer Leverkusen, Marco Tschopp on a one-year loan to Xamax and Edmond N'Tiamoah on a six-month loan to SR Delémont. Basel entered the Sempione Cup, which was played in Balsthal. The first match against Brasilian team Ituano FC was won and the second match against Turkish team Besiktas Istanbul ended in a draw. Basel were placed second in the final classifikation.

The Qualification Round to the League season 2000–01 was contested by twelve teams. The first eight teams of the regular season (or Qualification) then competed in the Championship Playoff Round. The teams aim was to end the qualification round in the top four table and in the championship to reach the 2001–02 UEFA Cup. Basel started the regular season with three wins and three defeats, but then became somewhat more consistent, being defeated just once in the following 12 matches. The end of the first half of the regular season ended very disappointing as the team lost four of the last five games and slipped to fifth position in the league table. Basel were able to play the games of the Championship Group in the new stadium, the St. Jakob-Park opened on 15 March 2001. It was sold out with 33,433 spectators on three occasions, Lausanne-Sport (15.03.2001), St. Gallen (14.04.2001) and Grasshopper Club (15.05.2001). The team was much more consistent in the championship stage, they were only beaten twice. But they only won four matches (eight draws), goal scoring was very rare. Basel ended the season in fourth position in the league table, thus qualifying for the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

The Swiss Cup started for Basel in the Round of 32 on 18 February 2001. Basel defeated lower class Etoile Carouge, but only after a penalty shoot out. In the next round they were drawn against and beat lower classed Bellinzona, but only narrowly. In the quarterfinals Basel were defeated by Lausanne-Sport, again after another penalty shoot out.^[75]

Basel were qualified for the 2000–01 UEFA Cup and in the qualifying round they beat Folgore 12-1 on aggregate. In the first round they beat Brann Bergen with an aggregatescore of 7–6. In the second round Basel were tied against Feyenoord. Feyenoord won both matches and so the European season came to an end for Basel before Christmas.

109th[edit]

Club chairman was René C. Jäggi for the sixth consecutive season. Basel played their home games in the newly constructed St. Jakob-Park complex. Christian Gross was the first team trainer for the third season. New with profession contracts for the new season, and brought up from their reserve team, were Philipp Degen and Marco Streller. Further, Pascal Zuberbühler returned from a one-year loan with Bayer Leverkusen. Basel's biggest signing for the new season were Scott Chipperfield, who came from Wollongong Wolves and Christian Eduardo Giménez, who was signed from Lugano. Basel started the season of with various warm-up matches. These included teams from the Nationalliga A and the Nationalliga B.

The Qualification Round to the league season 2001–02 Nationalliga A was contested by twelve teams and started on 4 July 2001. The season started in the worst possible way, Basel were beaten 8–1 in the away game against FC Sion in the first game of the season. The afore mentioned Marco Streller was to play his League debut in St. Jakob-Park, being substituted in during the 66th Minute on 11 July 2001, in the 3–1 home win against Servette. Unluckily in the last minute of the game he headed in an own goal as he tried to clear a corner kick. It was to remain Streller's only game for Basel in this season, because he was loaned to feeder club FC Concordia Basel for the rest of the season. Christian Eduardo Giménez was to play his debut on 18 July in the 3–3 draw with St. Gallen and his first goal for the club was to follow during the 3–1 home win against the Young Boys on the 11 August. Giménez was to end the season as the top scorer in the Swiss league. After five games Basel were straggling after achieving just one win and one draw, opposed to three defeats. Hereafter things turned for the better and despite two further defeats, and despite that these were in the two matches against the reigning title holders Grasshopper Club Zürich, Basel ended the qualification leading the league table. The first eight teams of the qualification then competed in the Championship Playoff Round, which started in the new year. Each team took half of the points (rounded up to complete units) gained during the Qualification as Bonus with them. With ten wins and just one defeat in the first eleven games, Basel pulled away at the top of the table to win the championship three games before the end of the season. Basel thus achieved their main aim for the season. This was their first title after 22 years of waiting.

Basel's clear aim for the Swiss Cup was to win the title, especially because the final was to be played in St. Jakob-Park. In the round of 32 and the round of 16 Basel were drawn with an away game against lower league teams Concordia and Colombier, both games were won without conceding a goal. In the quarter-final Zürich were beaten 4–1 away from home. The semi-final against Young Boys ended in a draw after extra time, but Basel won after penalties. The Final was won in extra time against the Grasshoppers thanks to a penalty scored by Murat Yakin after Boris Smiljanić cleared the ball off the line with his hand. Basel thus also achieved their second aim.

In the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup, which started for Basel on the first of July, Basel were drawn against Iceland's Grindavík. With two victories Basel won 5–0 on aggregate. The next round saw them matched against SC Heerenveen, a Dutch club from the Eredivisie. Again two straight wins saw Basel advance with a 5–3 aggregate. The semifinal was an all Swiss affair, with their rivals Lausanne being beaten 5–2 on aggregate. The Finals were played against Aston Villa, which the Premier League team won 5–2 on aggregate.

110th[edit]

René C. Jäggi had been club chairman for the previous six seasons, but he stood down at the AGM in October and businessman Werner Edelmann was elected as new chairmann. Christian Gross was the first team trainer for the fourth season. As reigning double holders, the club's main aims for the 2002–03 season were to retain the Swiss Nationalliga A and cup titles. The third aim was to stay in the Champions League as long as possible and, if possible, to reach the group stage. Basel's biggest pre-season signings were Julio Hernán Rossi from Lugano, Antonio Esposito from St. Étienne and Bernt Haas on loan from West Bromwich Albion. Alessandro Iandoli advanced to the first team from the U-21 team. In the other direction, Massimo Ceccaroni retired from his professional career. Ceccaroni is still considered to be a cult figure in Basel, not only because of his loyalty to the club (having spent 25 years at the club) but because he never scored a goal in the top flight of Swiss football.

The Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFV) were changing the format of the domestic league. The new format would reduce the number of clubs to 20 from 24, with ten teams in the top tear and ten in the second tier. Therefore, this year there were additional relegations. The domestic league season started well for Basel and they were undefeated in their first seven matches, winning five and drawing two. The following two games were both lost and Basel slipped down in the league table, but they regrouped to win nine and draw two of the following eleven games. A 1–2 home defeat against Grasshopper Club cost them the lead in the league table and Grasshoppers ended the league qualifying stage as table leaders at the winter break. In the championship playoff round Basel lost just two away games, winning 10 of 14 games. But because both ties against the Grasshoppers were drawn, the Zurich-based club managed to snatch the title by a single point at the end of the season. The Grasshoppers remained undefeated in the championship group.

In the Swiss Cup, Basel started in the round of 32. In their game Basel won away at lower league team Yverdon-Sport. In the round of 16 Basel were drawn at home against and eliminated Servette. In the quarter-finals Basel were drawn away against Young Boys. Despite an early two goal lead, YB turned the game and took the lead until Hervé Tum equalised to a 3–3 draw. In extra time Hakan Yakin scored the deciding goal. Lower league club Schaffhausen was defeated 3–0 in the semi-final. The final, played in the St. Jakob-Park against Neuchâtel Xamax was a one-sided affair. Basel won 6–0 and won the domestic cup.

In the second qualifying round of the Champions League, Basel defeated Slovakian club Žilina 4–1. In the third qualifying round they faced Scottish giants Celtic. In the first leg, away at Celtic Park, the home side won 3–1. Basel were able to rescue the tie in the second leg at St. Jakob-Park, coming away with a 2–0 victory, to draw 3–3 on aggregate, Basel proceeding to the group stage on the away goals rule. In the group stage Basel were drawn into Group B along with Valencia, Liverpool and Spartak Moscow. Following a 2–0 home win against Spartak, Basel travelled to Anfield to claim a 1–1 draw against Liverpool. After two good results Basel were brought back down to earth by a 6–2 demolition at Valencia's Estadio Mestalla. However, they bounced back and held Valencia to a 2–2 draw in the next fixture. Basel were now sitting in second place in the group, but needing to win at least one of their last two games and needing Liverpool to fail to pick up more than two points. In matchday five, Liverpool lost 1–0 to Valencia and Basel won 2–0 against Spartak at the Luzhniki Stadium. Basel's place in the last 16 was all but secured, although they still had to make sure they did not lose to Liverpool in the last game of the first group stage. On the last matchday, Basel led 3–0 at half-time through goals from Julio Hernán Rossi, Christian Giménez and Timothée Atouba. Although Liverpool fought back to equalise the game at 3–3 in the second half, Basel qualified for the next round.

