1962–63 FC Basel season

The Czechoslovakian manager Jiří Sobotka was the club manager at this time, he taken the job over from Jenő Vincze a year before. A season earlier many youngsters had joined the team and this pre-season the same occurred again. Rolf Lüdi, Enrico Mazzola and Hansruedi Herr were brought up from reserve team. Abraham Levy and Arnold Hofer joined from local team FC Breitenbach, also Werner Meier joined from local team Nordstern Basel. During the winter break Bruno Gatti joined from Black Stars Basel. One of the biggest transfers made during this time was the transfer of the 19 year old Karl Odermatt from Concordia Basel. Odermatt joined in a swop, Hansueli Oberer and Silvan Thüler went to Concordia. Not only these two players left the squad, Paul Speidel moved on to Cantonal Neuchatel and Josef Hügi (Hugi II) was nearly at the end of his football career. "Seppe" Hugi had played 363 competition games for the club and in these had scored 272 goals, he moved on to play for Zürich.

Basel played a total of 51 games this season. Of these 51, 26 were in the domestic league, six were in the Swiss Cup, three in the Cup of the Alps, six in the International Football Cup (IFC) and ten were friendly matches. Of these friendly games, five were won, three drawn and two ended in a defeat, Basel scored 29 goals and conceded 19.[1]

Basel were appointed as one of four Swiss representatives in the International Football Cup (IFC). The 1962–63 IFC took place during the summer break. Basel played in Group B3 together with PSV Eindhoven, HNK Rijeka and Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. Basel ended the group stage in third position, winners of the group were HNK Rijeka who thus advanced to the quarter-finals.[2]

There were fourteen teams contesting in the 1962–63 Nationalliga A. These were the top 12 teams from the previous season 1961–62 and the two newly promoted teams Chiasso and Sion. The Championship was played in a double round-robin, the champions were to be qualified for 1963–64 European Cup and the bottom placed two teams in the table were to be relegated. Basel finished the championship in sixth position with twenty six points, with ten wins and six draws from 26 matches, scoring 59 goals conceding 51. FC Zürich won the championship. Heinz Blumer was Basel's top scorer this season with 16 goals, Karl Odermatt their second best goal scorer with 14.[3]

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 3rd principal round, on 3 November, with a 4–0 home win, in the St. Jakob Stadium against Black Stars. In the 4th round, on 2 December, they played away against Young Boys winning 2–0. In the next round, on 30 December they won 7–1 at home against SC Burgdorf. In the quarter-finals, played on 24 February 1963, Basel were drawn away against Chiasso and Basel achieved a 2–1 victory. The semi-final was played on 24 March in the St. Jakob Stadium. Basel beat Lausanne-Sports 1–0 the winning goal scored by Markus Pfirter. The Wankdorf Stadium hosted the Swiss Cup Final on 15 April and Basel played against favorites Grasshopper Club Zürich. Two goals after half time, one by Heinz Blumer and the second from Otto Ludwig gave Basel a 2–0 victory and their third Cup win in their history.[4]

A unique story for the history books over this Cup season belongs Bruno Gatti. In the third round he was member of the Black Stars team and was knocked out of the competition. During the winter break he was hired by Basel. In the final Gatti played the full 90 minutes and became cup winner.[5] Another note belongs to Peter Füri who played in all the cup games except the Final because he became ill.

In the Cup of the Alps Basel were drawn into Group 2, together with Juventus, Grasshopper Club and AS Roma. These matches were all played in Basel and in Zürich. Basel played all their matches at home in the St. Jakob Stadium. In their first match, on 16 June 1963, against Juventus, they were defeated 1–5. Their second game was on 19 June against Grasshopper Club and this ended in a draw. The third match was against AS Roma, but they were defeated 1–4. Juventus qualified for final with three victories and AS Roma qualified for third place match with two victories and one defeat.[6]

First Round

Basel v Bayern Munich

16 October 1962 First leg	Basel	0 – 3	Bayern Munich	Basel
		Summary	41', 70' Brenninger 86' Drescher	Stadium: St. Jakob Stadium Attendance: 5,800 Referee: Norman Mootz

Second leg not played and noted without goals as no result. Bayern Munich qualify for second round.