1897–98 FC Basel season

FC Basel
1897–98 season
ChairmanSwitzerland Charlie Volderauer
First team coachunknown
GroundLandhof, Basel
Top goalscorern/a
Average home league attendancen/a

The FC Basel 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 (1893–1896) and Emanuel Schiess (1896). FC Basel played their home games in the Landhof, 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

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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 (SFA; founded in 1895). FC Basel did not participate in this first championship, neither did local rivals Old Boys.[1]

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.[2]

For this season FC Basel organised 10 friendly matches for their first team. Five were played at home in the Landhof and all five were won. Two friendlies were played in Zürich and both ended in high scoring defeats, 3–7 against Zürich and 0–7 against Grasshopper Club. The return game against local club Old Boys was drawn and the return game against Biel-Bienne was won 5–2. The friendly match against FC Bern was played on neutral ground in Aarau 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.[3]

Players

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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
GK Switzerland SUI Adolf Rittmann
DF Switzerland SUI Josy Ebinger
DF Switzerland SUI Charles Volderauer
FW Switzerland SUI Roland Geldner
FW Switzerland SUI Wilhelm Glaser
FW Switzerland SUI Emanuel Schiess
FW Switzerland SUI Hermann Schneider
FW Switzerland SUI Ernst-Alfred Thalmann I
FW Switzerland SUI Hans Billeter
  Alfred Devick
Switzerland SUI Georges Fürstenberger
DF Switzerland SUI Ernst Gass
Switzerland SUI Louis Gürtler
No. Pos. Nation Player
Switzerland SUI Rudolf Iselin
Switzerland SUI Rudolf La Roche
Switzerland SUI Albert Linder
Switzerland SUI ? Lohn
Switzerland SUI Hermann Matzinger
Switzerland SUI Eric Mory
  ? Preiswerk
MF Switzerland SUI Otto Reber
Switzerland SUI Rudolf Schwarz
Switzerland SUI R. Sommer
Switzerland SUI John Tollmann
Switzerland SUI Roland Ziegler
Switzerland SUI Walter Zürrer

Results

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Legend

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  Win   Draw   Loss

Friendly matches

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Autumn

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17 October 1897 Friendly Zürich Switzerland 7–3 Switzerland Basel Zürich
(1:1)
Enderli (2:1)
(3:2)
Meyer (4:3)
Mädler (5:3)
Wiederkehr (6:3)
Wiederkehr (7:3)
Summary (0:1)
(2:2) H. Schneider
(3:3)
Referee: Switzerland J. Suter, (FC Zürich)
24 October 1897 Friendly Basel Switzerland 7–0 Switzerland Biel-Bienne Landhof, Basel
H. Schneider (1:0)
(2:0)
(3:0)
(4:0)
(5:0)
(6:0)
(7:0)
Summary
31 October 1897 Friendly Basel Switzerland 1–0 Switzerland Old Boys Landhof, Basel
(1:0) Summary Referee: Switzerland H. Burkhardt, (Basel)
7 November 1897 Friendly Grasshopper Club Switzerland 7–0 Switzerland Basel Zürich






Summary
14 November 1897 Friendly Basel Switzerland 3–1 Switzerland FC Excelsior Zürich Landhof, Basel


Summary Referee: Switzerland de Costa, (FC Basel)

Spring

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27 March 1898 Friendly Basel Switzerland 3–1 Switzerland Winterthur Landhof, Basel


Summary Referee: Switzerland Tollmann, (FC Basel)
1 May 1898 Friendly Old Boys Switzerland 1–1 Switzerland Basel Stadion Schützenmatte, Basel
10:00 61' (1:1) Summary 6' (0:1) H. Schneider Referee: Switzerland J. Enderli, (FC Zürich)
8 May 1898 Friendly Basel Switzerland 2–0 Switzerland FC Fortuna Zürich Landhof, Basel
14:30
Summary Referee: Switzerland Tollmann, (FC Basel)
10 July 1898 Friendly FC Bern Switzerland 1–4 Switzerland Basel Aarau
(1:1) Summary (o.g. 0:1)
(1:2)
(1:3)
(1:4)
Referee: Switzerland de Costa, (FC Basel)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Erik Garin. "Swiss championship 1897–98". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  2. ^ Stefan Peter. "Basler Fussballvereine / Basler football clubs". Retrieved 2020-11-16.
  3. ^ Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. "Bilanz 1897–98". Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv”. Retrieved 2020-11-16.

Sources

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(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.)

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