1939–40 FC Basel season

FC Basel

1939–40 season
Chairman	Albert Besse
First team coach	Walter Dietrich Max Galler
Ground	Landhof, Basel
1. Liga Group 3	Winners
1. Liga Play-off	Winners
Swiss Cup	Round 4
Top goalscorer	League: August Ibach (19) All: August Ibach (20)
Highest home attendance	2,000 on 31 March 1940 vs Aarau
Lowest home attendance	500 on 18 February 1940 vs Concordia Basel and on 23 June 1940 vs Solothurn
Average home league attendance	1,266
← 1938–39 1940–41 →

The FC Basel 1939–40 season was the forty-seventh season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. FC Basel played their home games in the Landhof in the district Wettstein in Kleinbasel. Albert Besse was the club's new chairman. He took over from Emil Junker at the AGM on 15 July 1939.

Overview[]

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 . Liga group 3 (North-West Switzerland) together with Solothurn, Aarau, Concordia Basel and FC Birsfelden. The group was played in three round-robins.

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. 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.^[1]

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.^[2] August Ibach was team top league goal scorer with 19 goals, Fritz Schmidlin, Hermann Suter and Werner Wenk each scored five times.

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.^[3]

Players[]

The following is the list of the Basel first team squad during the season 1939–40. The list includes players that were in the squad the day the season started on 1 October 1939 but subsequently left the club after that date.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK   SUI Kurt Imhof — GK   SUI Paul Wechlin — DF   SUI Henri Bernard — DF   SUI Louis Favre — DF   SUI Ernst Grauer — MF   SUI Ernst Hufschmid — DF   SUI — DF   SUI Alexander Ebner — DF   SUI Heinz Elsässer — DF   SUI Hauenstein — DF   SUI — MF   SUI August Ibach — MF  FRG Andreas Kränzlin — MF   SUI Albert Mohler

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   SUI Fritz Schmidlin (I) — MF   SUI Walter Schmidlin (II) — MF   SUI Guglielmo Spadini — MF   SUI Hans Studer — MF   SUI Werner Wenk — FW   SUI Max Bosshard — FW   Henri Brinks — FW   — FW   SUI Alfred Jaeck — FW   SUI Kurrus — FW   SUI Fritz Lanz — FW   SUI Alex Mathys — FW   SUI Hermann Suter — FW   SUI Walter Zürrer

Players who left the squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK   SUI Eugène de Kalbermatten — GK   SUI — DF   SUI Robert Büchi — DF   SUI Heinrich Diethelm — MF   SUI Fernand Jaccard — MF  FRG Franz Sattler

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   SUI Eduard Zuber — FW   SUI Eduard Buser — FW   SUI Maurice Dubosson — FW   SUI — FW   SUI Othmar Saner — FW   SUI René Schaller

Results[]

Legend[]

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Friendly matches[]

Pre-season[]

Winter break and mid-season[]

1. Liga Group 3[]

League matches[]

League table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Basel	12	9	2	1	38	16	+22	20	Advance to play-off
2	Aarau	12	7	1	4	37	26	+11	15
3	Concordia Basel	12	4	1	7	26	32	−6	9
4	Solothurn	12	4	0	8	25	35	−10	8
5	FC Birsfelden	12	4	0	8	14	31	−17	8

Play-offs[]

Semi-final (as group, three teams)[]

Final (best of three)[]

Swiss Cup[]

See also[]

• History of FC Basel
• List of FC Basel players
• List of FC Basel seasons

References[]

Sources[]

• Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. ISBN 978-3-7245-2027-6
• Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• FCB team 1939–40 at fcb-archiv.ch
• Switzerland 1939–40 by Erik Garin at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

External links[]

• FC Basel official site