FC Basel encyclopedia topics

History

The Early Years

FC Basel was started by an advertisement on the 12 November 1893 that appeared in the Basler national newspaper requesting that a football team be formed and that anyone that wished to join should meet up the next Wednesday at 8:15. So, on the 15th of November 1893, FC Basel was born in the city of Basel, Switzerland. FC Basel did not have much of an early footballing success; it took Basel 40 years to win their first trophy, winning the Swiss Cup in 1933. They also won the cup in 1947 and then the league in 1953.

1960/70s

FCB (which is pronounced "Eff Tsay Bay" in Swiss German) was most successful in the 1960s and 1970s winning the Swiss championship seven times (1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1980) and the national Cup three times (1963, 1967, 1975). They also won the League Cup in 1973 and the Coppa delle Alpi consecutively in 1969 and 1970. In those days, they were a dominant force in Switzerland and they were major competitors in Europe also.

1980/90s

In the 1980s they had to play in the Nationalliga B (the second highest League in Switzerland). They had fallen away and were only a shadow of the Basel team from the 60s and 70s. In 1994, they were promoted back into the Nationalliga A (the highest League) and have since proved that they belong there by winning numerous league titles and cups, not to mention their successful campaigns in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Recent Times

When St. Jakob-Park was opened in 2001, success returned. In 2002 the FCB won the Double (Swiss Championship and Swiss Cup).In the following season they were the second Swiss team to ever play in the Champions League. Among others, they also defeated Celtic, Deportivo La Coruña and Juventus. They also won the league in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 seasons. In the 2004/05 season they got to the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup, being defeated by Middlesbrough who then went on to the final. In the last 2 seasons Basel have narrowly missed out on winning the league, last season they were 1 point behind the champions, FC Zürich

On May 13th, 2006, the FCB lost a league game in the St. Jakob-Park for the first time since December 1st, 2002, when they fell 1:2 against FC Zürich, resulting in riots and property damage by hooligans of both the FCB and their rival after the match.(see 2006 Basel Hooligan Incident for more details.) On February 26 2006 FC Basel broke their own club record of 52 unbeaten league games in the St. Jakob Park. The new record is 59, but the streak ended there on the final day of the season with a last-minute goal by Iulian Filipescu of FC Zürich, knocking Basel out of contention and giving Zürich their first national championship since 1980/81. A sixtieth straight home league match undefeated would have made Basel champions once again, but the final score was 1:2 in favour of Zürich.

2007/2008 season

At the beginning of the 2007/08 season FC Basel strengthened their team by signing Swiss internationalists Marco Streller from VfB Stuttgart, Benjamin Huggel from Eintracht Frankfurt and David Degen on loan from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Fans' favourite Mladen Petrić joined Borussia Dortmund in a big-money deal and influential defender Boris Smiljanić returned to his former club Grasshopper. Highly rated Switzerland Under-21 defender Beg Ferati arrived at St. Jakob-Park in January from feeder club FC Concordia Basel on a three-and-a-half year contract. He was joined by veteren striker Vratislav Lokvenc from Red Bull Salzburg and exciting midfielder Marko Perović from Red Star Belgrade who also arrived during the winter break.

Basel were drawn against Bosnian minnows 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 a 'death group' of Group D alongside SK Brann, NK Dinamo Zagreb, Hamburger SV and Stade Rennais FC, all of which were ranked withing the top 3 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 Hamburg 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 Clube de Portugal in the last 32 after qualifying 2nd in the group alongside 1st placed Hamburg and 3rd placed Brann. Sporting Lisbon finished third in their group in the UEFA Champions League, which is why they were dropped into the UEFA Cup. The first leg took place on the 13th of February in Lisbon where the first choice goalkeeper, Franco Costanzo, was injured and Basel lost 2-0. The second leg did not fair any better for Basel. Costanzo remained injured and Basel lost 3-0 on the 21st of February in Basel, resulting in the knock out of the UEFA Cup.

Supporters

FC Basel is well known for having a big and loyal local following. Usually when polls are made about the most passionate club football fans, FC Basel's fans usually make the top 10 if not first in the world, resulting in what is by far the highest average attendance in Switzerland with around 23,500 fans 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.

Arguably its most famous fan internationally is tennis star Roger Federer. The current World No. 1 is a Basel native and has supported the club since his youth. In one interview Federer said if he weren't as good of a tennis player as he is today, he would have without a doubt tried to play football. He went on to say that if he were successful in the beautiful game, he would have loved to play for FC Basel.

Rivalry

The city of Basel and the city of Zürich have a long-standing, deep-seated traditional rivalry. Therefore, FC Basel's most traditional and fiercest rival (and the biggest recent title threat) is FC Zürich. In the past two seasons, the rivalry between the two clubs has been fueled by FC Zürich's league championships, which were won very narrowly over Basel. They continue to be the two leading championship favourites for the 2007/2008 season. Hooligans from both sides often fight when their teams meet in the league. The worst incident of this in recent years was in May 2006. FC Basel had won the league in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 seasons 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 but if Zürich won, they would get the title. Zürich took the lead after a late goal from Iulian Filipescu. FC Zürich 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. Problems like this are not unusual for teams with such a big following. Ajax/Feyenoord, Celtic/Rangers, Roma/Lazio, Boca/River, and Zenit/Spartak/CSKA all share the same kinds of problems with their supporters, just to name a few.

