1987–88 FC Basel season

Following the poor previous season, as the team only escaped relegation in the play-out round, Helmut Benthaus retired as head coach and there were also a number of players who left the club. Former Swiss international midfielder René Botteron retired from active football. German former international Gerhard Strack returned to Germany to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf. Another German player also moved to Germany, Thomas Süss moved on to play for Karlsruher SC. French player Jean-Pierre François moved back to France to play for AS Saint-Étienne. Also Fredy Grossenbacher and Marco Schällibaum both moved to Servette, André Ladner moved to Lugano and Erni Maissen transferred to Young Boys. Further reserve goalkeeper Patrick Mäder moved on to Baden and Luiz Gonçalo moved on to Old Boys.

Urs Siegenthaler was appointed as new first team coach and because 11 players left the squad he had to build a new team. But the club was suffering financial difficulties and there was no money to spend. However, one interesting transfer was that of Scottish Gordon Smith coming from Admira Wacker. Another interesting transfer was that of German Uwe Dittus from FC Winterslag. Another two experienced players were Frank Eggeling joined from Grenchen and Ruedi Zahner from Aarau. All other new players were youngsters, goalkeeper Bernard Pulver joined from lower tier FC Bern, Peter Bernauer from German team SV 08 Laufenburg, Remo Steiner from local club FC Aesch, Ralph Thoma from local club FC Rheinfelden, Mathias Wehrli from local club FC Laufen. Six players were brought up from the youth team. These being Philipp Baumberger, Massimo Ceccaroni, Bernd Schramm, Adrian Sedlo, Fotios Karapetsas and Patrick Rahmen.

Another interesting transfer was that of Varadaraju Sundramoorthy from Singapore FA. Sundramoorthy became only the second player from Singapore to play in Europe when he signed during the winter break and one of the first Asian players to play in Switzerland. He is widely touted as one of the country's most skillful and talented footballers ever. Sundramoorthy had problems adapting to European football, he did not have the stamina and strength to play the entire 90 minutes and manager Siegenthaler used him as a substitute because he had the skills to decide a match.[1]

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) had changed the form of the domestic league for this season. The number of teams in the Nationalliga A had been reduced from 16 to 12 and in the Nationalliga B had been increased from 16 to 24, these were divided into two regional groups. The top eight teams after the first stage would compete the second stage as championship group. The last four teams would compete the second stage in two promotion/relegation groups with the top six teams from each of the two Nationalliga B groups. Basel started the season badly, losing the first five league games straight off, conceding 17 goals, scoring just three. In the third round on 15 August they were defeated 1–9 by Xamax. Up until today this is still the highest score defeat that Basel have suffered in their domestic league history. Xamax manager at that time was Gilbert Gress. The goal scorers were 2x Robert Lüthi, 2x Robert Lei-Ravello, 2x Beat Sutter, 2x Heinz Hermann and Alain Geiger. The only goal for Basel was scored by Ralph Thoma.[2]

The team never recovered from the bad start and even lost seven of the eleven return games. They ended the qualifying stage of the championship with just 13 points in 11th position. This meant that they had to play in one of the two promotion/relegation groups. Despite a good start in this phase, they won their first three matches, they were defeated by Bellinzona and then by Wettingen. Basel thus lost contact to these two teams in the top two positions in the league table. The first two places would qualify for next seasons top flight. In their last six games Basel could not achieve a single victory and therefore they slipped to fifth position in the table and were relegated to the Nationalliga B.[3]

Xamax won the Swiss championship, second and third placed Servette and Aarau qualified for the 1988–89 UEFA Cup.

In the Swiss Cup, in round of 64, Basel were drawn against local rivals Old Boys. The game ended with a 1–2 defeat and therefore the cup season was ended much earlier than expected. In the final Grasshopper Club won the cup with a 2–0 victory over Schaffhausen and thus qualified for the 1988–89 Cup Winners' Cup.[4]

Promotion/relegation group A

Basel v Etoile-Carouge

5 March 1988 Round 1	Basel	4 – 0	Etoile-Carouge	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
20:00	Thoma 5' (1:0) Thoma 52' (2:0) Hauser 70' (3:0) Hauser 73' (4:0)	Summary	42' Nogués  45' Harder	Attendance: 2,200 Referee: Fredy Phillippoz

Bulle v Basel

19 March 1988 Round 2	Bulle	0 – 2	Basel	Stade de Bouleyres, Bulle
14:30		Summary	87' (0:1) Sundramoorthy 90+1' (0:2) Bützer	Attendance: 2,800 Referee: Francis Fischer

