The 2001–02 season was the Fussball Club Basel 1893's 109th season in the club's history and their 8th consecutive season in the Nationalliga A, the top flight of Swiss football. Basel played their home games in the newly constructed St. Jakob-Park complex. Club chairman was René C. Jäggi for the sixth consecutive season.
Overview Off-season and pre-season Christian Gross was the first team trainer for the third successive season. The club's main aim for the 2001–02 season was to win the Swiss Nationalliga A championship title. The second aim was to win the cup title. Their third aim was to stay in the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup as long as possible, if possible, win the final and secure the team's progress at least to the UEFA Cup.
New, with professional contracts for the new season, Philipp Degen and Marco Streller were brought up from the youth team. Further, Pascal Zuberbühler returned from a one-year loan with Bayer Leverkusen. Basel's biggest signing for the new season were Scott Chipperfield, who came from Wollongong Wolves, and Christian Giménez, who was signed from Lugano. Further, Marco Zwyssig transferred in from Tirol Innsbruck.
In the other direction, Iván Knez transferred out to Rapid Wien and Feliciano Magro returned to Udinese after his loan period ended. Further, André Muff was loaned out to Lugano and Jean-Michel Tchouga was loaned out to Lausanne-Sport. Soon after the season started, Marco Streller was loaned out to Concordia Basel.
On 16 June FCB announced that Marcel Herzog had transferred to them from Concordia Basel. On the 5 September the club announced that Miroslav König was loaned out to Concordia as countertrade. On 15 October this was reversed, as König returned to FCB and Herzog went back to Concordia.
Winter break Soon after the winter break, in the second half of the season, Oliver Kreuzer retired from his active football career. Between the years 1997 and 2002 Kreuter played a total of 212 games for Basel scoring a total of 32 goals. 136 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 9 in the Swiss Cup, 17 were in UEFA competitions (UEFA Cup and UIC) and 50 were friendly games. He scored 21 goals in the domestic league, 1 in the Cup, 3 in the European competitions and the other seven were scored during the test games.
Off-season At the end of the season Massimo Ceccaroni retired from his professional career. Ceccaroni is still considered to be a cult figure in Basel. This is not only because of his loyalty, having spent 25 years with the club, 10 years as youth player and 15 with their first team. But also, because of the fact that he never scored a goal in the top-flight of Swiss football. However, because he did not have many team appearances during this season, five in the league and six in the UIC, the club decided not renew his contract and Ceccaroni's professional career came to an end. Between the years 1987 and 2002 Ceccaroni played a total of 605 games for Basel's first team scoring a total of six goals. 398 of these games were in the Nationalliga A and Nationalliga B, 34 in the Swiss Cup, 20 in the European competitions (UEFA cup and UIC) and 153 were friendly games. He scored four of his goals in the Nationalliga B and the other two were scored during the test games.
The Campaign Friendly games Basel started the season off with three warm-up matches. These were played against BSC Young Boys from the Nationalliga A, FC Thun and Yverdon-Sports from the Nationalliga B.
Domestic league The qualification round to the 2001–02 Nationalliga A was contested by twelve teams. The first eight teams of the regular season, or qualification round, then competed in the championship round. Three points were given for a victory and one for a draw. Each team took half of the points, rounded up to complete units, that were won in the qualification round into the second stage as bonus. The teams in the ninth to twelfth positions completed with the top four teams of the Nationalliga B in a Nationalliga A/B playoff round.
The regular season started on 15 July and ended on 10 December. The championship play-offs began on 25 February 2001 and ended on 26 May. FCB’s aim for the teams was to end the qualification round in the tables top two or three and then in the championship round to win the title, or at least to reach third position which would qualify them for the 2001–02 UEFA Cup.
qualifying round The season started in the worst possible way. In their first game away against FC Sion, Basel suffered a humiliating defeat. The home team were two goals up within half an hour and then on 38 minutes Hakan Yakin saw the red card for insulting the referee. In the second half Basel went completely under. First Julien Poueys scored a hattrick within 7 minutes (55, 59, 62) and then Samuel Ojong also scored a hattrick within 7 minutes (79, 81, 86). Basel were beaten 8–1. In the next game on 11 July 2001, a 3–1 home win in St. Jakob-Park against Servette, Marco Streller played his League debut being substituted in during the 66th Minute. Unfortunately for him, in the last minute of the game he headed in an own goal as he tried to clear a corner kick. It was to remain Streller's only game for Basel in this season, because he was loaned to feeder club FC Concordia Basel for the rest of the season. Christian Giménez was to play his debut on 18 July in the 3–3 draw with St. Gallen and his first goal for the club was to follow during the 3–1 home win against the Young Boys on the 11 August. Giménez was to end the qualifying round as the league’s top scorer with 19 goals in 20 appearances.
