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After 22 long years of waiting, FC Basel have won their 9th Swiss title and their 1st under the split-season format which has been in operation since 1986 
roud: :happy:
Zurich has long being the powerbase in Swiss football (the German speaking part in particular) with Grasshoppers being the dominant force but this title could be the start of big things for FC Basel and football in this German speaking region :hopefull:
I think the success of FC Basel has been the integrating of the best of Switzerland (most notebly the Yakin Brothers, Zwissig & Zueberhuler (sp?) ) with astute purchases of value for money foreign talent from all Corners of the globe. A look through their squad and you will find players from as far afield as South Africa (Koumantarakis), Cameroon (Tum, Atouba), Argentina (Giminez), Spain(Varela), Serbia (Ergic) and of course Australiaroud: (Chipperfield). And amongst the Swiss players in the squad, all three language groups are represented. The other major reason behind the success has been Christian Gross. Despite the fact he may have failed in England with Spurs, he has done well with GCZ in the past (taking them into the CL when there was only 16 teams & one group phase) and now with Basel and has Basel playing attractive and effective football with a 4-3-1-2 formation, but has the players to change formations from time to time to suit the opposition and perhaps tactically outwit them.
Now the UEFA European Champions league awaits :excited: (if they get past the qualifiers). Switzerland has a country coefficient ranking of 17th which means they only get one CL spot (need to be in the top 15 to get two spots). Therefore, FC Basel get the only CL spot and will enter the competition at the 2nd qualifying round. Unfortunately they have a low team ranking (172nd) due to a low team coefficient (14.312pts). Therefore they may not be seeded in the 2nd round and if they progress to the 3rd round they definetely WON'T be seeded. So if FCB want to make the CL, they'll have to do it the hard way :nervous: :excited: :hopefull:
roud: :happy:Zurich has long being the powerbase in Swiss football (the German speaking part in particular) with Grasshoppers being the dominant force but this title could be the start of big things for FC Basel and football in this German speaking region :hopefull:
I think the success of FC Basel has been the integrating of the best of Switzerland (most notebly the Yakin Brothers, Zwissig & Zueberhuler (sp?) ) with astute purchases of value for money foreign talent from all Corners of the globe. A look through their squad and you will find players from as far afield as South Africa (Koumantarakis), Cameroon (Tum, Atouba), Argentina (Giminez), Spain(Varela), Serbia (Ergic) and of course Australia
roud: (Chipperfield). And amongst the Swiss players in the squad, all three language groups are represented. The other major reason behind the success has been Christian Gross. Despite the fact he may have failed in England with Spurs, he has done well with GCZ in the past (taking them into the CL when there was only 16 teams & one group phase) and now with Basel and has Basel playing attractive and effective football with a 4-3-1-2 formation, but has the players to change formations from time to time to suit the opposition and perhaps tactically outwit them.Now the UEFA European Champions league awaits :excited: (if they get past the qualifiers). Switzerland has a country coefficient ranking of 17th which means they only get one CL spot (need to be in the top 15 to get two spots). Therefore, FC Basel get the only CL spot and will enter the competition at the 2nd qualifying round. Unfortunately they have a low team ranking (172nd) due to a low team coefficient (14.312pts). Therefore they may not be seeded in the 2nd round and if they progress to the 3rd round they definetely WON'T be seeded. So if FCB want to make the CL, they'll have to do it the hard way :nervous: :excited: :hopefull:
