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.
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.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
