The 2021–22 season was FC Basel's 128th season in their existence and the club's 27th consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football since their promotion in the 1993–94 season. The 2021–22 Swiss Super League season started on the weekend 24 to 25 July 2021 and ended on 21 May 2022. In addition to the Swiss Super League, Basel also participated in this season's edition of the Swiss Cup, starting in the third round. Basel also qualified for the inaugural edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League, beginning play in the second qualifying round.
Club FC Basel Holding AG The FC Basel Holding AG owns 75% of FC Basel 1893 AG and the other 25% is owned by the club FC Basel 1893 members. The club FC Basel 1893 functions as a base club independent of the holding company and the AG. FC Basel 1893 AG is responsible for the operational business of the club, e.g. the 1st team, a large part of the youth department and the back office are affiliated there. All decisions that affect the club FC Basel 1893 are made within the AG.
On 11 May 2021 the FC Basel Holding AG chairman Bernhard Burgener and board member David Degen announced a transfer of ownership rights, after months of massive fan protests. The new situation meant Degen owned 92% of the shares and about 8% is held by four small investors. At the AGM of FC Basel Holding AG on June 15, 2021, Bernhard Burgener, Peter von Büren and Karl Odermatt stood down from the board of directors. A new board of directors stood for election. From that date the board consisted of Reto Baumgartner (president), Dani Büchi (delegate of the board), David Degen (vice-president), Johannes Barth, Marco Gadola, Christian Gross, Sophie Herzog and Andreas Rey. Degen said he will sell a part of the shares within his management team.
On the 18 August the Holding AG announced how the shares had been divided between the shareholders. Degen himself kept 40%, Andreas Rey held 18,41%, his wife Ursula Rey-Krayer also held 18,41%. A group of four other investors, these being Johannes Barth, Marco Gadola, Dani Büchi and Dan Holzmann, together held 15,14%. The other 8,04% of the shares remained by another group of investors, these being Manor AG, J. Safra Sarasin, Novasearch AG, MCH Group AG and Weitnauer Holding AG.
On 27 December 2021 an extraordinary AGM of the Holding AG was held and it was announced that the Board had reorganised itself. Ursula Rey-Krayer and Dan Holzmann were unanimously elected to the board of directors. At the same time, Sophie Herzog, Christian Gross, Johannes Barth and Reto Baumgartner resigned from the Board and were to focus upon their duties as members of the Board of Directors of FC Basel 1893 AG.
Since that date the new Board of the FC Basel Holding AG consists of the following members: David Degen (president), Dani Büchi (delegate of the board), Marco Gadola, Dan Holzmann, Ursula Rey-Krayer and Andreas Rey (vice-president). With the meeting FC Basel Holding AG had an adjusted composition - the FCB shareholders were represented upon the Board of Directors of FC Basel Holding AG by those with the overall largest proportion.
The Board of Directors of the FC Basel 1893 AG as it was announced in June 2021: Reto Baumgartner, (president), Johannes Barth. David Degen (vice-president), Carol Etter (delegate of the club), Marco Gadola, Christian Gross, Sophie Herzog and Andreas Rey.
Club management The club's 127th AGM is due to take place in written form, during the week from Saturday 5 June and Friday 11 June. The results were communicated on Monday 14 June. On 13 April 2021 the club announced their proposal for the club management. Club chairman Reto Baumgartner and the two directors, Dominik Donzé and Benno Kaiser, remained in the board and three new members were elected. These three being Carol Etter (sports lawyer), Edward Turner (financial specialist) and Tobias Adler (marketingspecialist). Their exact roles are to be decided. Carol Etter was elected as delegate of the board, to represent the club at the meetings of the Holding.
Team management On 20 May 2021 the club announced that Patrick Rahmen had signed a new contract that made him head coach of the new FCB first team. Since 6 April he had been interim coach. Assistant coach Ognjen Zaric also prolonged his contract for the new season. Massimo Colomba stayed with the club as Goalkeeper Coach. On 15 June 2021 the club announced, that Michael Silberbauer had been hired on a deal for the 2021–22 season, as the club's new assistant coach under head coach Rahmen.
Youth coach Matthias Kohler was trainer of the U-21, but he left the club on 8 June 2021. He was replaced by Marco Schällibaum. Schällibaum continued with the two existing assistants, Daniel Stucki and Michaël Bauch.
The club announced on 31 December, that the contract with head coach Patrick Rahmen had been extended for a further year until summer 2023. Jointly the club and Rahmen had decided to sign on Boris Smiljanic as new assistant coach. The 32-year-old Spaniard Guillermo Abascal also joined the coaching team and work together with Ognjen Zaric as special coach. It was also announced that Michael Silberbauer had left the club by mutual agreement.
Following a number of bad results for the U-21 team, on 30 November the club had announced that with immediate effect FC Basel 1893 and its U-21 coach Marco Schällibaum had separated. On 3 January 2022 FCB announced that they had signed Michel Renggli as new coach for their U-21 team.
