1958–59 FC Basel season

FC Basel

1958–59 season
Chairman	Jules Düblin
Manager	until 30 November 1958 Rudi Strittich from 1 December René Bader
Ground	Landhof, Basel
Nationalliga A	6th
Swiss Cup	Round of 32
Top goalscorer	League: Josef Hügi and Gottlieb Stäuble (both 12) All: Josef Hügi (14)
Highest home attendance	11,500 on 9 November 1958 vs BSC Young Boys
Lowest home attendance	3,500 on 12 October 1958 vs Bellinzona and on 7 June 1959 vs Young Fellows Zürich
Average home league attendance	6,023
← 1957–58 1959–60 →

The 1958–59 season was Fussball Club Basel 1893's 65th season in their existence. It was their thirteenth consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football after their promotion from the Nationalliga B the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the Landhof, in the Wettstein Quarter in Kleinbasel. 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.^[1]

Overview[]

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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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. In these 50 games the team scored 126 goals and conceded 101.^[4]

Fourteen teams contested the 1958–59 Nationalliga A, these were the top 12 teams from the previous season and the two newly promoted teams FC Zürich and FC Luzern. At the end of the season the last two teams in the table were to be relegated. 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.^[3]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

Players[]

The following is the list of the Basel first team squad during the season 1958–59. The list includes players that were in the squad on the day that the Nationalliga A season started on 31 August 1958 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 René Jeker (from Concordia Basel) — GK   SUI Kurt Stettler — GK   SUI Walter Wider (from Solothurn) — DF   SUI Werner Bopp — DF   SUI Hans Hügi (I) — DF   SUI Fredy Kehrli (from Biel-Bienne) — DF   SUI Bruno Michaud (from Lausanne-Sport) — DF   SUI Hans Weber — DF   SUI (from SC Kleinhüningen) — MF   SUI René Jaeck (from Schaffhausen) — MF   SUI Jean-Jacques Maurer (from Biel-Bienne) — MF   SUI Rudolf Rickenbacher (from La Chaux-de-Fonds)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   SUI Gottlieb Stäuble — MF   SUI Silvan Thüler — MF   SUI Charles Turin (from Biel-Bienne) — FW   SUI Rudolf Burger — FW   SUI Bernhard Chenaux — FW   SUI Roberto Frigerio (from Schaffhausen) — FW   SUI Josef Hügi (II) — FW  LUX Antoine Kohn (from Karlsruher SC) — FW  GER Otto Ludwig — FW   SUI Hansueli Oberer — FW   SUI Raymond Simonet — FW   SUI Hermann Suter

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 Hansruedi Blatter — GK   SUI Werner Schley (to Zürich) — DF   SUI Wilhelm Jermann (to FC Laufen) — DF   SUI — MF   SUI Gustav Borer (to Aarau)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  FRA Pierre Redolfi (to FC Hegenheim) — FW   SUI Ernst Klauser (II) (to Black Stars Basel) — FW  HUN Janos Magyar — FW   SUI Emil Müller (to Black Stars Basel) — FW   SUI — FW  ITA Romano Zolin

Results[]

Legend

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Friendly matches[]

Pre- and mid-season[]

Winter break to end of season[]

Nationalliga A[]

League matches[]

League table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	BSC Young Boys	26	16	6	4	79	42	+37	38	Swiss Champions, qualified for 1958–59 European Cup
2	FC Grenchen	26	12	8	6	57	39	+18	32	Swiss Cup winners
3	FC Zürich	26	14	2	10	55	45	+10	30
4	Grasshopper Club Zürich	26	12	6	8	63	54	+9	30
5	Lausanne Sports	26	11	7	8	40	41	−1	29
6	FC Basel	26	11	5	10	54	48	+6	27
7	FC La Chaux-de-Fonds	26	8	10	8	44	44	0	26
8	FC Lucerne	26	8	10	8	40	45	−5	26
9	Servette FC Genève	26	10	4	12	70	58	+12	24
10	FC Chiasso	26	10	4	12	48	61	−13	24
11	FC Lugano	26	6	11	9	27	33	−6	23
12	AC Bellinzona	26	8	6	12	38	57	−19	22
13	Urania Genève Sport	26	6	7	13	41	50	−9	19	Relegated
14	Young Fellows Zürich	26	5	4	17	33	72	−39	14	Relegated

Swiss Cup[]

See also[]

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

References[]

Sources[]

• Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• The FCB team 1958–59 at fcb-archiv.ch
• Switzerland 1958–59 by Erik Garin at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

External links[]

• FC Basel official site