The Fussball Club Basel 1893 1977–78 season was their 84th season since the club was founded. It was their 32nd 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 (soccer), 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 import ...

. René Theler was voted as club chairman at the AGM. This was Theler's second period as chairman.

Overview

Pre-season

Helmut Benthaus Helmut Benthaus (born 5 June 1935) is a German former association football, football player and coach. He spent his best playing days at Westfalia Herne and his best coaching days at FC Basel. Early career Born in Herne, Germany, Herne, Benthau ...

was first team manager for the thirteenth consecutive season. During the off-season there were only two changes in the squad. Goalkeeper

Hans Küng Hans Küng (; 19 March 1928 – 6 April 2021) was a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author. From 1995 he was president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos). Küng was ordained a priest in 1954, joined the faculty ...

joined from Xamax and

Hansruedi Schär Hansruedi Schär (born 3 August 1957) is a Swiss retired footballer who played as midfielder in the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Olten Schär played his youth football on the local club in Oensingen. Schär joined Basel's first team for their 1977 ...

joined from lower tier FC Oensingen. All other mutations were internal between the first team and the reserves. Basel played a total of 54 games in their 1977–78 season. 32 in the domestic league, four in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, four in the

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 ...

, two in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

, four in the

Cup of the Alps ''Coppa delle Alpi'' (translated as Cup of the Alps) was an official football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualifi ...

and eight were friendly matches. The team scored a total of 125 goals and conceded 88. Roland Schönenberger was the team's overall top goal scorer with 26 goals,

Detlev Lauscher Detlev Lauscher (30 September 1952 – 15 January 2010) was a German footballer who played as a striker during the 1970s and 1980s. He was born in Übach-Palenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Lauscher played five seasons for 1. FC Köln in the G ...

and

Erni Maissen Ernst "Erni" Maissen (born 1 January 1958) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a midfielder or striker during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. He is best known for his three spells at FC Basel. Career Maissen played his youth footbal ...

each netted 15 times.

Domestic league

Basel played in the

1977–78 Nationalliga A The following is the summary of the Swiss National League in the 1977–78 football season, both Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B. This was the 81st season of top-tier and the 80th season of second-tier football in Switzerland. Overview The ...

. This was contested by the first 10 teams from the previous season and the two newly promoted teams Etoile Carouge and

Young Fellows Zürich Sportclub Young Fellows Juventus is a professional Swiss football club based in Zürich. It was founded in 1992 following a merger between Young Fellows Zürich (established in 1903) and Società Calcistica Italiana Juventus Zurigo (1922). The ...

. The champions would qualify for the

1978–79 European Cup The 1978–79 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won by English champions Nottingham Forest in the final against Swedish side Malmö FF. Forest, enjoying a great run of success under Brian Clough, had defeated defending two- ...

and the

winners would qualify for 1978–79 Cup Winners' Cup. The

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

modified the entry rules for Switzerland again and, therefore, this season only two teams would qualify for the

1977–78 UEFA Cup The 1977–78 UEFA Cup was the seventh season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at the Stade Armand-Cesari, Furiani, France, and at the Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, t ...

. Due to the fact that Basel were reigning champions and because there were only minor mutations in the squad, the club's primary aim was to defend their championship title. The Nationalliga A was played in two stages. The qualification phase was played by all 12 teams in a double round robin, and after completion of this stage, the teams were divided into two groups. The first six teams contended in the championship group (with half the obtained points in the first stage as bonus) and the positions seventh to twelfth contended the relegation group (also with half the obtained points as bonus). Basel ended the qualification round in fourth position and ended the championship group in third position with 27 points, two points behind Grasshopper Club and one behind

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

. They failed their championship aim, being beaten 2–4 by the Grasshoppers in the very last game of the season. Basel scored a total of 74 goals conceding 48 in their 32 domestic league games. Roland Schönenberger was the team's top goal scorer with 16 league goals.

and

Jörg Stohler Jörg Stohler (born 27 August 1949) is a Switzerland, Swiss former Switzerland national football team, international football (soccer), footballer who played as a defender during the 1970s and 1980s. He played over 300 League Championship matche ...

each scored 9 goals.

Swiss Cup and League Cup

In the first round of the

Basel were drawn against FC Lerchenfeld Thun and this was the first time that these two clubs had ever played against each other. Basel won this away game 4–2. In the next round they beat

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

away 3–1 and St. Gallen at home 4–1 in the quarter-final. Therefore Basel advanced to the semi-finals before being knocked out of the competition by Grasshopper Club.

won the competition this season. In the first round of the

Basel were drawn against

Wettingen Wettingen is a residential community in the district of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau. With a population about 20,000, Wettingen is the second-largest municipality in the canton. Geography Wettingen is located on the right bank of the Li ...

. Also in this competition Basel advanced to the semi-finals before being knocked out. St. Gallen won the competition beating Grasshopper Club 3–2 in the final.

European Cup and Coppa delle Alpi

As reigning Swiss champions Basel were qualified for the

1977–78 European Cup The 1977–78 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won by defending champions Liverpool in the final against Club Brugge. The match finished 1–0, starting a run of six consecutive finals that finished 1–0 after 90 minutes, ...

and in the first round they were drawn against Austrian champions

FC Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and o ...

. After a home defeat and an away win, this competition was concluded after the first round, Wacker won 3–2 on aggregate. In the

Coppa delle Alpi ''Coppa delle Alpi'' (translated as Cup of the Alps) was an official football tournament, first organized by the Italian national league as it started in 1960 and then they were aided by the Swiss League from 1962, for the reason that the majorit ...

Basel played in group B together with

Bastia Bastia ( , , , ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It also has the second-highest popu ...

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a French professional association football, football club based in Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. With origins dating back to 1899, they were founded in 1950 and p ...

and

Lausanne-Sport Football Club Lausanne-Sport is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport compete in the top-tier Swiss Super League after being promoted in the 2022–23 Swiss Challenge League Season. The ...

. But with only one win and three defeats they ended the group stage in last position in the table.

Players

;Players who left the squad

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Pre- and mid-season

Winter break

Nationalliga

Qualifying phase matches

Qualifying phase table

Championship group matches

League standings

Swiss Cup

Swiss League Cup

''St. Gallen won 5–4 on penalties.''

European Cup

;First round ''Wacker won 3–2 on aggregate.''

Coppa delle Alpi

Group B matches

''NB: teams did not play compatriots''

Group standings

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2015/2016. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
Switzerland 1977–78 at RSSSF

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1977-78 FC Basel season FC Basel seasons

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...