In the last 16, Basel faced Manchester United, Juventus and Deportivo de La Coruña. They had a poor start, losing back-to-back games at home to Manchester United and away at Juventus. Basel managed to give themselves hope of reaching the quarter-finals by winning 1-0 home and away at Deportivo. Arguably two of Basel's greatest ever European games, upuntil here, came next as they held Manchester United to a 1–1 draw at Old Trafford and claimed a 2–1 victory over Juventus at St. Jakob-Park. Despite being knock-out on tie-breaking criteria, Basel had achieved their seasons European aim easily.

111th[edit]

Return of the glory days[edit]

The St. Jakob-Park was opened on 15 March 2001, and Basel finished the 2000–01 season in fourth position in the league. Basel ended the qualification round of 2001-02 leading the league table by five points at the winter break. The Championship round began in February and with ten wins and just one defeat in the first 11 games, Basel pulled away at the top of the table to win the championship three games before the end of the season, their first title for 22 years. They went on to complete a domestic double, beating Grasshoppers in extra time in the Swiss Cup thanks to a penalty scored by Murat Yakin. Basel also reached the final of the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

In the 2002–03 season, Basel became the second Swiss team to play in the revamped UEFA Champions League. After beating MŠK Žilina of Slovakia and Scottish club Celtic in the qualifying rounds they were drawn into Group B with Valencia, Liverpool and Spartak Moscow in the first group stage. They finished second in the group, qualifying for the second group stage, where they were drawn against Manchester United, Juventus, and Deportivo de La Coruña. Basel, Juventus, and Deportivo all picked up 7 points, but Juventus's superior goal difference meant that Basel were knocked out. In domestic competitions, Basel finished second in the Swiss Super League and won the Swiss Cup after beating Neuchâtel Xamax 6–0 in the final.

Basel started 2003-04 with 13 straight league wins, and went on to complete the first half of the season undefeated, with 17 wins and 1 draw. Basel remained top of the league for the rest of the season, winning their 10th Swiss championship. In the UEFA Cup they were eliminated by Newcastle United in the second round after defeating Malatyaspor in the previous round.

As Swiss champions, Basel entered the 2004-05 Champions League in the third qualifying round. They were drawn against Internazionale, who beat them 5–2 on aggregate, dropping Basel into the UEFA Cup. After beating Russian side Terek Grozny in the third round they were drawn in Group E with Feyenoord, Schalke 04, Ferencváros and Hearts. They finished third in the group on seven points and qualified for the Round of 32, where they were defeated 2–0 on aggregate by Lille. In the domestic league, after a poor start, Basel moved to the top of the league table and went on to win the title by ten points. Basel completed their 17 home league games undefeated, winning 13 and drawing four, including an 8–1 win against Grasshoppers, in which Christian Giménez scored four goals.

Basel were knocked out of the 2005-06 Champions League in the third qualifying round by German club Werder Bremen. They again dropped into the UEFA Cup, where they beat Široki Brijeg of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be drawn into Group E alongside Strasbourg, Roma, Red Star Belgrade and Tromsø. They finished third in the group, qualifying for the knockout stage. After beating Monaco and Strasbourg once again, they were eliminated by Middlesbrough in the quarter final. On 26 February 2006, Basel broke their own club record of 52 unbeaten league games at home, which they extended to 59. The winning streak was ended on the final day of the season with a last-minute goal by Iulian Filipescu giving FC Zürich a 2-1 win and, in the process, Zürich's first national championship since 1980–81. This resulted in riots between rival supporters after the match.

In 2006-07 Basel were again runners-up to Zürich in the league, and won the Swiss Cup for the eight time, beating FC Luzern 1–0 in the final.In the 2006-07 UEFA Cup Basel beat Kazakh side Tobol, Liechtensteiner team FC Vaduz, and Macedonians FK Rabotnički. to qualify for the group stages. Drawn against Blackburn Rovers, Nancy, Feyenoord and Wisła Kraków, Basel finished bottom of the group and were eliminated.

