| Clubname: | Basel |
| Current: | 2024–25 FC Basel season |
| Fullname: | Football Club Basel 1893 |
| Nickname: | FCB, Bebbi (Citizen of Basel), RotBlau |
| Short Name: | FCB |
| Ground: | St. Jakob-Park, Basel |
| Capacity: | 38,512; 37,500 for international matches |
| Owner: | FCB Holding AG (David Degen) |
| Chairman: | Reto Baumgartner |
| Chrtitle: | President |
| Manager: | Fabio Celestini |
| League: | Swiss Super League |
| Season: | 2023–24 |
| Position: | Swiss Super League, 8th of 12 |
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| Website: | https://www.fcb.ch/ |
Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel,[1] [2] [3] 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 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 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 stages 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 Group stages 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 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".
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.
(Source: the documentation to the club's 50th anniversary)
Fussball Club Basel 1893 has a long and illustrious history, that spans the period from 1893 to the present day. Having competed at the highest level of football in Switzerland for most of this time, FCB currently play in the Swiss Super League. The club was founded on 15 November 1893. At first the club played their home games in the Landhof stadium. During the mid-1960s 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 club's temporary home ground. Since 2001 Basel play home games at St. Jakob-Park, which is currently the largest club stadium in Switzerland.
Due to its size the history of FC Basel has been divided into five sections. For details on individual periods of the club's history, see the following articles:
The first section deals with the foundation, the early years, the forming of the Swiss Football Association (ASF-SFV), the first league championships and the years up to and during the first World War.
The second section is about the period between the two World Wars and the introduction of the Swiss Cup. FCB did not have much of an early footballing success; it took them 40 years to win their first trophy, winning the cup in 1933, as they defeated arch-rivals and reigning cup-holders Grasshopper Club Zürich in the final.
The third section starts with relegation, no promotion, missed promotion, promotion after all, another relegation, another promotion and the second cup title. It then spans the period of Jules Düblin as chairman, the first championship title and the third cup win.
Under the motto rise and fall, the fourth section deals with the era Benthaus, seven domestic league titles, the subsequent decline, relegation, six seasons of second-tier football and the long-awaited promotion.
The fifth section deals with the financial backing that had been put into the club at that time, the move to the new stadium St. Jakob-Park, how success returned and how things have progressed to the present day.
FC Basel is known for having a big and loyal local following. When polls are conducted about the most passionate club football fans, FC Basel's fans usually make the top 200 if not top 100 in the world, resulting in what is by far the highest average attendance in Switzerland with around 30,000 fans[4] attending every home game and with the new extension being built that number is expected to rise to around 40,000. The fans have also made themselves a name in numerous international matches in recent years. World tennis legend Roger Federer is one of the club's most famous fans.
In November 2010 their supporters caused the game against FC Luzern to be stopped after they threw hundreds of tennis balls onto the pitch. This was in protest at the kick off times being moved to accommodate a tennis tournament on the TV schedule.[5]
The city of Basel and the city of Zürich have a long-standing rivalry. Therefore, FCB's most traditional and fiercest rivals are Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Zürich. In the past few seasons, the rivalry between FC Zürich and Basel has been fueled by Zürich's narrow league championship wins over Basel. Supporters from both sides have caused trouble in the past years, with the worst incident happening in May 2006. Basel had won the league in 2003–04 and 2004–05 and were set to make it three in a row if they won or drew against Zürich at home on the last day of the 2005–06 season. Zürich took the lead after a late goal from Iulian Filipescu and consequently won the match and the league. After the final whistle, players and fans from both teams started fighting on the pitch and in the stands. This incident has fueled hatred and bitterness between fans from FC Zürich and FC Basel. There is controversy about which rivalry is bigger, the one with Grasshopper or FC Zürich, but it usually depends on the success of these teams.
