User:Huligan0/1966–67 FC Basel season

The 1966–67 season was Fussball Club Basel 1893's 73rd season in their existence. It was their 21st consequtive season in the top flight of Swiss football after their promotion the season 1945–46. They played their home games in the St. Jakob Stadium. The new Chairmann of the board was Harry Thommen, he had taken over the chairmannship from Lucien Schmidlin who had the position for the previous four years.

Overview
During this season Helmut Benthaus was the club player-manager, he taken the job over from Georges Sobotka at the beginning of the previous season. There were 14 teams contesting in the 1966–67 Nationalliga A and Basel finished the championship just one point clear of both FC Zürich in second position and FC Lugano who finished third. Basel won 16 of the 26 games, drawing eight, losing twice, and they scored 60 goals conceding just 20. Roberto Frigerio was the teams top goal scorer with 16 league goals, Helmuth Hauser second best goal scorer with 14.

In the Swiss Cup Basel started in the round of 32 with a 6–0 home win against Blue Stars and in the round of 16, also a home match, they beat FC Zürich 3–2. In the Quarter-final Basel won the replay against Biel-Bienne 2–1 to qualify for the semi-finals. Basel played an away match in the Stadio Cornaredo against FC Lugano in the semi-final which ended goalless and therefore a replay was required here too. The replay was played in the St. Jakob Stadium and goals from Karl Odermatt and Helmut Benthaus gave Basel a 2–1 victory to qualify for the final which was to take place three days later.

In the Cup final Basel's opponents were Lausanne-Sports. In the former Wankdorf Stadium on 15 May 1967, Helmut Hauser scored the decisive goal via penalty. The game went down in football history due to the sit-down strike that followed this goal. After 88 minutes of play, with the score at 1–1, referee Karl Göppel awarded Basel a controversial penalty. (André Grobéty had pushed Hauser gently in the back and he let himself drop theatrically.) Subsequent to the 2–1 for Basel the Lausanne players refused to resume the game and they sat down demonstratively on the pitch. The referee had to abandon the match. Basel were awarded the cup with a 3–0 forfait.

Basel had won the double for the first time in the clubs history.

Nationalliga

 * League standings

Swiss Cup

 * Legend

The final was abandoned in 89' at 2-1 and awarded 3-0: Lausanne-Sports protested by a sit-in against the penalty that led to 2-1.

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

 * First Round

Utrecht won 4 – 3 on aggregate

Sources and References

 * Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2014/2015. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG. ISSN: 978-3-7245-2027-6
 * Switzerland 1966–67 at RSSSF