2007–08 season[edit]

Basel were drawn against Bosnian team FK Sarajevo in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Cup, a tie that Basel won 8–1 on aggregate. In the next round, Basel faced a considerably tougher opponent in the form of SV Mattersburg of Austria. Nonetheless, Basel finished the tie off with a 4–0 away win after a 2–1 victory at St. Jakob-Park. Basel were then drawn into the group of death of Group D alongside Brann, Dinamo Zagreb, Hamburger SV and Rennes, all of which were ranked within the top three of their own leagues at the start of the stage. Basel won their first UEFA Cup group game against Rennes at home 1–0 thanks to a Marco Streller header. Their next game was away to Dinamo Zagreb in which Basel earned a valuable away point thanks to on form goalkeeper Franco Costanzo, who kept the game at 0–0 for 90 minutes. They then faced Brann at St. Jakob-Park, where they won 1–0 through a Carlitos free-kick and were highly praised for playing attractive and flowing football. Basel then went to Germany to face Hamburger SV at the HSH Nordbank Arena, where they were fortunate to escape with a 1–1 draw. The goals came courtesy of captain Ivan Ergić and Hamburg's Ivica Olić.

Basel then faced Sporting CP in the last 32 after qualifying second in the group alongside first-placed Hamburg and third-placed Brann. (Sporting finished third in their group in the Champions League, which is why they were dropped into the UEFA Cup.) The first leg took place on 13 February in Lisbon, where first-choice goalkeeper Franco Costanzo was injured and Basel lost 2–0. The second leg did not fare any better for Basel. Costanzo remained injured and Basel lost 3–0 on 21 February in Basel, falling from the UEFA Cup.

Basel won the Swiss Cup for the second consecutive season after beating second-tier side AC Bellinzona 4–1 at St. Jakob-Park on 6 April 2008. Eren Derdiyok gave Basel the lead in the first half before Bellinzona equalised through Christian Pouga in the second. Daniel Majstorović restored the lead for Basel with a header and Swiss internationals Marco Streller and Benjamin Huggel scored one goal each to make the final scoreline 4–1 in Basel's favour.

Basel won the Swiss Super League for the first time since 2005 on 10 May 2008 at home after a 2–0 win over title threats BSC Young Boys. It was the last game of the season and Basel only needed a point from the match to win the Championship, but if Young Boys won, then they would be champions, exactly the same situation as the end of the 2005–06 season with FC Zürich. The painful memories of losing the league on the last day of the season in 2006 seemed to spur FCB on as they took an early lead through Valentin Stocker before Marco Streller wrapped up the victory with the second.

2008–09 season[edit]

Basel entered the Champions League in the Second Qualifying Round and were drawn against IFK Göteborg of Sweden. The first leg was on 30 July 2008 at Ullevi and finished 1–1. Benjamin Huggel put Basel ahead before Thomas Olsson equalised for the home team. The second leg took place on 6 August at St. Jakob-Park, with Basel coming from behind twice to win 4–2. Basel then faced Vitória de Guimarães of Portugal in the Third Qualifying Round. The first leg at the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques on 13 August ended in a 0–0 draw. The second leg took place on 27 August at St. Jakob-Park, where Valentin Stocker gave Basel an early lead on 11 minutes before João Alves was fouled in the penalty area by François Marque and João Fajardo dispatched the spot-kick, just four minutes later to draw Vitória level. In the second half, the away side started well but Eren Derdiyok gave FCB a 2–1 lead which they hung on to, to qualify for the Champions League Group Stages. FCB were drawn into Group C alongside Barcelona, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting CP. Basel lost their opening game 2–1 at St. Jakob-Park on 16 September against Shakhtar. Fernandinho put the Ukrainians ahead on 25 minutes before Jádson doubled their lead just before half time. David Abraham scored a late consolation goal for the home team. Sporting CP were the opponents on Matchday 2 (1 October) and despite defending well and causing a few scares at the other end of the park, Basel were defeated 2–0 at the Estádio José Alvalade. On Matchday 3 (22 October), Barcelona visited Basel and came away with a 5–0 win, but a fortnight later it was a different story as FCB came away with a respectable 1–1 draw at the Camp Nou, with Eren Derdiyok scoring a late equaliser after Lionel Messi put Barça ahead. On 26 November, Basel travelled to Ukraine to play Shakhtar, where they were thrashed 5–0. Basel then faced Sporting at home on the final Matchday (9 December) and were defeated 1–0.

