1916–17 FC Basel season
# 1916–17 FC Basel season

The FC Basel 1916–17 season was their twenty-fourth season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. The club's chairman was Franz Rinderer. FC Basel played their home games in the Landhof in the district Wettstein in Kleinbasel.

## Overview

Peter Riesterer was team captain and as captain he led the trainings and was responsible for the line-ups. Basel played a total of 28 matches in the 1916–17 season. 12 of these were in the domestic league and 16 were friendly matches. Of these friendlies eight were won, three were drawn and five ended in a defeat. There were three home fixtures played in the Landhof and 13 away games. Over the Christmas, New Year period the team were taken to a training camp in Barcelona. On Christmas eve and on boxing day they played to friendlies against Barcelona. The first game ended in a defeat and the second was one. Two days later Basel played a friendly in same stadium, Camp de la Indústria, against La Chaux-de-Fonds and they were able to win this game too. On New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day Basel played two friendlies against local club Terrassa. Tarrassa were Serie B champions and played with five loaned first-class players. The first game was drawn and Basel won the second. Four of these friendly matches were played in the so called Basel championship against the two other local teams Old Boys and Nordstern Basel. Due to the early date of the new season, the three teams decided to play the return matches of the Championship all on one day as a tournament and played shortened games, two halves each with just 30 minutes. FC Basel won the Championship.

The domestic league, Swiss Serie A 1916–17, was divided into three regional groups, an east, a central and a west group. There were eight teams in the east and the west group, but only seven in the central group. Basel and the two other local teams were allocated to the Central group. The other teams playing in the Central group were FC Bern, Young Boys Bern, Biel-Bienne and Aarau. Basel played a good season, suffering only two defeats. Looking at things from the local point of view, Basel took three point from the two games against Old Boys and won both of their games against Nordstern Basel. Nordstern were in last position in the league table, but during the period of World War I there was not relegation/promotion between the Serie A and Serie B. Basel ended the season in second position with 15 points. In their 12 games Basel scored 31 goals and conceded 20. Karl Wüthrich was the team's best goal scorer, netting six times in 11 games.

The Young Boys won the central group and continued to the finals. Here they played against La Chaux-de-Fonds and VFC Winterthur-Veltheim. Winterthur won both games in the finals and won the championship title.

## Players

### Squad members

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 | Arthur Fahr |
| — | DF | SUI | Emil Ganter |
| — | DF | SUI | Hermann Moll |
| — | DF | SUI | Peter Riesterer |
| — | DF | SUI | Anton Rittel (I) |
| — | MF | SUI | Fritz Albicker (II) |
| — | MF | SUI | Wilhelm Geisser |
| — | MF | SUI | Emil Hasler |
| — | MF | SUI | Ernst Kaltenbach |
| — | MF | SUI | Jakob Känzig |
| — | MF | SUI | Otto Kuhn |
| — | MF | SUI | Fritz Raas |
| — | FW | SUI | Christian Albicker (I) |
| — | FW | SUI | Karl Bielser |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | FW | SUI | Rudolf Bredschneider |
| — | FW | SUI | Ernst Rittel (II) |
| — | FW | SUI | Carl Schloz |
| — | FW | SUI | Karl Wüthrich |
| — | FW | | Valentin von der Mühll |
| — | | | Borer |
| — | | | Fritz Eggenschwyler |
| — | | | Forster |
| — | | SUI | Walter Grunauer |
| — | | | Haas |
| — | | | Kientsch |
| — | | | Oscar Kohler |
| — | | SUI | Jules Lotter |
| — | | | Perroud |

## Results

### Legend

Win  Draw  Loss  Postponed

### Serie A

**Central group league table**

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Young Boys | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 31 | 15 | +16 | 18 | Advance to finals |
| 2 | Basel | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 31 | 20 | +11 | 15 | |
| 3 | Aarau | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 23 | 21 | +2 | 13 | |
| 4 | Biel-Bienne | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 37 | 45 | −8 | 12 | |
| 5 | Old Boys | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 19 | 20 | −1 | 11 | |
| 6 | FC Bern | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 27 | −4 | 10 | |
| 7 | Nordstern Basel | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 22 | 38 | −16 | 5 | |