Basel v Malley

23 March 1988 Round 3	Basel	1 – 0	Malley	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
20:00	Thoma 8' (1:0)	Summary	19' Knigge	Attendance: 2,500 Referee: Bruno Klötzli

Bellinzona v Basel

30 March 1988 Round 4	Bellinzona	4 – 1	Basel	Stadio Comunale Bellinzona, Bellinzona
20:00	Türkyilmaz 10' (1:0) Pellegrini 15' (2:0) Pellegrini 36' (3:1) Pellegrini 44' (4:1) Germann  58'	Summary	27' (2:1) Dittus  38' Hauser  86' Dittus	Attendance: 1,100 Referee: Manfred Schlup (Grenchen)

Basel v Wettingen

4 April 1988 Round 5	Basel	0 – 2	Wettingen	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
14:30	Hauser  36'  38' Nadig  42'	Summary	28' (0:1) Rueda  72' Bertelsen 79' (0:2) Svensson	Attendance: 6,800 Referee: Paul-Louis Christe

Old Boys v Basel

9 April 1988 Round 6	Old Boys	3 – 3	Basel	Stadion Schützenmatte, Basel
20:00	Herr 16' (o.g. 1:0) Kägi 23' (2:0) Lius 27' (3:0) Maurer  70' de Almeida  76'	Summary	39' (3:1) Thoma 53' (3:2) Thoma 87' (3:3) Dittus	Attendance: 5,400 Referee: Peter Kellenberger

Basel v Schaffhausen

16 April 1988 Round 7	Basel	4 – 1	Schaffhausen	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
20:00	Ceccaroni  17' Bützer 41' (1:1) Dittus  45' Hauser 55' (2:1) Knup 63' (pen. 3:1) Ralph Thoma 85' (4:1)	Summary	15' (0:1) Axel Thoma  43' Filomeno  62' Lehmann  64' Mercanti  67' Heydecker	Attendance: 5,500 Referee: Georges Sandoz

Etoile-Carouge v Basel

23 April 1988 Round 8	Etoile-Carouge	0 – 6	Basel	Stade de la Fontenette, Carouge
17:30	Harder Radi Toth	Summary	18' (0:1) Nadig 20' (0:2) Nadig 33' (0:3) Nadig 45' (0:4) Bützer 53' (0:5) Sundramoorthy 68' (0:6) Knup	Attendance: 850 Referee: Francis Fischer

Basel v Bulle

30 April 1988 Round 9	Basel	1 – 2	Bulle	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
20:00	Knup 77' (pen. 1:2)	Summary	33' (0:1) Lehnherr 70' (0:2) Lehnherr  77' Esseiva  90+2' Hofer	Attendance: 4,500 Referee: Marcel Despland (Yverdon)

Malley v Basel

3 May 1988 Round 10	Malley	2 – 2	Basel	Stade du Bois Gentil, Malley (Lausanne)
18:45	Salou  58' Salou 61' (pen. 1:2) Martelli 72' (2:2)	Summary	7' (0:1) Knup 17' (0:2) Nadig	Attendance: 920 Referee: Kurt Röthlisberger (Suhr)

Basel v Bellinzona

7 May 1988 Round 11	Basel	0 – 2	Bellinzona	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
	Pulver  85'	Summary	17' Gilli  66' Aeby 77' (0:1) Aeby 86' (0:2) Jacobacci	Attendance: 7,600 Referee: Franz Gächter

Wettingen v Basel

14 May 1988 Round 12	Wettingen	3 – 2	Basel	Stadion Altenburg, Wettingen
20:00	Svensson 4' Baumgartner 11' Merin  37' Schepull 41' Häusermann  57'	Summary	21' Dittus 36' Sundramoorthy  60' Bützer  62' Hodel  70' Hauser  88' Sundramoorthy	Attendance: 3,500 Referee: Daniel Roduit

Basel v Old Boys

19 May 1988 Round 13	Basel	1 – 1	Old Boys	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
20:00	Knup 47' (1:0) Bützer  51' Hauser  54'	Summary	4' Lüdi  48' Cosenza 66' (1:1) Magro	Attendance: 1,400 Referee: Bruno Klötzli

Schaffhausen v Basel

21 May 1988 Round 14	Schaffhausen	0 – 0	Basel	Stadion Breite, Schaffhausen
20:00		Summary		Attendance: 2,850 Referee: Francis Fischer