Despite remaining in first or second position for most of the season, Basel finished in third place behind FC Zürich and Young Boys. On 27 May, Christian Gross was sacked from his role as FC Basel manager after ten years in the job.

2009–10 season[edit]

German Thorsten Fink was appointed as Basel's new manager on 9 June 2009.^[76] Basel entered the UEFA Europa League in the second qualifying round. They qualified for the group stage and were drawn into Group E alongside Roma, Fulham and CSKA Sofia. Basel finished in third place.

In domestic affairs, Basel s won the title on the last day of the season against favourites Young Boys at the Stade de Suisse. Marco Streller was the league's top scorer with 21 goals. Basel won the 2009–10 Swiss Cup final with a 6–0 victory over FC Lausanne-Sport, FC Basel's tenth cup win.

2010–11 season[edit]

Basel entered the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League in the third qualifying round, drawn against Debrecen; they won both games (2–0, 3–1). In the play-offs to the Champions League, they are drawn against Sheriff Tiraspol. In the first leg, they defeated Tiraspol 1–0 before winning 3–0 on the road. Basel entered the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League group stage in Group E.

2011–12 season[edit]

On 13 October 2011, Thorsten Fink left the club to join Hamburger SV. As replacement, his assistant Vogel was signed as caretaker manager until the winter break.^[77] Basel historically qualified for the knockout phase of the Champions League with 2–1 win over Manchester United on 7 December 2011. On 12 December, it was announced that Vogel had signed as head coach and manager.^[78] On 22 February 2012, Basel defeated Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Round of 16 stage in the Champions League. They won with a score of 1–0, scoring in the 86th minute of the game, but then lost in the return leg 7–0, thus eliminating them.

2012–13 season[edit]

On 15 October 2012, manager Heiko Vogel was sacked by the club and replaced by former player Murat Yakin.^[79] At the end of the first half of the season, Basel were in second position in the domestic league table. In the second half of the season, Basel acquired enough points to finish the season three points ahead of Grasshoppers and to win their fourth title in a row.^[80]

As Swiss champions, Basel entered the Champions League in the second qualifying round, where they were drawn against Estonian club Flora Tallinn, winning 5–0 on aggregate. In the third round, they were drawn against Norwegian club Molde, winning 2–1 on aggregate. In the playoff round, however, Basel lost both games against CFR Cluj from Romania, being knocked out 3–1 on aggregate. The team thus qualified for the Europa League group stage, where they were drawn into Group G alongside Sporting CP, Genk and Videoton. They finished in second place in the table and thus continued after the winter break in the knockout phase round of 32. In the knockout phase round of 32, Basel were drawn against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Basel won 3–1 on aggregate. In the round of 16, they were drawn against Zenit Saint Petersburg and, despite being the underdogs, they qualified for the quarter-finals by winning 2–1 on aggregate. Here Basel were drawn against Tottenham Hotspur, which they beat 4–1 on penalties after a 4–4 aggregate draw to progress to the semi-finals.^[81] The draw for the semi-final matched them against reigning Champions League holders Chelsea. Both games in the tie ended with a defeat, 1–2 in Basel 1–3 in London.

2013–14 season[edit]

Basel's 2013–14 UEFA Champions League season started on 30 July 2013 in the third qualifying round with a tie in St. Jakob-Park against Maccabi Tel Aviv, which they won 4–3 on aggregate. In the first match of the main group stage, Basel notched up a surprising 2–1 away win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and followed this up with a 1–0 home win in the return fixture at St. Jakob-Park. Despite these two results, they only finished in third position in the league table and thus they qualified for the 2013–14 Europa League round of 32.There, they fought Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and went on to defeat Red Bull Salzburg 2–1 on aggregate. They would face Valencia in the quarter-finals, winning 3–0 at home, but losing 0–5 in Valencia after extra-time.^[82]

2014–15 season[edit]

On 28 May 2014, Basel announced that Paulo Sousa was to become their trainer for the new season and that he had signed a three-year contract.^[83] They went on to win the league championship for the sixth time in a row. In the Swiss Cup, Basel ended as runners-up, losing 0–3 to FC Sion in the final.

