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 ...

1897–98 season was their fifth season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. The club's chairman was Charlie Volderauer and he was chairman between 1896 and 1900. He was the third chairman in the club's history, following

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 ...

(1893–1896) and Emanuel Schiess (1896). 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 Wettstein neighborhood of Kleinbasel (lesser Basel). The official Swiss championship had not yet been called to into life. Although this season a first, unofficial, competition was played, Basel did not compete.

Overview

Although the first national championship in Switzerland took place in 1897–98 it is considered as unofficial because it was not organized by 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 ...

(SFA; founded in 1895). FC Basel did not participate in this first championship, neither did 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 ...

. From a local point of view, there were also following clubs from Basel who played football. FC Play Fellows were founded in 1895, FC Excelsior founded 1896 and FC Kleinbasel founded at the beginning of 1898. The football team Buckjumpers-Club, founded 1894, dispanded themselves during 1897 and most players moved to FC Basel who then fielded a reserve team. FC Gymnasia, who were founded 1884 by Gymniasasten and real high school students was also dissolved. The RTV/Realschüler-Turnverein (real school student gymnastics club) had a football team from 1893 to 1898 from which the FC Old Boys emerged in 1894. For this season FC Basel organised 10 friendly matches for their first team. Five were played at home in the

and all five were won. Two friendlies were played in Zürich and both ended in high scoring defeats, 3–7 against

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 ...

and 0–7 against Grasshopper Club. The return game against local club

was drawn and the return game against

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 ...

was won 5–2. The friendly match against

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). Th ...

was played on neutral ground in

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 ...

and Basel won this game 4–1. Of their 10 games Basel won seven, drew once and were defeated twice. The team scored 29 and conceded 20 goals. Much documentation for this season's matches are incomplete, therefore most goal scorers remain unknown.

Players

Results

Legend

Friendly matches

Autumn

Spring

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 1897-1898 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.)

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1897-98 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 ...