After five games Basel were straggling, they had achieved just one win and one draw, opposed to three defeats, with 7 to 15 goal tally. But hereafter, things turned for the better and they only suffered two further defeats up until the winter break. Despite the fact that these were against the reigning title holders Grasshopper Club, Basel ended the qualification as league leaders, five points ahead of Lugano and six ahead of the reigning champions.
Championship round Basel started well into the second part of the season, winning their first four games, 5–2 away against second placed Lugano and 1–0, 2–0 and 4–0 at home against Zürich, Young Boys and Sion. In the fifth game they suffered another defeat against GC, but six straight wins followed, including their revenge 3–0 away victory against Sion and a revenge 4–1 victory against GC. During this period of the season FCB played their best football and pulled away at the top of the table and subsequently achieved the championship title prematurely. Despite the fact that they lost two of their last three games, they won their first title after 22 years of waiting. It was the ninth championship title in the club’s history.
Christian Giménez was the team’s top scorer with 26 goals over the entire season. Hakan Yakin had scored 13, George Koumantarakis scored 10 and Scott Chipperfield scored 6 goals.
Conclusion Basel won the championship with 55 points, GC were vice-champions with 45 points and Lugano finished in third position. The club's aim in the championship title had been fully, and perhaps surprisingly, achieved. Both Lugano and Sion had reached the championship round, but both clubs did not obtain a 1st level license for the 2002/03 season and therefore both teams were relegated to the second tier.
Curiosity to the begin of Scott Chipperfield's career by FC Basel; Chipperfield signed his contract with the club and returned to Australia to pack his suitcases. As he boarded the plane to fly to his new employers, he knew that they would be playing their first game of the season during his time on the flight. When the plane landed in Switzerland the game was over and Basel had lost 1–8. The story goes that Chipperfield asked the driver who collected him, "who the heck have I signed for? The only reason I didn't fly straight back home, was because I knew you were waiting for me." At the end of the season Basel were number one and Sion were relegated. And the driver said to Chipperfield, "I'm sure glad that you knew that it was me, who was waiting to collect you at the airport."
Domestic Cup Basel's clear aim for the Swiss Cup was to win the title, especially because the final was to be played in St. Jakob-Park. They had last won the trophy in 1975. Basel entered the competition in the round of 32 and were drawn away against local rivals Concordia Basel, who at that time played in the Nationalliga B.
Concordia Basel (10 November 2001) The game was played in the St. Jakob-Park with an attendance of 5,431 spectators. Concordia, the home team, started well into the game and had their first chance at goal on 5 minutes and their second chance another 5 minutes later. FCB started prudent and did not want to enter into risky situations. After they had won control of play, they started to dominate and had a couple of near misses. Then on 21 minutes Sébastien Barberis put the away team a goal up following a corner-kick. Concordia reacted immediately, with fighting spirit and came forward with tempo. Their first attack could only be stopped by a well-timed foul from FCB defender Alexandre Quennoz, who saw the yellow card. If he had waited a few seconds longer it might have been a penalty. FCB were always in danger of catching the equaliser, but despite doubling the lead on 41 minutes through a goal from George Koumantarakis, Concordia were dominating play. After the interval Concordia were still fighting, believing in their chance. On 59 minutes Christian Giménez added Basel’s third after a counter attack. From this moment on the game changed. Concordia had less and less stamina and their strengths were lost. Basel took control and dominated completely and on 75 minutes Hervé Tum added a fourth and on 90 minutes the last. FCB won 5–0 and advanced to the next round.
Colombier ( 17 February 2002) In the round of 16 Basel were drawn with an away game against lower league team Colombier, who had that time played in 1. Liga Promotion, the third tier in the Swiss football pyramid. Colombier were playing good football and were top of their division at that time. At the end of the season, they were group champions, but missed promotion in the play-offs. The match was played in the New Year before the leagues had restarted after the winter break. This proved to be an advantage for Basel after their seven winter break friendlies. The team were well played in and won the game that they entirely dominated 1–0 through a goal from Giménez in the 56th minute.
Zürich (21 March 2002) In the quarter-finals Basel were drawn away against Zürich. The match was played in the Letzigrund with an attendance of 6,800 spectators and came midst in the period as Basel were dominating in the league. Both teams started into the match with care, but FCB found quicker into their stride and soon had more possession. Therefore, it was no surprise that they took the lead through a goal from George Koumantarakis on 17 minutes. The home team reacted well, they sought after the equaliser and didn’t have to wait long, because Kanga Akalé netted on 24 minutes. The game was now level on possession until one minute before the break, as Ivan Ergic put the visitors back into the lead. After the interval play was again level, but the visitors did have an optical advantage. This became obvious as Akalé saw the yellow card for his second bookable foul and was dismissed. From this moment the game changed, the Zürich layers strength and stamina failed and Basel took control and dominated. On 85 minutes substitute Carlos Varela advanced down the right and put his team another goal up. Just two minutes later Basel’s other substitute Hervé Tum had a shot that hit the post and Scott Chipperfield converted the rebound to give Basel a comfortable 4–1 win.
Young Boys (11 April 2002)