Basel entered the Champions League in the group stage. They reached the knockout phase against Liverpool on 9 December on a night in which Lazar Marković was sent off for the opponents.^[84] Basel then lost to Porto in the Round of 16.

2015–16 season[edit]

Paulo Sousa left the club prior to the 2015–16 season for Fiorentina; he was replaced by FC Thun head coach Urs Fischer on 18 June.

Basel entered into the 2015–16 Champions League season in the Third qualifying round. Their initial aim was to remain in the competition and reach the group stage. In the third qualifying round, they were drawn against Lech Poznań and in the play-off round against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Basel failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage, thus they dropped into the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage. Here they were drawn into Group I, together with Fiorentina, Lech Poznań and Belenenses. Because they finished as group winners, Basel continued in the knockout phase in February 2016. Basel were drawn against French side Saint-Étienne. They advanced on away goals after a 4–4 aggregate draw with Saint-Étienne. They were knocked out of the tournament by the eventual winners, Sevilla, 3–0 in the round of 16.

On 30 April 2016, Basel confirmed a seventh consecutive Swiss national championship with a 2–1 win over FC Sion at St. Jakob-Park.^[85] At the end of the season Basel won the title 14 points ahead of Young Boys.

2016–17 season[edit]

Basel entered into this season's Champions League in the Group stage. Drawn against French champions Paris Saint-Germain, English team Arsenal and Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad they finished bottom of the group and were eliminated.

Basel won the Swiss Super League for the eighth time in a row - the club's 20th championship title in total.^[86] They also won the Swiss Cup for the twelfth time, completing a sixth double.^[87]

2017–18 season[edit]

Raphaël Wicky was appointed as new first team manager, assisted by Massimo Lombardo.

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^ Zindel, Josef (2018), "Die ersten 125 Jahre: 1964", The unbelievable world tour, pages 60 and 61, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel
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^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Switzerland 1965–66 at RSSSF". RSSSF. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
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^ Thorsten Fink appointed new FC Basel manager
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^ "Vogel fliegt – Yakin übernimmt" (in German). Kicker. 15 October 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
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^ Neil Johnston. "BBC Sport – FC Basel 2–2 Tottenham (agg 4–4)". BBC Sport. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
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^ "Swiss football: FC Basel wins 3-0 over Sion in Geneva; police extra vigilant after game". allaboutgeneva.com. 25 May 2017.

External links[edit]

[[Category:FC Basel]] [[Category:History of association football by club|Basel]]

[fcb-achiv-fcb-rtv-1893/94-1] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "FC Basel - RTV Basel 2:0 (1:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[fcb-homepage-Clubgeschichte-1893bis1900-2] FC Basel 1893. "Clubgeschichte". Club history. FC Basel homepage. Retrieved 2020-11-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[fussballstarbasel-clubs-3] Stefan Peter. "Basler Fussballvereine". Basler football clubs. Stefan Peter. Retrieved 2020-11-16. Cite error: The named reference "fussballstarbasel-clubs" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

[AppVision-gc-fcb-1894/95-4] Cite error: The named reference AppVision-gc-fcb-1894/95 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[TagesWoche-Die_Geburtsstunde_des_FCB-5] Kieslich, Christoph (15 November 2013). "Die Geburtsstunde des FCB". The hour of FC Basel's birth. TagesWoche. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[ASF-SFV-Geschichte-6] Schweizerischer Fussballverband. "Die englischen anfänge des schweizer fussballs". The english beginnings of swiss football. org.football.ch. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[gottfriedfuchs.blogspot.ch-7] ttfriedfuchs.blogspot.ch (2012). "FC Basel". gottfriedfuchs.blogspot.ch. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[e-periodica.ch-Old_Boys-8] Meier, Eugen A. "Geschichte des FC Old Boys". History of FC Old Boys. e-periodica.ch / ETH Zürich. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[fcz-history-9] z.ch (2014). "Markante Daten aus der Vereinsgeschichte". fcz.ch. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf_1910-10] Garin, Erik. "Switzerland 1910". rsssf.com. Retrieved 2018-11-16.