FC Basel play their home games at the 37,500 capacity St. Jakob-Park.[6]
UEFA have awarded the stadium a 4-star rating, the highest rating that could be given to a stadium of that capacity. St. Jakob-Park was opened in 2001, originally holding a maximum attendance of 33,433. The stadium was expanded with a new stand (sector G) and upgraded to 42,500 due to Switzerland co-hosting UEFA Euro 2008. After Euro 2008, a number of seats were removed, thus giving more space between them, and the capacity was reduced 37,500 seats.[7] The stadium is nicknamed "Joggeli" by the fans and has two restaurants, Restaurant UNO and Hattrick's Sports Bar, as well as a shopping centre which opened on 1 November 2001. It also has parking space for 680 cars and has its own train station. St. Jakob-Park hosted six matches during Euro 2008, including the opening game between Switzerland and Czech Republic, and a semi-final between Germany and Turkey. The most interesting feature of the stadium is the translucent outer layer, which can be illuminated in different colours for impressive effects; this effect was copied three years later for Bayern Munich's new stadium, the Allianz Arena.
Before St. Jakob-Park was built, FC Basel played home games in the Landhof (in the Quarter Kleinbasel) and, following the 1954 FIFA World Cup, in the newly built St. Jakob Stadium which was on the same site as the current stadium. During the construction period of St. Jakob-Park, Basel's home matches were played at the Stadion Schützenmatte.
In 2016, the UEFA Europa League final was played at St. Jakob-Park.[8]
Chennai City FC – FC Basel owns 26% of the club.[9]FC Basel's traditional kit is a red and blue shirt. Due to the fact that some of the founders were members of the "Basler Ruder-Club", whose colors were red and blue, they adopted those colours for their new club. FC Basel's outfit is completed by blue shorts with gold trim and blue socks with red trim. From this comes the nickname "RotBlau" which is Swiss German and German for "RedBlue". Their away kit is all white with two stripes down the middle, the left being red and the right being blue. FC Basel's kits were formerly manufactured by Nike, however in the summer of 2012 a new contract was formed with Adidas to produce the kits until 2017. The main sponsor is Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company which is based in the city of Basel. On the inside tag of the jerseys is inscribed "Rot isch unseri Liebi, Blau die ewigi Treui, Basel unseri Stadt." This roughly translates to "Red is our love, blue the eternal loyalty, Basel our city."
According to a legend, the famous "Blaugrana" colours of Barcelona have been said to have originated from the Rotblau colours of FC Basel. This legend evolved because Joan Gamper, founder of both FC Zürich and FC Barcelona had played two friendly games for FC Basel against Mulhouse and Strasbourg on short visits, as he did for other Swiss clubs, too.[10] FC Barcelona today based on accounts of the Gamper family assumes, the colours had been taken from the rugby team of the Merchant Taylors' School near Liverpool.[11]
For the 2008–09 season, Basel changed their shirt to resemble the traditional Barcelona shirt (red and blue vertical stripes). Barcelona changed theirs to one half of the shirt red, the other blue, which happens to resemble the traditional Basel shirt.
Basel's current logo is a shield, the left half red and the right half blue. The shield is outlined with gold and in the centre in gold letters it reads "FCB", for "Football Club Basel" or "Fussballclub Basel". The logo is worn in the centre of the shirt opposed to on the traditional left-hand side. Like the club colours of Basel, the logo has a striking resemblance to that of Barcelona's. There are theories that suggest that the founder of Barcelona, being at one time the captain of Basel, reincorporated the logo of Basel to that of Barcelona. The resemblances seem clear: both logos seem to incorporate the shield design, as do most other clubs. Most notably, however, is the FCB acronyms on both logos and the red-blue colours, outlined in gold. Additionally, the football that lies on the left side of the Basel logo seems to be the exact shape, type and colour as that of the Barcelona logo in the bottom centre. Because of this, many say that Basel was the inspiration in the process of founding Barcelona.
