The 2025–26 season was FC Basel's 132nd season in their existence and the club's 31st consecutive season in the top flight of Swiss football since their promotion in the 1993–94 season. The 2025–26 Swiss Super League season started on 25 July 2025 and was completed on 17 May 2026. In addition to the Swiss Super League, Basel also participated in this season's edition of the Swiss Cup, entering in the third round. As Swiss champions, Basel qualified for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League, where they entered in the play-off 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. 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 first team, the women's first team, a 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. The FC Basel 1893 AG has following board members: David Degen (president), Andreas Rey (vice-president), Ursula Rey-Krayer, Dan Holzmann, plus a delegate of the club FC Basel. Since 12 May 2025 this was the actual club president Reto Baumgartner.
On 12 May 2025 the AGM of the FC Basel Holding AG and the FC Basel 1893 AG were held and both boards were confirmed. The Holding AG with following members: David Degen (president), Andreas Rey (vice-president), Ursula Rey-Krayer and Dan Holzmann. Holzmann, by this time, had bought out the shares from his former co-investors, Johannes Barth, Marco Gadola, Dani Büchi. Further smaller Holding AG share holders had been Manor AG, Novasearch AG, MCH Group AG and Weitnauer Holding AG. But these has sold their shares back to the Holding AG in the meantime. The private Bank J.Safra Sarasin still held a small package of the shares.
On 25 September 2025 the club announced that Dan Holzmann was stepping down from his position in the directors board of the Holding AG. This because he had sold his shares to the brothers Jörg und Lukas Duschmalé. The Duschmalé brothers are fifth-generation members of the founding family of F.Hoffmann-La Roche AG. Jörg Duschmalé is a member of the Roche Board of Directors, and Lukas Duschmalé is a restaurant entrepreneur. They stated that they would not assume any operational or strategic tasks within the club.
Club management Basel is the only professional club in Switzerland where the position of holding company's president and the club's president is not the same person. The club AGM also took place on 12 May 2025. All the existing members of the club's board were re-elected. These being Reto Baumgartner (club president), Carol Etter, Edward Turner, Tobias Adler, Andrea Häner-Roth and Nicole Leuthard, each unanimously without a vote against or an abstention. Due to Carol Etter's resignation as the club's delegate on the Board of Directors of the Holding AG, a new election was necessary. Club president Reto Baumgartner was nominated to succeed Etter and was elected to this position with an overwhelming majority.
The board of directors of the club are:
Team management On 15 May 2024 FCB announced that Daniel Stucki had been appointed as new sports director.
During the off-season, on 13 June 2025 the club announced that their head coach Fabio Celestini was leaving the club. They stated that the 49-year-old was retiring at his own request, after one and a half successful seasons, stating he would like to seek a new challenge.
As awaited by the local press, following this, on 16 June, FCB announced that Ludovic Magnin had signed a two-year contract as new FCB head-coach. One week later, on 21 June the remainer of the staff were named, following the departures of Davide Callà and Thomas Bernhard to the Swiss national football team.
On 26 January 2026 the club announced, that due to a lack of sporting development, FC Basel 1893 had decided to change the personelle of the head coach. Magnin was released immediately. Later, on the same day it was announced that the club had appointed Stephan Lichtsteiner as the new head coach of the first team. The 42-year-old, who already knows the club well from his work within the youth academy, had signed a contract until summer 2029. Pascal Bader (43) joined FCB as assistant coach alongside Lichtsteiner.
Overview Off and pre-season About an hour before the kick-off of Basel's last game of the previous season, on 24 May 2025, a supporting program began. This was an honoring and a farewell of their midfield player and former captain, their #34, Taulant Xhaka, who on that day, after appearing in 407 competitive matches for the RedBlue team, played his last league game for FCB and played for the last time in their home stadium Joggeli. Between the years 2010 and 2025, Xhaka played a total of 561 games for Basel's first team scoring a total of 10 goals. 280 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 42 in the Swiss Cup, 85 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League, Europa League and Conference League) and 154 were friendly games. He scored 6 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the cup, 1 in the European games and the other 1 was scored during the test games. Xhaka had joined the club in 2002 at the age of ten. After advancing through their your department, Xhaka played his entire football career with FCB, with the exception of a one-and-a-half year loan to Grasshopper Club in 2012–13.
Philip Otele had been on loan to FCB from Al Wahda since January and his contract held a buy-out option. On 4 June FCB announced that they had decided to activate this option and Otele would remain with the club on a three-year contract. In that same announcement it also became clear that Romário Baró and Joe Mendes, who had both been in on loan the previous season, would return to their previous clubs Porto and Braga respectively.
