The 1996–97 Fussball Club Basel 1893 season was their 104th season since the club's foundation. Peter Epting retired from the chairmanship and René C. Jäggi became the club's new chairman following the AGM which was held in November. FC Basel played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium. Following their promotion in the 1993–94 season this was their third consecutive season in the highest tier of Swiss football.
Overview
Pre-season
Karl Engel was trainer at the start of the season, but he was replaced by Heinz Hermann in March 1997. Hermann only remained manager for a few weeks and was replaced by Salvatore Andracchio (ad interim) until the end of the season. The clubs priority aim was to remain in the top flight of Swiss football.
A number of players had left the club during the off-season,
Ike Shorunmu
Ike Ibrahim Shorunmu (born 16 October 1967) is a former Nigerian football goalkeeper.
Career
Shorunmu was born in Lagos. After a few years in Nigeria he moved to play in Switzerland, and made his mark there. He was bought by Turkish club Be� ...
transferred to
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich () i ...
,
Mario Cantaluppi
Mario "Lupo" Cantaluppi (born 11 April 1974) is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder.
Club career
Born in Schlieren, Switzerland, Mario Cantaluppi started his professional career with Grasshopper Club Z� ...
moved to
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 incorpor ...
and
Gabriel Okolosi
Gabriel Okolosi (born 8 July 1974) is a Nigerian former association football, footballer who played in the 1990s. He played mainly in the position as Forward (association football), striker, but also as midfielder.
Football career
Born in Niger ...
Davide Orlando
Davide Orlando (born 13 October 1971) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently managed Martigny-Sports. He played as a midfielder in the late 1980s and the 1990s.
Playing career
Born in Monthey, Orlando played his youth ...
and Alexandre Rey moved back to Sion. Further players who left the club were
Marco Walker
Marco Walker (born 2 May 1970) is a Swiss football manager and a former international who played as a defender during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
Club career
Walker started his youth football with local club FC Bellach. From 1983 with he was w ...
, who moved to German team
1860 Munich
, commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football.
1860 Munich was one of the founding members ...
,
Lars Olsen
Lars Christian Olsen (born 2 February 1961) is a Danish former footballer and current manager, who was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB in the Danish Superliga. He started his coaching career with Randers in 2003, guiding them to promotio ...
Andre Meier
Andre Meier (born 3 March 1965) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a midfielder during the 1980s and 1990s.
Football career
Meier began his career with his local club FC Baden, joining their first team during their 1984–85 season and ...
moved on to
FC Schaffhausen
FC Schaffhausen is a Swiss football team from the town of Schaffhausen. The club plays in the Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football.
Honours League
Swiss Challenge League
*Winners: 1962-63, 2003–04
Cup
Swiss Cup
*Runners-up ...
. To balance this, the club made some new signings as the season started.
Adrian Knup
Adrian Knup (born 2 July 1968) is a Swiss former professional Association football, football Forward (association football), striker who played in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was capped 49 times and scored 26 goals for the Switzerland national foot ...
returned to the club, signed in after a short spell by
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...
. Other players who joined from foreign clubs were,
Adrian Falub
Adrian Falub (born 8 July 1971) is a Romanian football manager and former player.
Club career
Falub started to play football at Unirea Dej in the 4'th Romanian league. In 1989, he was transferred to the Liga I team U Cluj where he played 9 cons ...
who came from
Universitatea Cluj
Fotbal Club Universitatea Cluj (), commonly known as Universitatea Cluj or simply as U Cluj, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I, the first tier of the Romanian ...
SR Delémont
SR Delémont is a Swiss football club based in Delémont and founded in 1909. It played in the Swiss Super League
The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in th ...
.
Domestic league
The season did not start too well, it took until the twelfth round until the team recorded their third victory and one of these three was a forfeit victory because YB had used an unqualified player,
Erol Bekir
Erol Bekir, formerly known as Erol Bekirovski, (born 25 January 1974) is a Turkish-Swedish football manager and former player of Turkish origin with roots from Macedonia.
