The 1941–42 season was Fussball Club Basel 1893's 48th season in their existence. It was their third season in the 1st League (second flight of Swiss football) after being relegated from the Nationalliga in the 1938–39 season. They played their home games in the Landhof, in the Wettstein Quarter in Kleinbasel. Basel achieved promotion and reached the Swiss Cup final.
Overview
Eugen Rupf was player-coach for his second year. There were twelve teams contesting in group East and twelve in group West of the 1st League in the 1941–42 season. The winner of each group had to play a play-off for promotion to the Nationalliga. Basel finished their season as winners of group East, with 18 victories and 3 draws from 22 games with a total of 39 points, scoring 77 and conceding just 15 goals. The play-offs were then against group West winners Bern, the away tie ending with a goalless draw and Basel won their home tie 3–1 to achieve Promotion.
In the Swiss Cup first round Basel were drawn at home and won 1–0 against FC Birsfelden. The second round was another home tie and they beat the higher tier Nationalliga team BSC Young Boys by three goals to nil. The third round gave Basel another home tie against 1st League team Solothurn and they completed an easy victory, winning 6–1. The quarter-final draw saw them hosting again, this time against Nationlage team Lugano. The game ended 1–1 after extra time. Basel qualified on coin toss. The semi-final gave Basel their fifth home match and their third Nationalliga club FC Grenchen. On March 29 at Stadion Rankhof Basel and Grenchen ended the game with a goalless draw after extra time. A replay, on 4 April, was needed and in the Gurzelen Stadion in Biel the match ended with a victory. Hermann Suter scored both Basel goals as they won 2–0.
Basel thus qualified for the final which was just two days later on 6 April in the Wankdorf Stadion in Bern against the Nationalliga team Grasshopper Club. The final ended goalless after extra time and a replay was required. The replay did not take place until the end of May because the Nationalliga championship had ended with a heat and thus a play-off was required here too between the Grasshoppers and Grenchen. In fact it required two games, the first ended 0–0 in Bern, the seconded ended 1–1 in Basel. The championship title awarded to GC on goal average. The cup final replay was on 25 May, again in the Wankdorf Stadion, against the then Nationalliga champions Grasshoppers. Basel led by half time through two goals by Fritz Schmidlin, but two goals from Grubenmann a third from Neukom gave the Grasshoppers a 3–2 victory. Thus the Grasshoppers won the double.
Players
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Albert Besse
19', 43' Hermann Suter