On 12 June FC Basel 1893 announced that their former youth player Leon Avdullahu was moving to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga. Hoffenheim confirmed the signing of Avdullahu on a long-term contract the same day. Avdullahu had moved from FC Solothurn to Basel's youth department in 2018. He regularly advanced from their U-14 to their U-21 team and celebrated winning the Swiss U-18 championship at the end of June 2023. In July 2023 he signed his first professional contract and advanced to their first team for their 2023–24 season. Then, a few months later, as Fabio Celestini became FCB head-coach, Avdullahu became a regular starter and at the end of the 2024–25 Swiss Super League season he became Swiss champion and Cup winner with them. During his two seasons with FCB's first team, Avdullahu played a total of 71 games for them, scoring a total of three goals. 63 of these games were in the Swiss Super League and 8 in the Swiss Cup. He scored two goals in the domestic league and the other was scored in the cup.
On 27 June, FCB announced that had signed Koba Koindredi in from Sporting CP on a one-year loan contract. Koindredi had played the previous season with Lausanne-Sport, also on loan. On the same day, 27 June, the club also announced that Bradley Fink had transferred out to Wycombe Wanderers in the League One, the third level of the English football league system. Between the years 2022 and 2025, which also included a one-year loan to Grasshopper Club, Fink played a total of 57 games for Basel scoring a total of 8 goals. 41 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 7 in the Swiss Cup, 9 in the UEFA Conference League and he appeared in a further 13 friendly games. He scored six goals in the domestic league and two in the cup. He scored a further 5 Goals during the test games.
On 1 July, FCB announced that they had signed Keigo Tsunemoto from Servette on a three-year contract.
Then on 4 July a further player transfer and a further loan contract were confirmed. First, Arnau Comas, who had been on loan to Eibar transferred to Deportivo de La Coruña for an undisclosed fee. Then Đorđe Jovanović, who had been on loan to FK Partizan, moved on to Maccabi Haifa also on loan.
FCB announced on 17 July that they had reached an agreement with the City Football Group, who are the owners of ES Troyes, about a definite transfer of Metinho and that the player had signed in on a five-year contract. A further transfer in was Andrej Bačanin from FK Čukarički, from the Serbian Super League, to strengthen the FCB midfield. This was announced on 1 July 2025. Then FCB signed striker Moritz Broschinski in from VfL Bochum on 12 August. On 25 August the club announced that they had signed Jeremy Agbonifo in on loan from Lens until the end of the season. On 1 September another transfer announcement was made by the club, Flavius Daniliuc, an Austrian national player, was signed in from Salernitana to strengthen the FCB defence. On the same day Ibrahim Salah joined FCB with a four-year contract. Born in Belgium, he has represented Morocco at international level, he had been with Rennes before he signed for Basel.
In the other direction, on 25 July, the club announced that Roméo Beney had transferred out to Portuguese club Famalicão. On 30 July it was announced that Andrin Hunziker was loaned out to Winterthur until 30 June 2026 so that he could obtain further playing experience. On 18 August FCB announced that they were loaning out Gabriel Sigua to Lausanne-Sport until the end of the season. In a further announcement on the same day, the club stated that Kevin Carlos had signed a contract with OGC Nice and had left the team after just one season with them. On 19 August the club announced that Emmanuel Essiam had been loaned out until the end of the season to Francs Borains in Belgium.
On 25 August FCB announced that, after three years with the club, Anton Kade had left FC Basel 1893 and moved to FC Augsburg in the German Bundesliga. He played his last game for the FCB on 10 August in Lugano. In his time with the club, Kade played a total of 132 games for Basel scoring a total of 18 goals. 88 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 12 in the Swiss Cup, 7 in the UEFA Conference League and 25 were friendly games. He scored 9 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the cup, 2 in the European games and the other 5 were scored during the test games.
Winter break On the evening of 2 February 2026, FCB announced the departure of two players. The first was Philip Otele, who moved out on loan to Hamburger SV and the other was Jonas Adjetey who transferred to VfL Wolfsburg on a permanent basis.
Players First-team squad The following is the list of the Basel first team squad. It also includes players that were in the squad the day the season started on 26 July 2025, but subsequently left the club after that date.
Players in on loan
Players out on loan
Transfers in
Transfers out
Results and fixtures Kickoff times are in CET.
Legend
Friendly matches Pre-season
Winter break and mid season
Swiss Super League
The 2025–26 Super League season was the 129th season of top-tier competitive football in Switzerland. The Swiss Football League (SFL) drew and published the fixtures of the first 22 rounds on 20 June 2025. The rest were to be drawn at a later date.
First and second round
Third round The fixtures and dates for the third round were announced on 20 December 2025.
League table at split
Championship group
Final league table
Swiss Cup
The fixtues and dates of the first round were drawn in June 2025.
UEFA Champions League
Play-off round
UEFA Europa League
League Phase
Matches
League phase table
Results by round
See also History of FC Basel List of FC Basel players List of FC Basel seasons
References
Sources FCB squad 2025–26 at fcb-archiv.ch Switzerland 2025–26 at RSSSF
External links
Homepage Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv"