FC Basel
Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 21 times, Swiss Cup winners 14 times, and Swiss League Cup winners once.
Basel competed in UEFA competitions for 25 consecutive seasons between 1999–2000 and 2023–2024. They have qualified for the group stage of the Champions League more times than any other Swiss club – a total of seven times – and are the only Swiss club to have ever qualified to the said phase directly. In 2021, they set the new record for a Swiss team with the most successful international group stage campaign by reaching 14 points in their Europa Conference League group. Since 2001, the club has played its home games at St. Jakob-Park, built on the site of their previous home, St. Jakob Stadium. Their home colours are red and blue, leading to a nickname of RotBlau.
History
The early years
FC Basel was started by an advertisement placed by Roland Geldner in the 12 November 1893 edition of the Basler national newspaper, requesting that a football team be formed and that anyone who wished to join should meet up the following Wednesday at 8:15 in the restaurant Schuhmachern-Zunft. Eleven men attended the meeting, generally from the academic community, founding Fussball Club Basel on 15 November 1893. The club colours from the first day on were red and blue.Basel's first game was on 26 November 1893, an internal match between two ad hoc FCB teams. Two weeks later, FCB had their first official appearance in a game against a team formed by students from the high school gymnastic club. FCB won 2–0. Basel continued to only play friendly matches, until they joined the second Serie A championship organized by the Swiss Football Association. The Serie A was divided into three regional groups, an east, a central and a west group. The winners of each group qualified for the finals. Basel did not qualify for the finals and they did not compete in the championship the following season.
The Serie A 1900–01 was divided into two groups, an east and a west group. Basel were with three teams from Zürich and two other teams from Basel, Old Boys and Fortuna Basel in the west group. Basel ended the season with two victories, two draws and six defeats in 5th position in the group. Basel did not have much of an early footballing success, waiting 40 years before winning their first trophy.
Gyula Kertész coached the side from 1928 to 1930. At the beginning of the 1932–33 season, the Austrian ex-international footballer Karl Kurz took over as club trainer. There were eight teams in Group 1 of the 1932–33 Nationalliga. Basel finished the season in second position in the table, with seven victories from 14 games. The play-off game between the second placed teams from both groups was held in Basel at the Stadion Rankhof, but the home team lost 3–4 to Servette FC Genève. In the Swiss Cup, Basel advanced to the final, which was played in the Hardturm in Zürich. Basel won 4–3 and thus their first ever national title, 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.
During the following five seasons, Basel were positioned towards the middle of the Nationliga, not having much to do with the championship not having to worry about relegation. But the 1938–39 Nationalliga did not mean well with them. With just five wins and with twelve defeats, they finished in the last position in the league table and were relegated.
The 1941–42 season was Basel's third season in the 1st League after relegation. Eugen Rupf was player-coach for his second year. Basel finished their season as winners of group East. In the play-offs against group West winners Bern, the away tie ending with a goalless draw and Basel won their home tie 3–1 to achieve Promotion. In the Swiss Cup five home games, a coin toss in the quarter-final and a replay in the semi-final was needed to qualify for the final. The final against Grasshoppers ended goalless after extra time and a replay was required here too. In the replay – played at the Wankdorf Stadion against the Nationalliga champions – Basel led at half-time through two goals by Fritz Schmidlin, but two goals from Grubenmann a third from Neukom gave Grasshoppers a 3–2 victory.
After just three seasons in the top flight of Swiss football, Basel suffered relegation again, but achieved immediate re-promotion in the 1944–45 season.
Anton Schall, another Austrian ex-international, became the club's new trainer. Basel finished the Nationalliga A season in fourth position, with 12 victories from 26 games, scoring a total of 60 goals; top league goal scorers were Traugott Oberer and René Bader. Basel won the cup for the second time as they beat Lausanne Sports 3–0 in the final at the Stadion Neufeld in Bern. Paul Stöcklin scored two goals and Bader scored the other one.
At the beginning of the 1952–53 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 won their first league title in 1953 and ended the season four points ahead of BSC Young Boys. Basel won 17 of the 26 games, losing only once, and they scored 72 goals conceding 38. Josef Hügi was the team's top league goal scorer.
The Czechoslovakian manager Jiří Sobotka was the club manager at this time, he taken the job over from Jenő Vincze the year before. Basel finished the championship in sixth position. Heinz Blumer was Basel's top scorer this season with 16 goals, Karl Odermatt their second best goal scorer with 14. The Wankdorf Stadium hosted the Swiss Cup final on 15 April 1963, and Basel played against favourites Grasshoppers. 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. Peter Füri played in all games save the final due to an illness.
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. This was to be the last match for the popular Basler captain of that time Hans Weber, because just seven weeks later he died of cancer. Between his first appearance in 1949 and his death in February 1965 he made 281 appearances for Basel scoring 48 goals.
