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 ...

1913–14 season was their twenty-first season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. The club's chairman was

Karl Ibach Karl Ibach (April 3, 1915 – May 3, 1990) was a German member of the resistance against the Third Reich and later, a writer and politician. Biographical details Ibach was born in Elberfeld, today part of Wuppertal, Germany. At the age of 16, h ...

, but he stood down at the AGM on 25 September 1913. From that date

Carl Albert Hintermann Carl Albert Hintermann (2 November 1876 – 1945) was a Swiss footballer who played for FC Basel. He played in the position as defender and as midfielder. Between the years 1893 and 1896 Hintermann played a total of 4 games for Basel without ...

took over as club president. 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 district Basel-Wettstein in Kleinbasel,

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 ...

Overview

The Englishman

Percy Humphreys Percy Humphreys (3 December 1880 – 13 April 1959) was an English international footballer, who played at inside-right, who later became a football manager. Career Club career In the 1907–08 season, Humphreys joined First Second Leicester ...

was the first professional trainer that the club

had ever employed. Under club chairman

, Humphreys signed his contract and began his duties on 1 April 1913. He had previously been head-coach for

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

in the English

North Eastern League The North Eastern League was an association football league for teams in the North East of England. The league was founded in 1906 and was initially successful, with teams defecting from the rival Northern Football Alliance to play. Although som ...

. Prior to Humphreys, it had always been the team captain who had taken over the function of the trainer. Basel played 32 matches in their 1913–14 season. 14 of these matches were in the domestic league and 18 were friendly games. Six of these were home games, played in the

, one other home game was played on the Margarethenwiese in

, five others were away games in Switzerland and five games were played abroad. Basel played seven matches against German teams, one against the English team

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

and the other ten opponents were Swiss. Of these friendlies 10 were won and 8 ended with a defeat. In these 18 games Basel scored a total of 57 goals and conceded 47. The Swiss Serie A 1913–14 was divided into three regional groups, East, Central and West. Basel were allocated to the Central group together with local rivals

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

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 ...

. The other teams playing in the Central group were Young Boys,

FC La Chaux-de-Fonds FC La Chaux-de-Fonds is a Swiss football club based in La Chaux-de-Fonds. It was founded in 1894 and used to play at the Stade Charrière. History F.C. La Chaux-de-Fonds was founded on July 4, 1894, and won the Swiss first division in the ...

, Étoile-Sporting FC La Chaux-de-Fonds,

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 ...

and

Biel-Bienne , french: Biennois(e) , neighboring_municipalities= Brügg, Ipsach, Leubringen/Magglingen (''Evilard/Macolin''), Nidau, Orpund, Orvin, Pieterlen, Port, Safnern, Tüscherz-Alfermée, Vauffelin , twintowns = Iserlohn (Germany) B ...

. Basel started well into the championship winning seven of the first eight games, the first four games straight off. After the new year break things turned against them and they were defeated three times. Basel lost contact to the Young Boys at the top of the table and ended the season in joint second position with FC Bern, they were three points behind the group winners. In their 14 games Basel scored 63 goals and conceded 33. The two highest scoring games were both played against

. Basel won the home game 11–4 and the away game 10–1. The Young Boys continued to the finals against Cantonal Neuchatel 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 ...

, who eventually won the championship in the Finals. Last place in the group bottom was

, who therefore entered the play-off round against relegation, in which they were successful. The Anglo-Cup was not played in this year and so, Basel could not defend the title that they had obtained the year before. But memories of this cup win soon faded anyway, because in fact the competition was discontinued completely due to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Players

;Squad members

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Pre- and mid-season

Winter break to end of season

Serie A

Central group results

Central group league table

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 1913–14 at fcb-archiv.ch

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1913-14 FC Basel season FC Basel seasons