The Fussball Club Basel 1893 1979–80 season was their 86th season since the club was founded. It was their 34th consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football after they won promotion during the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several important matches, inc ...

. René Theler was the club's chairman for the fourth consecutive season.

Overview

Pre-season

Helmut Benthaus was first team manager for the fifteenth consecutive season. There were a number of players that left the squad during the off-season. Midfield player

Urs Siegenthaler Urs Siegenthaler (born 23 November 1947) is a former Swiss footballer, turned manager. Since 13 May 2005 he is Chiefscout and Analyser for the Germany national team. Playing career Born in Basel, Siegenthaler started his football with local te ...

moved on to Schaffhausen after eight years and 112 league games with the club. Stricker

Roland Schönenberger Roland Schönenberger (born 10 October 1955) is a Swiss former footballer who played for FC Basel. He played as a forward. Club career Schönenberger played his youth football with local club FC Wangen bei Olten. He joined Basel's first team u ...

moved on to Young Boys after four seasons, he had played 110 league games and scored 41 league goals. Defender

Paul Fischli Paul Fischli (born 6 May 1945) is a Switzerland, Swiss former football (soccer), football player and Head coach, manager. He played as a Defender (football), defender throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Career As a sixteen-year-old, Pa ...

ended his professional career. After ten years with the club he moved on to local amateur team FC Münchenstein as player-coach. Between the years 1968 and 1979 Fischli played a total of 395 games for Basel scoring a total of 22 goals. 189 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 52 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

and

Swiss League Cup The Swiss League Cup was a football tournament which took place as a summer pre-season tournament in 1972 and 1973, and during the Swiss football season from 1974–75 to 1981–82. The tournament was a knockout competition contested by clubs fro ...

, 59 in the European competitions (

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, Cup Winners' Cup,

UEFA cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

and Cup of the Alps) and 95 were friendly games. He scored seven goals in the domestic league, two in the cup competitions, two in the European competitions and the other 11 were scored during the test games. In the other direction the experienced René Hasler and youngster

Ernst Schleiffer Ernst Schleiffer (born 5 December 1957) is a Swiss retired footballer who played in the late 1970s and 1980s as defender. Schleiffer first played for Neuchâtel Xamax and he made seven appearances for them during the 1978–79 Nationalliga A se ...

both signed in from Xamax.

Joseph Küttel Joseph Küttel (27 December 1952 – 25 February 1997) was a Swiss professional football (soccer), footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s as a forward (association football), forward. Küttel played his youth football for local club FC Emm ...

signed in from Young Boys. Two local players joined both from the other side of the border. French player Serge Gaisser joined in from St. Louis and German Manfred Jungk joined from SV Weil. Basel played a total of 57 games in their 1979–80 season. 36 matches were played in the domestic league, two in the

, one in the

and 18 were friendly matches. The team scored a total of 160 goals and conceded 62. All of their friendly games were played away from home. Of their 18 test games, 14 were won, two were drawn and two ended with a defeat. One of the defeats was against the Swiss national team.

Domestic league

14 teams played in the

1979–80 Nationalliga A Statistics of Swiss Super League in the 1979–80 season. Overview It was contested by 14 teams, and FC Basel won the championship. First stage Table Results Playoff Table Results Sources Switzerland 1979–80 at RSSSF {{DEFAULTSO ...

. The qualification round was played as double round-robin. The top six teams were qualified for the championship group. There was no relegation round to be held this season and the bottom two teams were to be relegated after the qualification. Following the poor season the year before Basel started the season as outsiders. Reigning Champions Servette together with the two clubs

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 ...

and

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

were favorites. Benthaus declared qualification to the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

as the team's primary aim. Basel ended the qualification round in second position, two points behind Servette and one ahead of the Grasshoppers. In the championship group the points obtained in the qualification were halved as a bonus (rounded up). Basel won the Championship with 33 points, two ahead of both second place Grasshopper Club and third placed Servette. Basel scored a total of 91 goals conceding 38 in the 32 league games. This was the club's eighth championship title in their history and the seventh and last under trainer Benthaus. Erni Maissen and Detlev Lauscher led the team's top goal scorers list after the qualifying phase, both with 13 league goals. At the end of the season they were joined by

and all three managed to score 18 league goals during the season. Maissen had played in 35 league matches, Lauscher had played in 33 and Küttel had had 32 appearances. Goalkeeper Hans Küng and the two defenders Jean-Pierre Maradan and

Jörg Stohler Jörg Stohler (born 27 August 1949) is a Swiss former international footballer who played as a defender during the 1970s and 1980s. He played over 300 League Championship matches and won the Swiss League Championship four times. He also won the S ...

played in all 36 domestic league games. In the qualification round 22, the home match at the Landhof on 26 April Küttel scored four goals as Basel won 6–1 against Xamax. In the home match against

Luzern , neighboring_municipalities= Adligenswil, Ebikon, Emmen, Horw, Kriens, Malters, Meggen, Neuenkirch Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a ...

on 17 May Lauscher went one better and scored five goals as Basel won 8–2.

Swiss Cup and League Cup

All NLA teams entered the

in the round of 32. Basel were drawn away against Mendrisiostar where they won 3–1. In the second round, again away from home in the

Wankdorf Stadium The Wankdorf Stadium (german: Wankdorfstadion, ) was a football stadium in the Wankdorf quarter of Bern, Switzerland, and the former home of Swiss club BSC Young Boys. It was built in 1925, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted se ...

and this against Young Boys. In the

Basel were also drawn away from home against the Young Boys. Basel lost both duels and thus without further cup matches to contest they had enough strength and energy to win the Swiss championship.

Players

;Players who left the squad

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Pre- and mid-season

Winter break

Nationalliga A

Qualifying phase matches

Qualifying phase table

Championship group

Championship table

Swiss Cup

Swiss League Cup

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2015/2016. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
The FCB squad 1979–80 at fcb-archiv.ch

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1979-80 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 ...

1979-80