# 1967–68 FC Basel season

The 1967–68 season was Fussball Club Basel 1893's 74th season since their foundation. It was their 22nd consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football following their promotion the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium. The Chairman of the board was Harry Thommen for the second consecutive year.

## Overview
### Pre-season

Helmut Benthaus was the club player-manager for the third consecutive season. He and his team were the defending league champions. There were no big amaêndments to the squad, one reserve goalkeeper left and one reserve goalkeeper advanced to them and defender Manfred Schädler joined from local club FC Birsfelden and striker Dieter Rüefli joined from Winterthur. Basel played a total of 42 matches in this season. 26 of these games were in the domestic league, two were in the Swiss Cup, two were in the European Cup, five were in the Cup of the Alps and seven were friendly matches. Of these seven test games five were won and two ended with a draw.

### Domestic league

There were 14 teams contesting in the 1967–68 Nationalliga A. These were the top 12 teams from the previous 1966–67 season and the two newly promoted teams Luzern and Bellinzona. Basel, as reigning champions, played a mediocre season. Although they were within reach of the table top all the time, they messed everything up towards the end of the season as they lost five games out of seven. Therefore they finished the season in fifth position. They were seven points behind the trio Zürich, Grasshopper Club and Lugano who all ended the season with 38 points. These three team then had to play a championship play-off round and Zürich won both games and became champions. Basel won 13 of the league 26 games, drawing five, losing eight times, and they scored 49 goals conceding 33. The trio Roberto Frigerio, Helmut Hauser and Dieter Rüefli were the team's top goal scorers in the domestic league, each netted nine times.

### Swiss Cup

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a home match against lower classed FC Le Locle. But the game had to go into overtime. After Le Locle took the lead just after half time break, Frigerio netted the equaliser shortly before the end. In the overtime player-manager Helmut Benthaus managed the winning goal. In the next round Basel played an away game against FC Zürich, but were defeated 0–1 and this campaign was ended very quickly.

### European Cup

As reigning champions Basel were qualified for the 1967–68 European Cup. In the first round they were drawn against Danish team Hvidovre. The first leg was in the St. Jakob Stadium. Despite an early lead scored by Hauser, the Danes turned the game and won. In the return leg in stadium Idrætsparken in Copenhagen, Hauser again scored the early lead. Again the Dames turned the match and shortly after half time went into a 3–1 lead. This time Basel were fighting against the defeat and drew level at 3–3 but could not manage to score a winning goal, which would have put them through to the next round.

## 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 | SUI | Markus Pfirter |
| 3 | DF | SUI | Bruno Michaud |
| 4 | MF | SUI | Peter Ramseier |
| 5 | DF | SUI | Hanspeter Stocker |
| 6 | MF | SUI | Karl Odermatt |
| 7 | MF | SUI | Anton Schnyder |
| 8 | MF | GER | Helmut Benthaus |
| 9 | FW | GER | Helmut Hauser |
| 9 | FW | SUI | Roberto Frigerio |
| 10 | FW | SUI | Dieter Rüefli (from Winterthur) |
| 11 | FW | SUI | Peter Wenger |
| — | GK | SUI | Hans-Ruedi Günthardt |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | GK | FRA | Jean-Paul Laufenburger |
| — | GK | SUI | Herbert Stierli (new) |
| — | DF | GER | Josef Kiefer |
| — | DF | SUI | Walter Mundschin |
| — | DF | SUI | Roland Paolucci |
| — | DF | SUI | Manfred Schädler (from FC Birsfelden) |
| — | MF | SUI | Werner Decker (reserve team) |
| — | MF | SUI | Otto Demarmels |
| — | FW | HUN | Janos Konrad (reserve team) |
| — | MF | SUI | Aldo Moscatelli |
| — | MF | SUI | Urs Siegenthaler |
| — | MF | SUI | Bruno Rahmen |
| — | FW | SUI | Hanspeter Vetter |

### 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 |
| — | GK | SUI | Heini Degen (reserve team) |

## Results
### Legend

Win  Draw  Loss  Postponed

### Nationalliga A
#### League matches
#### League standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | FC Zürich (C) | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 63 | 27 | +36 | 38 | Swiss Champions, qualified for 1968–69 European Cup |
| 2 | Grasshopper Club Zürich | 26 | 17 | 4 | 5 | 54 | 23 | +31 | 38 | |
| 3 | FC Lugano | 26 | 17 | 4 | 5 | 53 | 30 | +23 | 38 | Swiss Cup winners, qualified for 1968–69 Cup Winners' Cup and entered 1968 Intertoto Cup |
| 4 | Lausanne Sports | 26 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 67 | 43 | +24 | 32 | Entered 1968 Intertoto Cup |
| 5 | FC Basel | 26 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 49 | 33 | +16 | 31 | |
| 6 | FC Lucerne | 26 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 51 | 58 | −7 | 28 | |
| 7 | FC Biel-Bienne | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 43 | 45 | −2 | 25 | Entered 1968 Intertoto Cup |
| 8 | BSC Young Boys | 26 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 37 | 43 | −6 | 25 | |
| 9 | FC Sion | 26 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 31 | 41 | −10 | 24 | |
| 10 | FC La Chaux-de-Fonds | 26 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 40 | 49 | −9 | 22 | Entered 1968 Intertoto Cup |
| 11 | Servette FC Genève | 26 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 40 | 42 | −2 | 21 | |
| 12 | AC Bellinzona | 26 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 26 | 40 | −14 | 21 | Entered 1968 Intertoto Cup |
| 13 | Young Fellows Zürich | 26 | 3 | 6 | 17 | 21 | 58 | −37 | 12 | Relegated to Nationalliga B |
| 14 | FC Grenchen | 26 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 19 | 62 | −43 | 9 | Relegated to Nationalliga B |

### European Cup
#### First round

Hvidovre won 5–4 on aggregate.

### Cup of the Alps
#### Final table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 5 | 9 |
| 2 | TSV 1860 Munich | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 7 |
| 3 | AS Roma | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 10 | 6 |
| 4 | Torino | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| 5 | Servette | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 5 |
| 6 | AC Milan | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 7 | Zürich | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| 8 | Basel | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 1 |