1965–66 FC Basel season
# 1965–66 FC Basel season

The 1965–66 season was Fussball Club Basel 1893's 72nd season in their existence. It was their 20th consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football after their promotion in the 1945–46 season. They played their home games either in the traditional stadium Landhof or in their new venue the St. Jakob Stadium. Lucien Schmidlin was club chairman for the fourth consecutive year.

## Overview

### Pre-season

To the beginning of the season Helmut Benthaus transferred in from 1. FC Köln and became player-coach. He replaced Jiří Sobotka as team manager, who went on to manage the Swiss national team. Benthaus was a graduate of the German Sport University Cologne and an experienced player trainer. Two seasons earlier Benthaus had won the 1963–64 Bundesliga as player-manager with Köln. Benthaus used his first season with Basel to observe, feel and classify. One of the biggest changes that he made, with the agreement of the board of directors, was introduce semi-professionalism.

There were only a few minor changes to the squad, Rade Ognjanović transferred to Grenchen and Heinz Sartor transferred to Offenburger FV. Three players stepped back from Nationalliga A football, Carlo Porlezza, Mario Grava and Fernando Von Krannichfeldt went to play for the reserve team. As replacements three youngsters came from the youth team and three more from the reserve team.

### Domestic league

Fourteen teams contested the 1965–66 Nationalliga A. These were the top 12 teams from the previous 1964–65 season and the two newly promoted teams Urania Genève Sport and Young Fellows Zürich. Basel finished the season in sixth position with 27 points. They ended the championship with ten wins, seven draws and nine defeats in their 26 matches. They scored 64 goals and conceded 57. Top league goal scorer was Roberto Frigerio with 15 goals, ahead of Karl Odermatt who scored 11 and Helmut Hauser with 10 goals. Basel played 15 Test games, winning ten, one draw and losing four. Roberto 'Mucho' Frigerio was also the top scorer in these games, with 16 goals in just 13 games. Alone in the match against Black Stars Basel he managed to net the ball six times.

### Swiss Cup

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 on 7 November 1965, with a home win against Biel-Bienne. In the next round they played at home against Luzern with a 3–1 win. In the next round they were drawn away in the Wankdorf Stadium, Bern, against Young Boys. This ended in a 2–1 victory. In the semi-final they were drawn at home against Servette but were defeated 1–3. Zürich won the final and completed the double.

### Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

In the 1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Basel were drawn against Spanish team Valencia, but were beaten twice. In the Cup of the Alps Basel were drawn in the same group as Catania, S.S.C. Napoli, Juventus and Spal Ferrara. All four games ended in a defeat.

## Players

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

| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | GK | SUI | Marcel Kunz |
| 2 | DF | GER | Josef Kiefer |
| 3 | DF | SUI | Bruno Michaud |
| 4 | DF | SUI | Markus Pfirter |
| 5 | DF | SUI | Hanspeter Stocker |
| 6 | FW | GER | Helmut Hauser |
| 7 | FW | SUI | Hanspeter Vetter (new from youth team) |
| 8 | MF | GER | Helmut Benthaus |
| 9 | FW | SUI | Roberto Frigerio |
| 10 | DF | SUI | Walter Mundschin (new from youth team) |
| 11 | FW | SUI | Aldo Moscatelli |
| — | GK | FRA | Jean-Paul Laufenburger |
| — | GK | SUI | Hans-Ruedi Günthardt |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | DF | SUI | Walter Baumann |
| — | DF | SUI | Peter Füri |
| — | DF | SUI | Roland Paolucci (new from youth team) |
| — | DF | SUI | Silvan Schwager (new) |
| — | DF | SUI | Urs Siegenthaler (new from reserve team) |
| — | MF | SUI | Werner Decker |
| — | FW | SUI | Bruno Gabrieli |
| — | FW | GER | Helmut Hauser |
| — | FW | HUN | Janos Konrad |
| — | MF | SUI | Karl Odermatt |
| — | FW | ITA | Enrico Mazzola |
| — | FW | SUI | Alois Holenstein (reserve team) |
| — | FW | SUI | Urs Rickenbacher (reserve team) |

### Players who left the squad

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

| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| - | - | - | - |
| — | MF | SUI | Carlo Porlezza |
| — | FW | FRA | Mario Grava |
| — | MF | SUI | Fernando Von Krannichfeldt (to reserve team) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | FW | SRB | Rade Ognjanović (to Grenchen) |
| — | MF | GER | Heinz Sartor (to Offenburger FV) |
| — | MF | SUI | Rudolf Arn |
| — | MF | SUI | Hans Weber (deceased) |

## Results

### Legend

Win  Draw  Loss  Postponed

### Nationalliga A

**League standings**

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Zürich (C) | 26 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 73 | 25 | +48 | 42 | Swiss Champions, qualified for 1966–67 European Cup |
| 2 | Servette | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 57 | 45 | +12 | 35 | Swiss Cup winners, qualified for 1966–67 Cup Winners' Cup |
| 3 | Lausanne-Sport | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 72 | 46 | +26 | 32 | |
| 4 | La Chaux-de-Fonds | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 53 | 42 | +11 | 31 | Entered 1966–67 Intertoto Cup |
| 5 | Young Boys | 26 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 72 | 47 | +25 | 29 | |
| 6 | Basel | 26 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 64 | 57 | +7 | 27 | |
| 7 | Grasshopper Club | 26 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 55 | 54 | +1 | 27 | |
| 8 | Sion | 26 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 36 | 36 | 0 | 26 | Entered 1966–67 Intertoto Cup |
| 9 | Lugano | 26 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 27 | 37 | −10 | 22 | |
| 10 | Biel-Bienne | 26 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 38 | 56 | −18 | 22 | Entered 1966–67 Intertoto Cup |
| 11 | Grenchen | 26 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 42 | 65 | −23 | 22 | Entered 1966–67 Intertoto Cup |
| 12 | Young Fellows Zürich | 26 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 46 | 62 | −16 | 21 | |
| 13 | Luzern | 26 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 36 | 56 | −20 | 18 | Relegated to Nationalliga B |
| 14 | Urania Genève Sport | 26 | 3 | 4 | 19 | 35 | 78 | −43 | 10 | Relegated to Nationalliga B |

### Swiss Cup

**Legend**

Win  Draw  Loss

### Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

**Second Round**

Valencia won 8–2 on aggregate.

### Cup of the Alps

**Standings**

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Napoli | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 5 | +10 | 8 | Winner |
| 2 | Juventus | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 6 | |
| 3 | Lausanne/Zürich | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 6 | Combined team Lausanne/Zürich |
| 4 | Spal Ferrara | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 5 | |
| 5 | Young Boys | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | −2 | 3 | |
| 6 | Catania | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 3 | |
| 7 | Servette | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | −5 | 1 | |
| 8 | Basel | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 10 | −5 | 0 | |
