FC Basel

1983–84 season
Chairman	Urs Gribi
Manager	Ernst August Künnecke
Ground	St. Jakob Stadium, Basel
Nationalliga A	9th
Swiss Cup	Round of 32
Top goalscorer	League: Beat Sutter (12) All: Beat Sutter (14)
Highest home attendance	10,000 on 4 October 1983 vs Servette
Lowest home attendance	2,000 on 6 June 1984 vs Bellinzona
Average home league attendance	5.553
← 1982–83 1984–85 →

The Fussball Club Basel 1893 1983–84 season was their 90th season since the club was founded. It was their 38th consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football after they won promotion during the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium. Urs Gribi was their newly appointed chairman, he replaced Roland Rasi who stood down at the AGM after just one year chairmanship.

Ernst August Künnecke was appointed as Basel’s new first team manager and Emil Müller was appointed as his assistant. They had taken over from Rainer Ohlhauser, who had been manager for just the previous season. Künnecke had not played as professional footballer, but had played in the highest amateur levels before becoming professional head coach in Belgium. Künnecke's reputation grew because of his conveyance, his advancing and his greatest strength was the furtherance of young players. Waterschei Thor and KV Mechelen were two of Künnecke's stations in Belgium and that is the reason why Basel played two test games against these teams during the first half of the season.

A number of players left the squad. Hans Küng retired after having been with the club six years and playing in a total of 252 games, of which 154 in the Nationalliga A and 16 were in the European competitions (European Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup of the Alps). Peter Marti move to Aarau after having been with the club seven years, playing in 262 games of which 146 in the Nationalliga A and 29 in the European competitions. Serge Duvernois and Serge Gaisser moved on to play for FC Mulhouse. Further Bruno Graf moved to Wettingen, Winfried Berkemeier to FC Raron and Roger Bossert to local club FC Laufen. In the other direction a number of new players joined the club. Three came from Wettingen, goalkeeper Urs Suter and the two defenders Martin Andermatt and Rolf Lauper. Uwe Dreher joined from Stuttgarter Kickers and René Botteron from 1. FC Nürnberg. Two youngsters were brought in from local clubs, Thomas Süss from Nordstern Basel and Fredy Grossenbacher from Concordia Basel. Another youngster, Peter Nadig, advanced from Basel's own youth team.

Künnecke coached Basel in a total of 58 games in their 1983–84 season. 30 matches were played in the domestic league, two in the Swiss Cup and 26 were friendly matches. Of their 26 test games, 17 ended with a victory, one was drawn and eight ended with a defeat. The team scored 88 goals in these test matches and conceded 42. Only two of these test games were played at home in St. Jakob Stadium, the pre-season match against Celtic and the end of season game against local team Nordstern Basel. The others games were all played away. Under these were the two games in the Uhrencup which Basel won, 3–2 against Grenchen in the semi-final and 1–0 against Zürich in the final.^[1]

The 1983–84 Nationalliga A was contested by 16 teams, including the top 14 clubs from the previous season and the two sides promoted from the second level 1982–83 Nationalliga B, these being La Chaux-de-Fonds and Chiasso. The league was contested in a double round robin format, with each club playing every other club twice, home and away. Two points were awarded for a win and one point given to each team for a draw. The champions would be qualified for 1984–85 European Cup and the next two teams in the league would be qualified for the 1984–85 UEFA Cup.

As the season advanced it became increasingly apparent that Künnecke's ideas were not reaching the entire team squad at all times. Basel's youngsters played well during this season, Fredy Grossenbacher, Martin Jeitziner, Peter Nadig, Thomas Hauser and Beat Sutter advanced well under Künnecke. But Künnecke's ideas were not being accepted by the older, experienced players. At home, in the St. Jakob Stadium the team was playing well and winning the games, the first five home games were all won. However, the first seven away games all ended with a defeat. After the winter break Basel lost their first home game against La Chaux-de-Fonds 0–1. Künnecke reacted immediately and this was the last game that the three veterans Arthur von Wartburg, Jörg Stohler and Jean-Pierre Maradan played in the team. The supporters had noted the differences and the final home game of the season attracted only 2,000 spectators.^[2] Basel ended the season in ninth position. In their 30 league games Basel won eleven matches, drew six and lost thirteen. Basel obtained 28 points, scored 55 and conceding 59 goals. They were 16 points behind Grasshopper Club and Servette both of whom finished level on 44 points. A play-off match was to decide the championship and this was who by the Grasshoppers who became champions for the second consecutive year. Bellinzona and Chiasso suffered relegation.^[3]