Rise and fall
In the 1966–67 season, Benthaus achieved his first league win with Basel. During this season, he acted as player-manager, having taken over the trainer job from Jiří Sobotka at the beginning of the previous season. 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 Swiss Cup final that season, Basel's opponents were Lausanne-Sports. In the former Wankdorf Stadium on 15 May 1967, Helmut Hauser scored the decisive goal via a 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 Basel taking the lead, Lausanne players refused to resume the game, sitting down demonstratively on the pitch. The referee was forced to abandon the match and Basel were awarded the cup with a 3–0 default victory.
Basel had won the double for the first time in the club's history.
The league title in 1966–67 led to Basel qualifying to play in the European Cup for the first time, in 1967–68. Basel, however, were knocked out of the tournament in the First Round by Danish side Akademisk Boldklub.
Basel's next league title was achieved in the 1968–69 Nationalliga A season as they once again finished just one point above the runners-up, this time Lausanne Sports. In the Swiss Cup, Basel reached the quarter-finals. This championship title 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. Nationally in the 1969–70 season, Basel won the league for the fourth time again one point ahead of Lausanne Sports. In the Swiss Cup, Basel reached the final.
The European Cup was a little kinder to Basel in 1970–71, as they reached the Second Round, losing to Ajax after defeating Soviets Spartak Moscow in the first round. Basel did not retain their title the following season despite finishing with the same number of points as the subsequent champions, Grasshoppers, who won the title on a head-to-head. In the Swiss Cup, Basel reached the quarter-finals.
After a trophy-less season, Basel again won two league titles in-a-row. The 1971–72 season was the last season for Helmut Benthaus as an active footballer. Basel won the championship four points ahead of Zürich. In
the Swiss Cup, Basel reached the final but were defeated 0–1 by Zürich through a goal in extra time. In the 1971–72 UEFA Cup, Basel were drawn against Real Madrid. The home game attracted 32,059 spectators, but Basel were defeated 1–2 and lost overall 2–4 on aggregate.
The 1972–73 season was Benthaus' eighth season as manager. Basel won 17 of their 26 league games and won the championship four points ahead of Grasshoppers. Ottmar Hitzfeld was the league's joint top goal scorer with 18 league goals. In the Swiss Cup, Basel played Martigny-Sports, Young Boys, FC Chiasso and FC Biel-Bienne to reach the final against Zürich. 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 season. This was won by Basel who defeated FC Winterthur 4–1 in the final in which Hitzfeld scored a hattick. In Europe, Basel failed to impress once again, in 1972–73, as they were sent crashing out at the first stage by Hungary's Újpesti Dózsa SC.
But in the 1973–74 season, they excelled with the Peruvian legend Teófilo Cubillas in their ranks, eliminating Icelanders Fram Reykjavík and Club Brugge of Belgium, before narrowly exiting in the quarter-finals to Celtic 5–6 on aggregate after extra time in the away leg. In the 1973–74 Nationalliga A season Basel finished in just 5th position winning 13 of their 26 league games, drawing twice and suffering 10 defeats, gaining 29 points. They finished 16 points behind the new champions Zürich. Ottmar Hitzfeld was the teamst top goal scorer with 19 league goals. He ended the Swiss ranking in third position behind Daniel Jeandupeux and Walter Müller. In the Swiss Cup Basel proceeded to the quarter-finals, in which they played against Sion. Sion won the two legged round 3–2 on aggregate.
Despite Basel's improvement on the European stage, they did not retain the league for another four years. At the end of the 1974–75 Nationalliga A season Basel finished in fourth position 8 points adrift of FC Zürich who won the championship for the second time in a row. In the League Cup Basel reached the semi-finals. But they did manage to lift the Swiss Cup in 1975, beating Winterthur 2–1 in the Final after extra time and therefore qualifying for the 1975–76 Cup Winners' Cup.
Basel's long-awaited title-win came in 1977 as they triumphed over Servette FC in a playoff. This meant that Basel returned to play in the European Cup, but they were defeated in the first round, once more, by Wacker Innsbruck of Austria, after showing so much promise on their last European outing. After the success of the 1976–77 season, Basel endured two seasons of below-par performances and mid-table finishes until glory returned in 1980, as Basel won the Nationalliga A title through the playoff. However, manager Helmut Benthaus left in 1982 and in the following seasons, Basel's final league positions started to drop until their relegation into the Nationalliga B in 1988.
Several managers came and went at the St. Jakob Stadium between then, until Basel finally returned to the Nationalliga A in 1994 under Claude Andrey. Basel avoided relegation by three points in their first season back at the top-flight, but Andrey left and was replaced by Karl Engel. Engel led Basel to a fifth-place finish in his first season in charge and a solid mid-table finish in 1997, but he was sacked after a poor start to the 1997–98 campaign, in which Basel finished second-last. Jörg Berger then took over but lasted only a year in charge before Christian Gross was appointed. Gross' appointment went hand-in-hand with the financial backing that had just been put into the club and it was not long until Basel returned to the top.