1896–97 FC Basel season

The idea of a Swiss national championship came to review with the Swiss Football Association, that had been founded the previous year and of which Basel and local rivals Old Boys were a member. But such a championship had not yet been called to into life.

The club chairman Charlie Volderauer was the team captain this season. For this season club organised seven friendly matches for their first team. Four of these matches were held in Basel, one in the Landhof, two on the Schützenmatte and from the fourth the place of playing field is uncertain. Basel played two games in Mulhouse. The first against Strassburger FV was lost 3–4 and the second against FC Mulhouse was lost 2–3. Five games were played in November/December and the other two in March and June. Of the seven games, two were won, two were draw and the team suffered three defeats. The team scored 16 and conceded nine goals.[1]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK   SUI Adolf Rittmann — DF   SUI Josy Ebinger — DF   SUI Charles Volderauer — FW   SUI Roland Geldner — FW   SUI Emanuel Schiess — FW   SUI Hermann Schneider — FW  ENG Rudolf Bax —   Alfred Devick —   SUI Joan Gamper —   SUI Fritz Gürtler

No. Pos. Nation Player —   SUI Louis Gürtler —   SUI Rudolf Iselin —   SUI Hans Koch —   SUI Albert Linder —   SUI Eric Mory —   SUI Paul Preiswerk —   SUI Gustav Schwarz —   SUI Rudolf Schwarz —   SUI R. Sommer —   SUI John Tollmann —   SUI R. C. Vanorden

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

• Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. ISBN 978-3-7245-2027-6
• Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. ISBN 978-3-7245-2305-5
• FCB squad 1896–1897 at fcb-archiv.ch

(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.)

• FC Basel official site