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 ...

1908–09 season was their sixteenth season since the club was formed. The club's chairman was

Ernst-Alfred Thalmann Ernst-Alfred Thalmann (8 April 1881 – 23 September 1938) was a Swiss international footballer, jurist, politician and private art collector. Early life Thalmann was born in Basel, the son of a teacher, and attended primary school and the Hum ...

, it was his seventh presidential term. 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 ...

Overview

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 ...

, who had been team captain for many years, left the club and transferred to

Genoa CFC Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to as Genoa (), is a professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, that competes in , the second division of the Italian football league system. Established in 1893, Genoa is ...

as professional.

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 ...

was the new team captain and as captain he led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. Basel played 14 friendly games and 14 matches in the Swiss domestic league. Of the 14 friendly games that the team played, four were won and 10 ended in defeats. Nine games were played in Switzerland, six of which at home in the Landhof. The other games were played in Italy, both against

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

as transfer compensation for Hug, and four in Germany, each once against

Karlsruher FV Karlsruher FV is a German association football club that plays in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. Established on 17 November 1891, KFV was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) in 1900 and is the oldest ...

, Britannia Frankfurt, Mannheimer VfB Union and

Freiburger FC Freiburger FC () is a German association football club based in Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg. Freiburger FC were one of the founding clubs of the DFB (German Football Association) in 1900. History Founded in 1897, for many decades FFC were the ...

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

. The 1908–09 Serie A was divided into two regional groups, an east group with eight teams and a west group with seven teams. Basel were allocated to the east group, together with local rivals

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

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, Grasshopper Club, Young Fellows Zürich,

Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria), La ...

, and last but not least,

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

. There were a number of changes in the Basel team. As mentioned

moved to Italy to play for

. Players such as 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 ...

Alfred Stöhrmann Alfred Stöhrmann (1882 – 4 September 1914) was a German footballer who played as striker during the early 1900s. Football career Born in and grown up in Karlsruhe, Stöhrmann first played for local club Phönix Karlsruhe from 1904 to 1907. ...

and

Max Senn Max Senn (born 11 February 1883 – 21 July 1933) was a Swiss watchmaker and football player. He played as striker. Private life Born in Basel, Max Senn was the son of the Basel watchmaker Emil Senn and his wife Frida née Bürgin. For profess ...

left the first team and were replaced by younger members. The newly formed team started the season in the worst possible way, six defeats in a row. The two 1–6 away defeats against

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 ...

and

, the 0–6 defeat away against

, together with the 1–2 home result against Young Fellows Zürich, the 4–5 home defeat against

were only the beginning of the evil. The 2–9 home defeat against Grasshopper Club remains the highest home defeat in history until today. It was not until the seventh round, with a 3–2 win against

on 22 November 1908, that Basel achieved their first points. After that they were only defeated once more, on 13 December 1908, a home defeat against Winterthur. Basel ended the season in the East group in sixth position. Winterthur won the east group, obtaining 25 points seven more than

in second position in the league table. But Winterthur were defeated 0–1 by

Young Boys Bern BSC Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation ) are a Swiss sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 15 Swiss league championships and six Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss football clubs internationally, rea ...

in the championship final, which was played on 6 June 2009 in Basel.

Players

;Squad members

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Pre-season

Winter break to end of season

Serie A

East group results

East group league table

Notes

Footnotes

Incomplete league matches 1908–1909 season
FCB-YFFCZ-FCBFCB-AarauFCW-FCBFCB-FCSGYF-FCBFCB-FCBFCB-OBGC-FCBFCSG-FCB

References

Sources

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

FCB team 1908-09 at fcb-archiv.ch

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1908-09 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 ...