1998–99 FC Basel season

FC Basel

1998–99 season
Chairman	René C. Jäggi
Manager	Guy Mathez (until 14 May 1999) Marco Schällibaum (ad interim)
Ground	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel (until 13 Dezember 1998) Stadion Schützenmatte (from 7 March 1999)
Nationalliga A	Qualifying Phase 6th
Nationalliga A	Champions Group 5th
Swiss Cup	Round of 32
Top goalscorer	League: Mario Frick (10) All: Mario Frick (11)
Highest home attendance	34,735 on 13 December 1998 vs Lugano
Lowest home attendance	3,830 on 2 June 1999 vs Luzern
Average home league attendance	9,870[1]
← 1997–98 1999–2000 →

The 1998–99 Fussball Club Basel 1893 season was their 106th season since the club's foundation. Following their promotion in the 1993–94 season this was their fifth consecutive season in the highest tier of Swiss football. René C. Jäggi was the club's chairman for the third year. FC Basel played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium until 13 Dezember 1998. From 7 March 199 they played their games in the Stadion Schützenmatte while the new stadium was being built.

Guy Mathez, who had taken over the coaching in January of that year, was appointed as the new trainer at the start of the season, but on 14 May 1999 he was sacked and was replaced by Marco Schällibaum (ad interim) until the end of the season.

The club made many new signings as the season started, these included Mario Cantaluppi who returned from Servette. Also from Servette came the Romanian international Dan Potocianu and, on loan, the youngster Carlos Varela. Aleksandr Rytchkov was signed from 1. FC Köln and Philippe Cravero signed in from lower classed Etoile Carouge. The Ivorian international Ahmed Ouattara and the young Brazilian Abedi were signed in from Sion. Benjamin Huggel was signed in from local amateur club FC Münchenstein, he had played the previous season for FC Arlesheim, in the fourth tier of Swiss football.

In the other direction Adrian Knup, Daniel Salvi and Jürgen Hartmann all ended their football careers. Dario Zuffi returned to his club of origin Winterthur after having playing five years for the club. Jan Berger moved to Aarau and youngster Alexander Frei was loaned out to Thun so that he could obtain more playing time. Fabinho Santos returned home to Joinville in Brasil.

The first half of the season, until 13 December 1998, Basel's home ground was the St. Jakob Stadium. From 7 March 199 they played their games in the Stadion Schützenmatte and this because the old stadium was demolished and the new stadium was to be built on the same ground. The construction of the new stadium was to be in a little more than two years. The new stadium, the St. Jakob-Park, was to be an all seater, the old stadium had standing places on three sides.

The club's priority aim was to remain in the top flight of Swiss football. The season started fairly well, with five victories and three draws in the first ten rounds. However, seven defeats in the next nine rounds let the team slip down into the bottom areas of the table. Basel ende the qualification stage with eight victories, four draws and ten defeats, with just 21 goals scored and 34 conceded, with 28 points in sixth position in the league table. With this tally they were qualified for Champions Group for the second half of the season. With an average second half of the season, winning five games, drawing four and losing five, Basel in the league tables fifth position, managed to qualify for the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup. With four goals in the qualification round and six in the championship round Mario Frick was the team's top goal scorer.^[2]

All eyes were set on the cup season. But despite a draw against lower classed Stade Nyonnais, Basel's cup season came to an abrupt end, because they were unable to pass this hurdle, losing the match on penalties. Lausanne-Sport won the Swiss Cup final on 13 June 199 in the Wankdorf Stadium, winning 2–0 against Grasshopper Club.^[3]

The following is the list of the Basel first team squad. It includes all players that were in the squad the day the season started on 18 July 1998 but subsequently left the club after that date and it includes all players that transferred in during the season.

