# 1943–44 FC Basel season

The FC Basel 1943–44 season was the fifty-first 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 fifth consecutive season.

## Overview

Team manager Eugen Rupf left the club following the last season and Willy Wolf was appointed as Basel's new team manager. Basel played 41 games in their 1943–44 season. 26 in the Nationalliga, five in the cup and ten were test games. They won 18, drew 11 and lost 12 times. In total, including the test games and the cup competition, they scored 83 goals and conceded 65.
There were 14 teams contesting in the 1943–44 Nationalliga. The team that finished in last position in the league table would be relegated. Basel played a mediocre season, winning nine matches, drawing eight and suffered nine defeats they ended the season with 26 points in 9th position. Lausanne-Sport won the Swiss championship, Luzern were relegated. Alfred Weisshaar was Basel's top league goal scorer with 15 goals, joint second league scorer with Alfred Bickel (Grasshopper Club) behind top scorer Erich Andres (Young Fellows Zürich) who netted 23 times.
In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a home tie at the Landhof against lower tier local side Nordstern Basel. This was won 4–1. In the round of 16 they had a home tie and won 6–2 against St. Gallen. The quarter-final gave Basel another home tie and they won 5–1 against Young Boys. The semi-final was an away tie against Biel-Bienne. Hans Vonthron's goal was the only goal of the game and Basel qualified for the final. This was played on 10 April in Wankdorf Stadium in Bern against Lausanne-Sport. Two goals from Numa Monnard and one from Roger Courtois during the last five minutes of the match meant that Basel lost the game 0–3 and Lausanne won the national double.

## 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 |
| — | GK | SUI | Kurt Imhof |
| — | GK | SUI | Ernst Kipfer |
| — | GK | SUI | Walter Müller |
| — | GK | SUI | Paul Wechlin |
| — | DF | SUI | Louis Favre |
| — | DF | SUI | Ernst Grauer |
| — | DF | SUI | Ernst Hufschmid |
| — | MF | SUI | Alexander Ebner |
| — | MF | SUI | Heinz Elsässer |
| — | MF | SUI | Rodolfo Kappenberger |
| — | MF | SUI | Alberto Losa |
| — | MF | SUI | Fritz Schmidlin |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | SUI | Guglielmo Spadini |
| — | MF | SUI | Tschüppeli |
| — | MF | SUI | Hans Vonthron |
| — | MF | SUI | Werner Wenk |
| — | MF | SUI | Rudolf Wirz |
| — | FW | SUI | Kurt Bertsch |
| — | FW | SUI | Max Gloor |
| — | FW | SUI | Rudolf Knup |
| — | FW | SUI | Alex Mathys (from Brühl St. Gallen) |
| — | FW | SUI | Hans Nyffeler |
| — | FW | SUI | Hans Rothen |
| — | FW | SUI | Hermann Suter |
| — | FW | SUI | Alfred Weisshaar |

### 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 | Silvio Cinguetti |
| — | DF | SUI | Fritz Greder |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | FW | SUI | Erich Andres |
| — | FW | SUI | Eugen Rupf (to Grasshopper Club) |
| — | FW | SUI | Hans Spengler |

## Results
### Legend

Win  Draw  Loss  Postponed

### Nationalliga
#### League matches
#### League table
## League standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Lausanne-Sport | 26 | 17 | 4 | 5 | 48 | 25 | +23 | 38 | Champions and Swiss Cup winners |
| 2 | Servette | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 39 | 25 | +14 | 32 | |
| 3 | Lugano | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 47 | 32 | +15 | 30 | |
| 4 | Grasshopper Club | 26 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 54 | 32 | +22 | 29 | |
| 5 | Biel-Bienne | 26 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 42 | 30 | +12 | 29 | |
| 6 | Young Boys | 26 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 38 | 32 | +6 | 29 | |
| 7 | Cantonal Neuchatel | 26 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 38 | 27 | +11 | 28 | |
| 8 | Grenchen | 26 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 45 | 41 | +4 | 28 | |
| 9 | Basel | 26 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 42 | 38 | +4 | 26 | |
| 10 | La Chaux-de-Fonds | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 34 | 45 | −11 | 26 | |
| 11 | Young Fellows Zürich | 26 | 9 | 3 | 14 | 46 | 51 | −5 | 21 | |
| 12 | St. Gallen | 26 | 8 | 3 | 15 | 26 | 60 | −34 | 19 | |
| 13 | Zürich | 26 | 6 | 5 | 15 | 37 | 54 | −17 | 17 | |
| 14 | Luzern | 26 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 19 | 63 | −44 | 12 | Relegated |