FC Basel: Swiss Giants

FC Basel is a Swiss professional football club which competes in the top tier of Swiss football, the Swiss Super League. The club is based in the city of Basel and play their home matches at St. Jakob-Park. It was founded in 1893. Its home colours are red & blue and as a result, their nickname is ‘Rotblau’. The team’s head coach is Ciriaco Sforza.
Basel has won the 2nd most Swiss league titles with 20 (only behind Grasshopper Club Zurich) and the most since the league changed its format in 2003 with 11. The club won every single league title from 2009-10 season to 2016-17 season. Basel has competed in European competitions every season since 1999-2000. The club has won the second most Swiss Cups in history with 13 (again only behind Grasshopper Club Zurich). At the European Stage, Basel has reached the quarter-finals of the 1973-74 European Cup campaign. Recently, the club has reached the UEFA Champions League round of 16 in 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2017-18. Basel also reached the semi-finals of the 2012-13 Europa League season.
FC Basel has the highest attendance of any Swiss club regularly averaging 30,000 per match. Legendary tennis player Roger Federer is a fan of FC Basel. The club have rivalries with the Zurich clubs, Grasshopper Club Zurich and FC Zurich. Basel are known for their youth system in Switzerland. Some prominent Swiss International players to have come through the academy include Alexander Frei, Hakan Yakin, Valentin Stocker, Xherdan Shaqiri, Yann Sommer, Gokhan Inler, Manuel Akanji and Granit Xhaka just to name a few. A few foreign players to have played for Basel and succeeded elsewhere include Felipe Caicedo, Ivan Rakitic and Mohammed Salah.
Basel will continue to win and be a big club in Switzerland. However, they failed to qualify for the 2020-21 Europa League group stages and they failed to win the league for the last 3 seasons. They will need to improve and perform better if they are to make the group stages of the Champions League again.