Playing career Club
He started out playing for his hometown club Malmö F ...
ovski, in the match in the fourth round. As the first half of the season came to an end, the team had gathered five victories, ten draws and had suffered seven defeats in which the team scored 32 goals and conceded 33. Gaetano Giallanza was the team's top scorer with nine goals and Mario Frick was second best with six goals. Basel were in eighth position in the league table, thus, they qualified for the Championship round.
During the winter break Markus Schupp signed in on loan from
Hamburger SV
Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...
,
Franco Foda
Franco Foda (born 23 April 1966) is a German football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Swiss club FC Zürich.
Club career
Foda appeared in over 400 top-flight matches in (West) Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Fo ...
signed in from
VfB Stuttgart
Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. Vf ...
CD Toledo
Club Deportivo Toledo, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1928 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 18, holding home games at '' Estadio Salto del Caballo'', w ...
. Also during the winter break
Admir Smajić
Admir Smajić (born 7 September 1963) is a Bosnian professional football manager and former player.
He played for the Yugoslav national team and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.
Club career Partizan
Born in Bijeljina,Young Boys. In the Championship round the team suffered six defeats in a row. During this period head-coach Karl Engel was fired and was replaced by Heinz Hermann. The football did not improve and after just a few weeks Hermann was replaced by Salvatore Andracchio. Basel ended the championship round with nine defeats in twelve games. They had won only three games and so they ended the group in the last position in the league table. The team scored just 16 goals and had conceded 28. Gaetano Giallanza was the team's top scorer, he had netted eight times in this stage.
Swiss Cup
Basel entered 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 ...
in the third principal round. The opponent here was lower tier
FC Münsingen
FC Münsingen is a Swiss football club from the town of Münsingen in Canton Bern, the German-speaking region of Switzerland. The team currently plays in the Promotion League, third highest tier in the Swiss football pyramid.
History
Among th ...
. Basel won the match after extra time. In the fourth round hosted the game against Young Boys and won 2–1. Oumar Kondé and Jean-Pierre La Placa each scored a goal and turned the game, after the team had been a goal behind early in the match. In the round of 16 Basel hosted
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 incorpor ...
but they were knocked out, losing 1–4. The cup final was played between Sion and
Luzern
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital ...
and ended with three all draw after extra time. Sion won the penalty shoot out and won the trophy. Because Sion won the double, as Swiss champions, they were qualified for the 1997–98 Champions League. Therefore, as finalists Luzern qualified to the 1997–98 Cup Winners' Cup.
UEFA Intertoto Cup
In the
1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup
The 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Silkeborg, En Avant Guingamp, and Karlsruher SC. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. No English team took part in support of Tottenham Hotspur and Wimbledon initially getting banned by UEFA
...
Basel played in group 7 together with
Rotor Volgograd
SC Rotor Volgograd (russian: СK Ротор) is a Russian professional football club from the large city of Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad). The club will play in the third-tier Russian Football National League 2 in the 2022– ...
,
Antalyaspor
Antalyaspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Antalya. The club's colours are red and white. They play their home matches at the Antalya Stadium. In Turkey, the club won the First League twice in 1982 and ...
,
Shakhtar Donetsk
Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...
and Ataka-Aura Minsk. Basel won in Turkey against Antalyaspor and at home in the St. Jakob Stadium against Minsk. They drew at home with Shakhtar, but lost the in Russia against Volgograd who ended at the top of the group and continued to the next round. Basel ended the competition as second-placed team in the group league table.
Players
The following is the list of the Basel first team squad. It also includes players that were in the squad the day the season started on 10 July 1996 but subsequently left the club after that date.
;Players who left the squad
List of FC Basel players
FC Basel 1893 (Fussball Club Basel 1893) is a Swiss football club based in Basel, Switzerland. This is a list of footballers who have played for FC Basel since the club was first founded.
''For a list of FC Basel players with a Wikipedia article ...
* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2015/2016. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG.
* Die ersten 125 Jahre / 2018. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.
1996–97 Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv” homepage