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SUI Stefan Huber 2 DF  SUI Massimo Ceccaroni 3 DF  SUI Luís Calapes 4 DF  SUI Theodoros Disseris (on loan to Winterthur) 5 DF  GER Oliver Kreuzer 6 DF  SUI Philippe Cravero 7 FW  LIE Marco Pérez 8 MF  LIE Mario Frick 9 MF  FRA Fabrice Henry 10 MF  RUS Aleksandr Rytchkov 11 FW  SUI Deniz Mendi 12 DF  SUI Sébastien Barberis 13 DF  SUI Marco Tschopp 14 FW  RUS Daniel Dobrovoljski

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 DF  SUI Ivan Reimann 17 MF  CZE Václav Pěchouček 18 GK  SUI Slaven Matan 19 DF  SUI Fabinho 20 DF  SUI Oumar Kondé (to Blackburn) 21 MF  BRA Argemiro Veiga 22 MF  TUR Atilla Sahin 23 DF  SUI Benjamin Huggel 24 DF  BRA Abedi 25 MF  CIV Ahmed Ouattara 26 FW  SUI Mario Cantaluppi 27 FW  SUI Carlos Varela 28 DF  ROU Dan Potocianu 29 FW  SUI Urs Güntensperger 30 FW  TUR Cetin Güner

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 6 DF  SUI Philippe Cravero (from Etoile Carouge) 10 MF  RUS Aleksandr Rytchkov (from 1. FC Köln) 21 MF  BRA Argemiro Veiga (from Sion) 22 MF  TUR Atilla Sahin (from SV Muttenz) 23 DF  SUI Benjamin Huggel (from FC Arlesheim)

No. Pos. Nation Player 24 DF  BRA Abedi (from Sion) 25 MF  CIV Ahmed Ouattara (from Sion) 26 FW  SUI Mario Cantaluppi (from Servette) 27 FW  SUI Carlos Varela (from Servette) 28 DF  ROU Dan Potocianu (from Servette) 29 FW  SUI Urs Güntensperger (from Lausanne-Sport) 30 FW  TUR Cetin Güner (from Borussia Dortmund)

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  SUI Daniel Salvi (unknown, end of career) 7 FW  SUI Dario Zuffi (to Winterthur) 10 MF  GER Maurizio Gaudino (to VfL Bochum) 13 FW  SUI Adrian Knup (retired, end of career)

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF  GER Jürgen Hartmann (retired end of career) 22 MF  BRA Webber (Leandro Dos Santos) (unknown) 23 DF  SUI Jan Berger (to Aarau) 24 DF  BRA Fabinho Santos (to Joinville) 27 FW  SUI Alexander Frei (to Thun)

Legend

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Servette	22	12	8	2	38	24	+14	44	Advance to championship round halved points (rounded up) as bonus
2	Grasshopper Club	22	11	5	6	37	25	+12	38
3	Zürich	22	10	8	4	33	21	+12	38
4	Lausanne-Sport	22	10	8	4	36	33	+3	38
5	Xamax	22	7	11	4	30	23	+7	32
6	Basel	22	8	4	10	21	34	−13	28
7	Luzern	22	6	9	7	26	25	+1	27
8	St. Gallen	22	7	6	9	31	31	0	27
9	Sion	22	5	8	9	22	36	−14	23	Continue to promotion/relegation round
10	Lugano	22	5	7	10	35	43	−8	22
11	Young Boys	22	4	7	11	33	34	−1	19
12	Aarau	22	3	7	12	28	41	−13	16

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	BP	Pts	Qualification
1	Servette	14	7	3	4	19	14	+5	22	46	Swiss champions, qualified for Champions League third qualifying round
2	Grasshopper Club	14	8	3	3	31	11	+20	19	46	qualified for UEFA Cup qualifying round
3	Lausanne-Sport	14	8	2	4	28	20	+8	19	45	Swiss Cup winners, qualified for UEFA Cup first round
4	Zürich	14	7	2	5	24	15	+9	19	42	qualified for UEFA Cup qualifying round
5	Basel	14	5	4	5	18	19	−1	14	33	qualified for Intertoto Cup first round
6	Xamax	14	2	6	6	12	27	−15	16	28	qualified for Intertoto Cup first round
7	Luzern	14	4	2	8	13	27	−14	14	28
8	St. Gallen	14	2	4	8	13	25	−12	14	24

• History of FC Basel
• List of FC Basel players
• List of FC Basel seasons

• Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2015/2016. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. ISBN 978-3-7245-2050-4
• Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2017/2018. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. ISBN 978-3-7245-2189-1
• 1998–99 at Joggeli.ch
• 1998–99 at RSSSF

• FC Basel official site