The FC Basel 1942–43 season was the fiftieth season since the club's foundation on 15 November 1893. FC Basel played their home games in the Landhof in the district Wettstein in Kleinbasel. Albert Besse was the club's chairman for the fourth consecutive season.
Overview Eugen Rupf was the team's player-coach during this season in his third season as first team manager. Basel played 33 games in the 1942–43 season, including 26 in the Nationalliga, three in the cup and four test games. They won 12, drew five and lost 16 times. They scored 59 goals and conceded 67 in the 33 competition and test games. Of the four test games, they won three and drew one. There was a fifth test match against Lausanne-Sport in Lausanne, but its date and result are unknown.
There were 14 teams contesting in the 1942–43 Nationalliga. The team that finished in the last position on the league table would be relegated. Rupf and his team had won promotion the previous season and it was clear that avoiding relegation would be a main challenge for them. Things started badly and five of their first six games ended in a defeat. Shortly before Christmas, Basel suffered their biggest defeat of the season, a 1–9 dubbing by Servette. Up until today this is still the highest score defeat that Basel have suffered in their domestic league history. They tied that unwanted record 45 years later. On 15 August 1987, in another away game, Basel were also defeated 1–9, this time by Xamax.
However, despite this defeat, with the following 3–0 away game victory against their direct opponents Luzern, who also playing at risk of relegation near the bottom of the table, and a 2–0 home game victory against their other direct opponents Nordstern, Basel ended the season with 18 points in 13th position, just two points above local rivals Nordstern, who ended the season on the relegation spot. Of their 26 league games Basel won seven, drew four and lost 15 times. They scored 29 league goals and conceded 57. Hermann Suter was the team's top league goal scorer with six goals. Erich Andres and Rodolfo Kappenberger were joint second best scorers, each with five goals.
In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the 4th principal round with a home tie at the Landhof against lower tier local side FC Pratteln. This ended with an expected easy 6–0 victory. In the round of 16 Basel were also allocated with a home match against lower tier SV Schaffhausen. Hermann Suter and Fritz Schmidlin were both able to achieve a hat-trick and Basel won 9–2. Then in the quarter-finals Basel were drawn at home against top tier Lugano. However, a 0–2 defeat ended their presence in this season's cup competition.
Players
Players who left the squad
Results Legend
Friendly matches Pre-season
Winter break
Nationalliga
League matches
League table
Swiss Cup
See also History of FC Basel List of FC Basel players List of FC Basel seasons
References
Sources Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel. FCB team 1942/43 at fcb-archiv.ch Switzerland 1942/43 by Erik Garin at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
External links FC Basel official site