Folgore (24 August 2000, UEFA Cup qualifying round second leg)
Fram 0–5 Basel (18 September 1973, European Champion Clubs' Cup first round first leg)
Barcelona (22 October 2008, UEFA Champions League)
Teófilo Cubillas, 81 caps, PeruUpdated to league matches played on 22 May 2022.[12]
| Nat. | Name | Career | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Hügi | 1948–1962 | 245 | |
| 2 | Erni Maissen | 1975–1982 1983–1987 1989–1991 | 116 | |
| 3 | Marco Streller | 2000–2004 2007–2015 | 111 | |
| 4 |  | Christian Giménez | 2001–2005 | 94 |
| 5 | Karl Odermatt | 1963–1976 | 92 | |
| 6 | René Bader | 1946–1953 | 90 | |
| =7 |  | Otto Haftl | 1931–1935 | 81 |
| =7 | Gottlieb Stäuble | 1946–1951 1955–1959 | 81 | |
| 9 | Hermann Suter | 1939–1948 | 79 | |
| =10 | Alexander Frei | 1997–1998 2009–2013 | 74 | |
| =10 | Alfred Schlecht | 1922–1924 1925–1936 | 74 | |
| =10 | Roberto Frigerio | 1958–1968 | 74 | |
| =10 | Valentin Stocker | 2007–2014 2018–2022 | 74 | |
| Nat. | Name | Career | Apps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massimo Ceccaroni | 1987–2002 | 398 | |
| 2 | Erni Maissen | 1975–1982 1983–1987 1989–1991 | 338 | |
| 3 | Fabian Frei | 2007–2015 2018– | 322 | |
| 4 | Werner Bopp | 1944–1960 | 321 | |
| 5 | Josef Hügi | 1948–1962 | 319 | |
| 6 | Otto Demarmels | 1967–1982 | 307 | |
| 7 | Jörg Stohler | 1970–1984 | 306 | |
| 8 | Benjamin Huggel | 1998–2005 2007–2012 | 297 | |
| 9 | Karl Odermatt | 1963–1976 | 296 | |
| 10 | Karl Bielser | 1916–1936 | 293 | |
| 11 | Valentin Stocker | 2007–2014 2018–2022 | 286 | |
| 12 |  | Scott Chipperfield | 2001–2012 | 270 |
Updated to all matches played on 22 May 2022.
| Nat. | Name | Career | Goals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Hügi | 1948–1962 | 282 | |
| 2 | Marco Streller | 2000–2004 2007–2015 | 144 | |
| 3 | Erni Maissen | 1975–1982 1983–1987 1989–1991 | 143 | |
| 4 | Karl Odermatt | 1963–1976 | 123 | |
| 5 | René Bader | 1946–1953 | 117 | |
| 6 | | Christian Giménez | 2001–2005 | 116 |
| 7 | Alexander Frei | 1997–1998 2009–2013 | 109 | |
| 8 | Helmut Hauser | 1964–1972 | 107 | |
| 9 | Hermann Suter | 1939–1948 | 104 | |
| 10 | Roberto Frigerio | 1958–1968 | 103 | |
| 11 | | Otto Haftl | 1931–1935 | 102 |
| 12 | Valentin Stocker | 2007–2014 2018–2022 | 101 | |
| Nat. | Name | Career | Apps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fabian Frei | 2007–2015 2018– | 456 | |
| 2 | Massimo Ceccaroni | 1987–2002 | 452 | |
| 3 | Otto Demarmels | 1967–1982 | 446 | |
| 4 | Jörg Stohler | 1970–1984 | 425 | |
| 5 | Valentin Stocker | 2008–2014 2018–2022 | 416 | |
| 6 | Karl Odermatt | 1963–1976 | 411 | |
| 7 | Erni Maissen | 1975–1982 1983–1987 1989–1991 | 406 | |
| 8 | Benjamin Huggel | 1998–2005 2007–2012 | 401 | |
| 9 | | Scott Chipperfield | 2001–2012 | 385 |
| 10 | Peter Ramseier | 1966–1978 | 372 | |
| 11 | Werner Bopp | 1944–1960 | 364 | |
| 12 | Josef Hügi | 1948–1962 | 363 | |
As of 18 May 2023.
The FC Basel Holding AG owns 75% of FC Basel 1893 AG and the other 25% is owned by the club FC Basel 1893 members. The club FC Basel 1893 functions as a base club independent of the holding company and the AG. FC Basel 1893 AG is responsible for the operational business of the club, e.g. the 1st team, a large part of the youth department and the back office are affiliated there. All decisions that affect the club FC Basel 1893 are made within the AG.