On 21 February the club announced that the contract with Patrick Rahmen had been terminated, due to "unsatisfactory sportive development of the team and lack of clear perspective". He was replaced by Guillermo Abascal, who was to act as coach ad interim. Furthermore, the club announced that assistant coach Boris Smiljanic had asked for his contract to be dissolved, for personal reasons. He was replaced by Marco Walker, who had last been head coach for FC Sion.
Overview Off and pre-season On the day after the last match of the previous season, 22 May 2021, the club announced a number of changes in their first team squad. Per 30 June 2021 the contracts of Luca Zuffi, Aldo Kalulu, Jasper van der Werff, Elis Isufi and Jozef Pukaj will expire and will not be renewed. In addition, the purchase options in the loan contracts will not drawn for Timm Klose, Amir Abrashi and Jorge Marco de Oliveira Moraes.
Between the years 2014 and 2021 Luca Zuffi played seven seasons for Basel in a total of 327 games scoring a total of 40 goals. Exactly 200 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 22 in the Swiss Cup, 30 in the UEFA Champions League, 19 in the UEFA Europa League and 56 were friendly games. He scored 27 goals in the domestic league, two in the domestic cup, four in the Champions League, three in the Europa League and the other four were scored during the test games. With the club, Zuffi won the championship three times and the Swiss Cup twice. The return of Klose to his club of origin was sportingly not a lucky one. Klose could not bring the sporting performance that had been expected. In his one season with the club Klose played a total of 37 games for Basel scoring a total of two goals. 28 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, one in the Swiss Cup and eight were friendly games. He scored both his goals in the domestic league. During the home match on 16 December 2020 against Young Boys Jorge had been injured and had to be substituted out in the 62nd minute. The injury turned out to be difficult and required an oppration and this put him out for the rest of the season. In his one season with the club Jorge played a total of seven games for Basel without scoring a goal. Five of these games were in the Nationalliga A and two were friendly games.
On 2 June the club announced that Julian Von Moos would be loaned out SBV Vitesse for the season with an option for a definite move. Vitesse play in the highest tier of Dutch football, the Eredivisie.
In the other direction, on 17 June FCB announced that Spanish player Jordi Quintillà had signed in on a free-transfer from St. Gallen. Basel also signed the Spanish-German right back Sergio López from Real Madrid. The youngster had played in Real's second team and, during the last season, had been loaned out to Real Valladolid and had played in their second team. Basel also signed the youngster Yacouba Nasser Djiga from Vitesse FC in Burkina-Faso.
On 18 June FCB announced their programme for the pre-season. The trainings began on 21 June, on the 24 June they began their trainings camp in Crans-Montana with the first test game on 27 June against Thun in Lens, Valais. On 1 July a second test game against Dynamo Kyiv in Vevey. The team would then return to Basel and play a further three test games. These being against Grasshopper Club on 6 July on the Youth Campus Basel grounds in Münchenstein, against RC Strasbourg Alsace in Colmar on 9 July and another game in the Youth Campus Basel against Aarau one day later on 10 July. Basel played their seventh and final pre-season friendly against Hamburger SV in their home stadium Volksparkstadion on 17 July.
On the last day of the summer transfer window the club were very active on the transfer front. That evening the club announced the signing of Tomás Tavares, who signed in on loan from Benfica, Dan Ndoye who came on loan from Nice, Joelson Fernandes on loan from Sporting and finally Wouter Burger who transferred in from Feyenoord.
Winter break Not only was there a large amount of movement on the transfer market during the summer, but also during the winter break transfer window.
Julian Von Moos's loan to SBV Vitesse was ended and he transferred definitive to St. Gallen. After only six months with the club Jordi Quintillà left the squad and returned to his previous club St. Gallen. Gonçalo Cardoso's loan period from West Ham came to an end. Adrian Durrer transferred to Lugano. Afimico Pululu transferred to Greuther Fürth. The two youngsters Tician Tushi and Carmine Chiappetta were loaned out to Winterthur until 30 June 2022, so that they could obtain more playing time.
Eray Cömert transferred out and joined Valencia. Cömert had come through Basel's youth system and since he had advanced to the first team in 2016, he had played a total of 167 games for Basel scoring a total of 8 goals. 101 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 9 in the Swiss Cup, 30 in the European competitions (Champions, Europa and Conference League) and 27 were friendly games. He scored 5 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the European competitions and the other was scored during the friendlies.
Edon Zhegrova transferred out and signed for French team Lille OSC for undisclosed fee. During his three years with the club from January 2019 to January 2022 Zhegrova played a total of 89 games for Basel scoring a total of 15 goals. 60 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 3 in the Swiss Cup, 11 in the Europa League and Conference League and 15 were friendly games. He scored 9 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the Conference League and the other 4 were scored during the test games.
The most significant transfer was that of top-scorer Arthur Cabral to Fiorentina. In his two and a half years with the club Cabral had a total of 118 appearances for Basel scoring a total of 75 goals. 77 of these games were in the Super League, 3 in the Swiss Cup, 26 in the European competitions and 12 were test matches. He scored 46 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the cup, 17 in the European competitions and the other 10 were scored during the tests.