[fussballstarbasel-11] Peter, Stefan. "Überregionale Meisterschaften, Schweizer und Basler Cup". Regional, national championships, Swiss and Basler Cup. Stefan Peter, Basel. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[fcb-homepage-Clubgeschichte-12] FC Basel 1893. "Clubgeschichte" (in German). FC Basel homepage. Retrieved 2020-11-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[Fussball-Schweiz-Swiss_Cup,_history_and_statistics-13] "Schweizer Cup, Geschichte und Statistik". Swiss Cup, history and statistics. daniel schaub medienbüro gmbh. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf_1915-14] Garin, Erik. "Switzerland 1914-1915". rsssf.com. Retrieved 2018-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-schaffer-15] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv". "Alfréd Schaffer – FCB-Statistik". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv". Retrieved 16 November 2020.

[rsssf_1922/23-16] Erik Garin (2017). "Switzerland 1922/23". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1923/24-17] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1923/24". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1924/25-18] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1924/25". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1925/26-19] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1925/26". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1926/27-20] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1926/27". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1927/28-21] Erik Garin, Peter Kungler. "Switzerland 1927/28". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[Die_ersten_125_Jahre-1928-22] Zindel, Josef (2018), "Die ersten 125 Jahre - 1928 Ungarischer Trainer", Page 31 - Hungarian coach, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel

[rsssf-Swiss_Series_A_1928/29-23] Erik Garin. "Swiss Series A 1928/29". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1928/29-24] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1928/29". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1929/30-25] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1929/30". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1930/31-26] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1930/31". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-fcb-locarno-cup-27] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "FC Basel - FC Locarno 4:5 n.V. (2:2, 2:1)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2018-11-16.

[rsssf-Nationalliga_1931/32-28] Erik Garin, Dinant Abbink. "Nationalliga 1931/32". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1931/32-29] Erik Garin, Peter Kungler. "Switzerland 1931/32". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland-1933/34-30] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1933/34". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland-1934/35-31] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1934/35". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland-1935/36-32] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1935/36". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland-1936/37-33] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1936/37". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland-1937/38-34] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1937/38". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1938/39-35] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1938-1939". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf_-_Switzerland_tables_1939/40-36] Erik Garin. "Switzerland league tables 1939/40". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_season_1939/40-37] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1939/40". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-Bilanz_Saison_1940/41-38] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Bilanz Saison 1940/41". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1941/42-39] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1941/42". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1942/43-40] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1942/43". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-ls-fcb_cup_final_1943/44-41] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "FC Lausanne-Sport - FC Basel 3:0 (0:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-Rangliste_1945/46_Nationalliga_B-42] "Rangliste 1945–46 Nationalliga B". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1945/46-43] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1945–46". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[Rotblau_Jahrbuch_Nr.02-44] Zindel, Josef (2015). Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2015/2016. FC Basel Marketing AG. ISBN 978-3-7245-2050-4. Cite error: The named reference "Rotblau Jahrbuch Nr.02" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

[rsssf-Nationalliga_A_1947/48-45] Erik Garin. "1947–48 Nationalliga A". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1947/48-46] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1947–48". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1949/50-47] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1949/50". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-münchenstein-fcb-cup_1950/51-48] "FC Münchenstein - FC Basel 0:6 (0:1)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[Die_ersten_125_Jahre_-_1951-49] Zindel, Josef (2018), "Die ersten 125 Jahre - Historische Meilensteine 1951", Page 48, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel

[Die_ersten_125_Jahre_-_1956_-_Umdenken-50] Zindel, Josef (2018), "1956 - Umdenken", Page 53, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel

[rsssf-Switzerland_1956/57-51] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1956/57". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-olten-52] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "FC Basel - FC Olten 8:0 (3:0)". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1960/61-53] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1960/61". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[fcb-achiv-Bilanz_Saison_1961/62-54] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Bilanz Saison 1961/62". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1962/63-55] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1962/63". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[Die_ersten_125_Jahre_-_1964-56] Zindel, Josef (2018), "Die ersten 125 Jahre: 1964", The unbelievable world tour, pages 60 and 61, Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel

[rsssf-Nationalliga_A_1963/64-57] Erik Garin. "Nationalliga A 1963/64". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf-Switzerland_1961/65-58] Erik Garin. "Switzerland 1964/65". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

[rsssf66-59] Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Switzerland 1965–66 at RSSSF". RSSSF. Retrieved 2019-11-16.

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