On 11 May 2021 the FC Basel Holding AG chairman Bernhard Burgener and board member David Degen announced a transfer of ownership rights, after months of massive fan protests. The new situation meant Degen owned 92% of the shares and about 8% is held by four small investors.[13] At the AGM of FC Basel Holding AG on 15 June 2021, Bernhard Burgener, Peter von Büren and Karl Odermatt stood down from the board of directors. A new board of directors stood for election. From that date the board consisted of Reto Baumgartner (president), Dani Büchi (delegate of the board), David Degen (vice-president), Johannes Barth, Marco Gadola, Christian Gross, Sophie Herzog and Andreas Rey. Degen said he will sell a part of the shares within his management team.[14]
On 18 August the Holding AG announced how the shares had been divided between the shareholders. Degen himself kept 40%, Andreas Rey held 18,41%, his wife Ursula Rey-Krayer also held 18,41%. A group of four other investors, these being Johannes Barth, Marco Gadola, Dani Büchi and Dan Holzmann, together held 15,14%. The other 8,04% of the shares remained by another group of investors, these being Manor AG, J. Safra Sarasin, Novasearch AG, MCH Group AG and Weitnauer Holding AG.[15]
On 27 December 2021 an extraordinary AGM of the Holding AG was held and it was announced that the Board had reorganised itself. Ursula Rey-Krayer and Dan Holzmann were unanimously elected to the board of directors.[16]
On 20 June 2022 the AGMs of both the FC Basel Holding AG and the FC Basel 1893 AG were held and both boards were confirmed. The Holding AG with following members: David Degen (president), Dan Holzmann, Ursula Rey-Krayer and Andreas Rey (vice-president). FC Basel 1893 AG with following members: David Degen (president), Carol Etter (delegate of the club FC Basel), Dan Holzmann, Ursula Rey-Krayer and Andreas Rey (vice-president).
The club's 127th AGM took place in written form, during the week from Saturday 5 June and Friday 11 June. The results were communicated on Monday 14 June. On 13 April 2021 the club announced their proposal for the club management.[17] Club president Reto Baumgartner and the two directors, Dominik Donzé and Benno Kaiser, remained in the board and three new members were elected. These three being Carol Etter (sports lawyer), Edward Turner (financial specialist) and Tobias Adler (marketingspecialist). Their exact roles are to be decided. Carol Etter was elected as delegate of the board, to represent the club at the meetings of the Holding.[18]
After the dismissal of Heiko Vogel, on 31 October 2023,[19] the position of the sports director was left vacant, this until 15 May 2024 and then FCB announced that Daniel Stucki had been appointed as new sports director.[20]
On 28 November 2022 FCB had announced that they had taken Heiko Vogel under contract as their new sporting director, as per 1 January 2023. After the end of their previous season, in which Vogel had taken over in charge of the coaching of their first team following the dismissal of Alexander Frei in February, Vogel continued in his role as sports director for this season.[21]
On 12 May 2023 the club announced that Timo Schultz had been signed a contract as head coach of the new FCB first team.[22] On 22 May they announced that the entire trainer staff had been appointed. Loïc Favé would join Davide Callà as assistant coach and Johannes Wieber would become athletic coach, Gabriel Wüthrich remained goalkeeper coach.[23] On 23 May the club announced that the new coach of the U-21 is the ex-footballer Dennis Hediger, who had been the coach of the U-18 team the previous season.[24] Appointed a his assistant coaches were Marco Aratore and Michaël Bauch.[25]
On 29 September the club announced that they were parting with coach Schultz, together with his assistant Loïc Favé, and that he would be replaced by the current sport director Heiko Vogel.[26] Vogel was dismissed a month later, with Fabio Celestini taking over until the end of the season.[27] On 17 November 2023, Martin Rueda was hired as an additional assistant coach.[28]
See main article: List of retired numbers in association football.
See main article: FC Basel Frauen. Since 2009 Basel have a women's team. It competes in the Nationalliga A.
See main article: FC Basel 1893 (Superleague Formula team). FC Basel had a team in the Superleague Formula race car series where football teams lent their name to cars. GU-Racing International has operated the car for all seasons and Max Wissel has driven the car in all the races. FC Basel and Wissel won one race, in the 2009 season at Donington Park. The team have scored three other podiums in the series.