Basel entered into the Swiss Cup in the round of 64 and here they were drawn away against local lower league club FC Birsfelden. The match was a one-sided affair and Basel won 8–0. In the round of 32 they had a home fixture against Luzern but were beaten 0–3. Servette won the Cup beating Lausanne-Sport 1–0 in the final. As Cup winners Servette were qualified for the 1984–85 Cup Winners' Cup. Basel did not play in any other cup competitions because the Swiss League Cup was no longer competed and because they were not qualified for European competitions, nor did they enter the Coppa delle Alpi this season.^[4]

The following is the list of the Basel first team squad during the season 1983–84. The list includes players that were in the squad on the day that the Nationalliga A season started on 10 August 1983 but subsequently left the club after that date.

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  SUI Hans Müller 1 GK  SUI Thomas Paul 1 GK  SUI Urs Suter (from Wettingen) 2 DF  SUI Walter Geisser 3 DF  GER Thomas Süss (from Nordstern Basel) 4 DF  SUI Martin Andermatt (from Wettingen) 5 DF  SUI Jörg Stohler 6 DF  SUI Fredy Grossenbacher (from Concordia Basel) 7 MF  SUI Martin Jeitziner 8 FW  SUI Beat Sutter 9 FW  GER Uwe Dreher (from Stuttgarter Kickers) 10 MF  SUI Arthur von Wartburg 11 FW  SUI Ruedi Zbinden

No. Pos. Nation Player 12 DF  SUI Jean-Pierre Maradan 13 DF  SUI Alfred Lüthi 14 DF  SUI Rolf Lauper (from Wettingen) 15 MF  GER Thomas Hauser 15 MF  SUI Nicolas Keller 16 MF  SUI Peter Nadig (from youth team) 17 MF  SUI René Botteron (from 1. FC Nürnberg) 18 MF  SUI Erni Maissen 19 MF  SUI Guido Rudin — DF  SUI Stefano Ceccaroni (to Chiasso) —  SUI Felix Rudin —  SUI Thomas Schneider

Players who left the squad

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  SUI Hans Küng (retired) — DF  FRA Serge Duvernois (to FC Mulhouse) — DF  SUI Bruno Graf (to Wettingen)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  GER Winfried Berkemeier (to FC Raron) — MF  SUI Roger Bossert (to FC Laufen) — MF  FRA Serge Gaisser (to FC Mulhouse) — FW  SUI Peter Marti (to Aarau)

Legend

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Grasshopper Club (C)	30	19	6	5	59	32	+27	44	Championship play-off winners, qualified for 1984–85 European Cup
2	Servette	30	19	6	5	67	31	+36	44	Championship play-off and Swiss Cup winners, qualified for 1984–85 Cup Winners' Cup
3	Sion	30	18	7	5	74	39	+35	43	qualified for 1984–85 UEFA Cup
4	Xamax	30	15	10	5	54	27	+27	40	qualified for 1984–85 UEFA Cup
5	St. Gallen	30	16	8	6	57	41	+16	40	entered 1983 Intertoto Cup
6	Lausanne-Sport	30	13	8	9	49	37	+12	34
7	La Chaux-de-Fonds	30	12	9	9	52	47	+5	33
8	Wettingen	30	12	6	12	43	43	0	30	entered 1983 Intertoto Cup
9	Basel	30	11	6	13	55	59	−4	28
10	Aarau	30	9	9	12	50	42	+8	27
11	Young Boys	30	8	9	13	39	40	−1	25
12	Zürich	30	8	8	14	39	56	−17	24	entered 1983 Intertoto Cup
13	Vevey-Sports	30	9	6	15	43	65	−22	24
14	Luzern	30	9	4	17	35	52	−17	22	entered 1983 Intertoto Cup
15	Bellinzona	30	4	4	22	30	79	−49	12	Relegated to 1984–85 Nationalliga B
16	Chiasso	30	4	2	24	26	82	−56	10	Relegated to 1984–85 Nationalliga B

• 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* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• FCB squad 1983–84 at fcb-archiv.ch
• Switzerland 1983–84 at RSSSF

• FC Basel official site