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, a ...

1900–01 season was their eighth season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. The club's new chairman was Ernst-Alfred Thalmann, who took over the presidency from Charlie Volderauer at the AGM. He was the fourth chairman in the club's history. 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 Quarter Kleinbasel.

Overview

The first national championship in Switzerland took place in 1897–98. This championship 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 Switzerlan ...

(SFA; founded in 1895). FC Basel did not participate in this first championship. But they did in the second edition during the season 1898–99. The club did not compete in the following season either. But they have participated in every season since.

Alphonse Schorpp Alphonse Schorpp (born 5 January 1881) was a Swiss footballer who played as midfielder in the early 1900s. Schorpp joined FC Basel's first team for their 1899–1900 season. Schorpp played his first game for the club in the friendly game at ...

was nominated as team captain by the club's board of directors under chairman Ernst-Alfred Thalmann. Schorpp led the team trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. In the previous season the team played 16 friendly games. In this season they played eight friendlies and ten games in the league. There is no documentation that shows that there were pre-season friendly games this season, but there were during the winter break, four at home in the

and one in

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, , ; german: Neuenburg) is the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel, situated on the shoreline of Lake Neuchâtel. Since the fusion in 2021 of the municipalities of Neuchâtel, Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux, and Valangin, ...

. At the end of the season the team twice travelled to

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace af ...

, played once against

FC Mulhouse Football Club de Mulhouse (; commonly referred to as FCM or simply Mulhouse) is a French association football club based in Mulhouse. The club was founded in 1893 and currently play in the Championnat National 3, the fifth level of French footb ...

and once against an

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it ha ...

selection. Of the eight friendlies four were won and two were drawn. The Serie A 1900–01 was divided into two groups, an east and a west group. Basel were with three teams from Zürich,

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds t ...

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles ...

Fire Flies Zürich Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

and two other teams from Basel,

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 ...

and

Fortuna Basel Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...

. There were four teams in the west group. The start into the season with a home draw against Fire Flies and an away victory against local rivals can be considered as good. However, in the remaining eight games the team managed only one more draw and a forfait win. A fact is that Basel did not win a single match in the

. Following the draw with Fire Flies, the team suffered four successive home defeats. A further curiosity in this season was that captain Schorpp scored his first league goal for his club on 3 March 1901 in the away game against

Grasshopper Club Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

. In fact he scored two goals, but this could not save the team from a 3–13 defeat. The reasons for this high defeat can be explained with the fact that one of the players missed the train and that the team played with a number of players from their reserve team. Apart from their surnames, Mislan, Pflüger and Trenchard Chaffey, hardly anything else is known of these three gentlemen. Despite the fact that Trenchard Chaffey scored the third Basel goal in this game, he only played in one more league game. Pflüger was documented as player in three friendlies, but the name Mislan can only be found on this one match sheet. Nevertheless, to date this remains the teams' highest and biggest defeat in the club's history. As mentioned, Basel ended the season with two victories, two draws and six defeats in fifth position in the east group. From this group the Grasshopper Club qualified themselves for the finals 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 T ...

, who were the winners of the west group. The final on 31 March was replayed because a player in GC team was non-qualified and GC won the replay to become Swiss champions for the second successive season.

Players

Results

;Legend

Friendly matches

Winter break

End of season

Serie A

East group matches

East group league table

Notes

Footnotes

FCB-GCFCZ-FCBFFZ-FCBFCB-OBFCB-FCZ

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. * Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.

''(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. Much documentation for this season is missing, most goal scorers remain unknown.)

External links

FC Basel official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:1900-01 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) ...