A secondary rivalry exists between FC Basel and Grasshopper Club, due to Grasshopper's basis in Zürich and their great historical success. Younger FCB supporters tend to consider Grasshopper Club a very fierce rival (on par with FC Zürich), whereas most older supporters still consider the rivalry with FC Zürich to be significantly more important. In the past couple of years, with FC Zürich's rise to power and their very close competition with FC Basel, the FCB-FCZ rivalry has clearly taken center-stage again.

Player Drain To The German Bundesliga

One fact for FC Basel is that a lot of promising players end up leaving for the German Bundesliga. Basel has quality players good enough to compete in the Bundesliga but they do not have the same quality of opposition and many Basel players have been snapped up by German clubs because they usually also offered bigger pay cheques than FC Basel. Some examples of FC Basel players who have signed for Bundesliga teams in recent years are:

Youth System

FC Basel is known throughout Switzerland for having the best youth system in the Super League. It is often compared to the youth systems of Ajax, Celtic, Manchester United and Real Madrid. It has produced Swiss internationalists such as Philipp Degen, Alexander Frei and Marco Streller. Also, in more recently times, young talents like the Ecuadorian international youngster Felipe Caicedo, Croatian Ivan Rakitić, Serbian Zdravko Kuzmanović, Swiss Yann Sommer and the Serbian Nikola Veselinovic, who is playing for Swiss international squad, have risen through the ranks there.

Stadium

FC Basel play their home games at the 42,500 capacity St. Jakob-Park which translates into English as St. Jacob's Park. 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, holding an attendance of 38,000 originally but the stadium was upgraded to 42,500 due to Switzerland being co-hosts of Euro 2008. The stadium is nicknamed "Joggeli" by the fans and has 2 restaurants called "Restaurant UNO" and "Hattrick's Sports Bar" and 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 will host 6 games during EURO 2008, including the opening game and a semi-final. The most interesting feature of the stadium is the translucent outer layer, which can be illuminated in different colours for impressive effects much like Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena.

Affiliated Clubs

FC Concordia Basel - FC Basel have a loose affiliation with Concordia Basel. FC Basel are almost like a parent-club to Concordia who play in the league below Basel. They have FC Basel player Simone Grippo and Patrik Baumann on loan during the 2007-08 season. Ex-Concordia goalkeeper Louis Crayton is now at Basel.

FC Vaduz - FC Basel are also like a parent-club to Vaduz who are the most successful team in Liechtenstein. Basel goalkeeper Yann Sommer is currently on loan at Vaduz. Ex-Basel players Tim Grossklaus and Damir Džombić are currently playing for Vaduz. Also, Ex-Basel youth coach Heinz Hermann is now a manager at Vaduz.

SV Werder Bremen - Although FC Basel and Werder Bremen have no official connection there is a close friendship between their supporters. The last time these clubs met in a tournament was a UEFA Champions League third round qualifier in September 2005 which Werder won 4-2 on aggregate. However, the most recent encounter between the two clubs was a friendly match during the 2007 pre-season where FC Basel won 2-0 at Sportpark Eschen-Mauren in Liechtenstein.

Colours

FC Basel's traditional kit is red and blue shirts, blue shorts with gold trim and blue socks with red trim. From this comes the nickname "RotBlau" which is Swiss German for Red and Blue. Their away kit is all silver with blue trim. FC Basel's kits are manufactured by Nike and sponsored by Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company which is based in the city of Basel.

The famous "blaugrana" colours of FC Barcelona are said to have originated from the "rotblau" colours of FC Basel. FC Barcelona was founded by former FC Basel captain Joan Gamper.

Logo

FC 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 says FCB which stands for "Fussballclub Basel" or "Football Club Basel". The logo is worn in the centre of the shirt opposed to on the traditional left-hand side. Like the colours of FC Basel, the logo has a striking resemblance to that of FC Barcelona in Spain. There are theories that suggest that the founder of FC Barcelona, being at one time the captain of FC Basel, reincorporated the logo of FC Basel on to that of FC Barcelona. The resemblances seem clear, both logos seem to incorporate the shield design, as do most other clubs. But most notably is the FCB acronyms on both logos and the Red-Blue colours, outlined in gold. Also the football that lies on the left side of the FC Basel logo seems to be the exact shape and type as that of the FC Barcelona Logo in the bottom centre. Because of this, many people tend to say that FC Basel was the inspiration in the process of founding FC Barcelona in Spain.

Sponsorship

Companies that FC Basel currently has sponsorship deals with include:

Novartis - Main Sponsor
Nike - Kit Manufacturer
Volkswagen - Official Sponsor
Pirelli - Official Sponsor
UBS - Official Sponsor
Herren Globus - Official Sponsor
Alcatel Lucent - Official Sponsor
Basler Versicherungen - Official Sponsor
Europa Park - Official Sponsor

Records

Biggest European home win: FC Basel 7-0 S.S. Folgore (24.08.2000, UEFA Cup qualifying round second leg)
Biggest European away win: Fram Reykjavík 0-5 FC Basel (18.09.1973, European Champion Clubs' Cup first round first leg)
Biggest European home defeat: FC Basel 1-5 Celtic FC (17.09.1963, European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round)
Biggest European away defeat: Celtic FC 5-0 FC Basel (09.10.1963, European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round)
Most league appearances: Massimo Ceccaroni (398)
Most league goals: Christian Giménez (99)