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 ...

1895–96 season was their third season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. Emanuel Schiess was elected as second chairman in the club's history at the club's AGM. FC Basel's home ground was 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 Wettstein neighborhood of Kleinbasel (lesser Basel), but they also played home games at the

Stadion Schützenmatte Stadion Schützenmatte is a sports stadium with track and field facilities in the Bachletten quartier in Basel, Switzerland. It is the home ground of BSC Old Boys Basel and, together, the pitch and tennis courts make up the western part of th ...

in the Bachletten quartier in Grossbasel (greater Basel). The Swiss national championships had not yet been called to into life.

Overview

Roland Geldner Carl Maria 'Roland' Geldner (23 May 1870 – 1905) was a Swiss businessman and founder member of FC Basel. He was the club's first chairman. He was a well-known personality in the city and long-time player with the first team from the early days o ...

had been the club's chairman, but he stood down at the club's AGM held on 1 September 1895 and Emanuel Schiess was elected as new chairman. At this AGM on it was announced that 31 footballers had joined the club since the first day, 14 members had since left and so they had 17 active footballers. The

Swiss Football Association The Swiss Football Association (german: Schweizerischer Fussballverband, french: Association Suisse de Football, it, Associazione Svizzera di Football/Calcio, rm, Associaziun Svizra da Ballape) is the governing body of football in Switzerland ...

(ASF-SFV) was founded on 7 April 1895. FC Basel were founder members, although they were not present at the founder meeting. Basel goalkeeper and local businessman

John Tollmann Kurt Johann 'John' Tollmann (29 June 1863 – 1924) was a Swiss businessman and owned his own company in Basel, John Tollmann & Co, a tea company and had tea plantations in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Tollmann was founder member of FC Basel. He was long- ...

joined the ASF-SFV board of directors and was the first secretary-treasurer. 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 ...

were soon to become ASF-SFV members. The idea of a Swiss national championship following the form of the English championship was discussed as priority.

Ferdinand Isler Ferdinand Isler (26 December 1866 – 14 December 1951) was a professor at the canton school in Frauenfeld. He was founder member of FC Basel and became the team’s first captain. He later became actuary of the club. He was a great propagandist. ...

was selected as team captain, he was responsible for leading the team trainings and choosing the player line-ups. For this season club organised ten friendly matches for their first team. Six of these matches were held in Basel, two in the

, two on the Schützenmatte and from the other two games the playing fields are uncertain. In the autumn season Basel played twice against FC Excelsior Zürich, were defeated away and drew at home and in the spring they played them again twice and managed two victories. Basel played twice against French team

FC Mulhouse Football Club de Mulhouse (; commonly referred to as FCM or simply Mulhouse) is a French association football club based in Mulhouse. The club was founded in 1893 and currently play in the Championnat National 3, the fifth level of French footb ...

, drawing away and winning at home. They also played twice against Grasshopper Club and won both games. Last season the team had lost the game against Buckjumpers Club Basel, this season they won the revenge. But the Buckjumpers were to dissolve their club at the end of the season, due to lack of members and therefore a number of their remaining members joined Basel before the beginning of the following season. At the end of November 1895 Basel also played their very first game against

Anglo-American Club Zürich Anglo-American Club Zürich (also Anglo-American F.C. Zürich) was a Swiss football club based in Zürich, who are known for being the winners of the first official national football championship (then Serie A) in 1899. The team composed mainly ...

, the game ended with a defeat. The ten games ended with six victories, two draws and two defeats. The team scored 18 scored goals and 15 conceded.

Players

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Autumn season

Spring season

Notes

Footnotes

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 squad 1895–1896 at fcb-archiv.ch
''(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. Much match documentation for this season is missing.)

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1895-96 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 ...