The

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss 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 ...

1903–04 season was their eleventh season in their existence. The club's chairman was

Ernst-Alfred Thalmann Ernst-Alfred Thalmann (8 April 1881 – 23 September 1938) was a Switzerland, Swiss Switzerland national football team, international football (soccer), footballer, jurist, politician and Private collection, private art collector. Early life Tha ...

, who took over the chairmanship at the AGM for the third time in the club's history. FC Basel played their home games in the

Landhof The Landhof was a sports stadium in the district Basel-Wettstein in Kleinbasel, Basel. It was the former and first home stadium of FC Basel. It is mentioned for the first time in a chronicle in the second half of the 18th century as a ''nice su ...

in the Quarter Kleinbasel.

Overview

With over 40 active footballers and over 70 patron members Basel were the second largest club in Switzerland at this time, larger was only

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

. Basel's first team played in the Serie A and the second team in the Serie B.

Daniel Hug Daniel Hug (17 September 1884 – 28 November 1918) was a Swiss international footballer who played for FC Basel and Genoa C.F.C. He played mainly in the position as defender, but also as midfielder. Football career Basel In his early years Hu ...

(the team's most prominent, their best and their largest player) was named as team captain and as captain he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. Together with goalkeeper

Paul Hofer Paul Hofer (born May 13, 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a former professional American football player who played running back for six seasons in the NFL. He was a part of the San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the S ...

, the players

Alphonse Schorpp Alphonse Schorpp (born 5 January 1881) was a Swiss footballer who played as midfielder in the early 1900s. Schorpp joined FC Basel's first team for their 1899–1900 season. Schorpp played his first game for the club in the friendly game at h ...

Eugen Strauss Henri Eugen Strauss (born 4 February 1881), or Eugène Strauss as he was known in Lausanne, was a Swiss international footballer who played as midfielder in the early 1900s. Football career Club football Strauss joined FC Basel's first team for ...

, Dr.

Siegfried Pfeiffer Dr Siegfried Pfeiffer (19 October 188315 February 1959) was a Swiss international footballer. He played mainly as striker, but also as midfielder. Between the years 1899 und 1908 Pfeiffer played a total of 72 games for FC Basel scoring a total ...

and

Emil Hasler Emil Hasler (November 8, 1901 – January 15, 1986) was a German art director who worked on more than a hundred films during his career. These included a number of Weimar classics such as ''Diary of a Lost Girl, M'' and ''The Blue Angel''.Prawe ...

, Hug was one of many early national team players who came from the Basel team. The team played just one pre-season friendly at home against Grasshopper Club. There was another mid-season friendly against local lower tier

Nordstern Basel FC Nordstern Basel is a football team from Basel, Switzerland. Currently playing in the Swiss 8th division, FC Nordstern Basel has spent 35 seasons in the Swiss top flight, last in 1982. They were runners-up in the Swiss league in 1924, 1927, and ...

. During the winter break Basel played two more friendly matches. These were the return game against the Grasshoppers which was drawn 6–6 and also an away game against west group team Montriond Lausanne which was won 3–2. At the end of the season Basel played against group winners

Old Boys The terms Old Boys and Old Girls are the usual expressions in use in the United Kingdom for former pupils of primary and secondary schools.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While these are traditionally associated with independent schools, they are ...

, which was played as warm up the finals. They also played a match against French club

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...

, which was lost 6–8, the highest scoring game of the season. The Swiss Serie A season 1903–04 was divided into three regional groups, east, central and west. Basel were allocated to the central group together with the Young Boys,

FC Bern Fussballclub Bern (FC Bern) is a football team from Bern, the capital city of Switzerland, who currently play in the Gruppe 1, Bern/Jura canton of 2. Liga. In 1921, the club won the Och Cup (that was considered as the former Swiss Cup The ...

, Floria Biel/Bienne, and two further teams from Basel,

Old Boys Basel Basler Sportclub Old Boys, commonly known as BSC Old Boys, Old Boys Basel or simply Old Boys or when written just OB, is a Swiss sports club based in Basel. The club is mainly known for its football but it also has track, swimming and tennis se ...

and

Fortuna Basel Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...

. Having lost their first six games of the season, local team Fortuna Basel opted out of the league season after the New Year and gave forfait for all their remaining games. FC Basel ended their ten games with five victories, two draws and three defeats in third position in the league table, obtaining 12 points, scoring 28 and conceding 25 goals. The Young Boys and the Old Boys ended level on points and so a play-off match was arranged. The Old Boys won the play-off 3–2 and therefore qualified for the finals. In the finals

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

first drew 1–1 against group west winners

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

, then they won 1–0 against central group winners

and because the Old Boys beat Servette 2–0, St. Gallen won their first ever championship title.

Players

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Pre-season

Winter break and end of season

Serie A

Central group matches

Central group league table

; Note to Fortuna Basel:

Notes

Footnotes

1903–1904 season matches
Bern-FCBFCB-OB

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.

''(NB: Despite all efforts, the editors of these books and the authors in "Basler Fussballarchiv" have failed to be able to identify all the players, their date and place of birth or date and place of death, who played in the games during the early years of FC Basel. Most of the documentation is missing.)''

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1903-04 FC Basel season FC Basel seasons

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...