Basel is home to a leading youth academy system in terms of produced senior-level players that featured in the top-flight in Switzerland.[29] [30] FC Basel bases its promotion of young talent on the following criteria: The primary aim of the FCB youth department is to integrate as many players as possible into the first team squad, all representatives of the youth department adhere to the values of the FCB charter, a uniform, holistic game and training idea from the FE-14 to the U21 ensures optimal training, the FCB follows a dual system of educational training and football.[31]
The youth department has developed many Swiss internationals such as Erni Maissen, Adrian Knup, Alexander Frei, Marco Streller, Philipp, and David Degen. Since Basel moved into the St. Jakob-Park in 2001, they have strengthened their youth academy and many young talents like the Felipe Caicedo, Ivan Rakitić, Zdravko Kuzmanović, Xherdan Shaqiri, Yann Sommer, Eren Derdiyok, and Mohammed Salah have risen through the ranks there. In 2010 the former club president Gigi Oeri created the Stiftung Nachwuchs Campus Basel (in English foundation Youth Campus Basel) with the aim of continuously developing the club's youth division on a long-term basis.[32]
Since 2001, more than 50 successful players have risen through the Basel youth system and joined their first team, including:
The youth academy is as present set up in the following areas: Formation (U-21, U-19, U-17, U1-6 and U-15), Footeco (FE-14) and Project Team Basel (FE-12 and FE-13).[33]
The eldest members are in the U-21 team. This team plays in the Swiss Promotion League, the third highest level in the Swiss football league system, behind the Super League and the Challenge League. A number of players have professional contracts and often train or play with the first team.
Until 2023 there was no official Basel U-19 team, because a U-19 championship did not exist in Swiss football until then. Before then the team was quickly put together in the 2011–12 season from the youngest members of the first team, the younger Under-21 and the Under-18 teams who were eligible to play in the 2011–12 NextGen Series.
Because Basel qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League, the Under-19 team was again called to life and played in the 2013–14 UEFA Youth League. This time the members of this squad were solely members from the U-21 and U-18 teams, but the team only trained together once a week.
A year later Basel qualified for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League. Therefore, they were eligible to play in the 2014–15 UEFA Youth League and they took the matter a lot more seriously than the year before. Reserve team manager Thomas Häberli was also appointed as U-19 coach. Häberli's U-19 squad was still a mix between the younger U-21 and the older U-18 teams, but the team had training together virtually daily. This resulted with improved results, the team winning four games from their six, but failing to qualify for the knockout phase on tiebreak.
Basel's first team qualified for the Champions League again in 2016–17, so the U-19 team was revived for the 2016–17 UEFA Youth League. Raphaël Wicky was U-19 coach. In the group stage they reached second position and advanced to the play-offs, but lost this against Rosenborg.
By winning the U-18 Swiss championship at the end of the 2016–17 season the team qualified for the 2017–18 UEFA Youth League. Arjan Peço was the U-19 team coach at the time.[34] The team were drawn into Group A which they won and advanced to the round of 16, but here they were eliminated by Atlético Madrid.
At the end of the 2017–18 season the U-18 team coached by Alex Frei won the Swiss championship and qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Youth League.[35] But they were eliminated in the first round by Hamilton Academical, having drawn both matches 2–2, they were defeated in the penalty shoot-out.[36]
In November 2021, the Swiss Football Association announced their amendments to their league structure and further expanded their promotion of young talents.[37] The Basel U-18 team won the championship 2022–23 and in line with the Associations new league structures, FCB advanced all their U-18 team members to their newly created U-19 team, who were thus qualified for the 2023–24 UEFA Youth League. Here the team, under coach Mario Cantaluppi, advanced through the qualification but were eliminated by Bayern Munich in the play-offs.[38]
In total, the club has eight youth teams in their academy. In the group Formation are the U-21, U-19, U-17, U1-6 and U-15, in the group Footeco the FE-14 team and then there is the group Project Team Basel FE-12 and FE-13. Since the 2020–21 season, the FE-13 and FE-14 teams from the clubs FC Basel 1893, BSC Old Boys and FC Concordia Basel will appear with the addition of Team Basel.[39]
See main article: List of FC Basel players.
NOTE: early history is largely unknown.
Gyula Kertész (1928–30) Gustav Putzendopler (1930–32) Otto Haftl (1932) Karl Kurz (1932–33) Josef Haist (1933–34) Richard (Dombi) Kohn (1934) Heinz Körner (1936–37) Anton Schall (1946–47) Béla Sárosi (1955–57) Rudi Strittich (1957–58) Jenő Vincze (1 July 1959 – 30 June 61)
Salvatore Andracchio (interim), (1 April 1997 – 30 June 97) Salvatore Andracchio (interim), (7 October 1997 – 31 December 97) Guille Abascal (interim) (21 February 2022 – 23 May 2022)At the club's Extraordinary General Assembly on 16 January 2012, the 601 attending members appointed Oeri as honorary president.[41]
