The 1998–99 season was FC Aarau's 96th season in their existence, since their foundation in 1902. It was their seventeenth season in the top flight of Swiss football, following their promotion at the end of 1980–81 season. FCA played their home games in the Stadion Brügglifeld and the stadium is located on the southern outskirts of Aarau, in the territory of the neighboring municipality of Suhr. It is about one and a half kilometers from Aarau city center and the railway station.
Overview The local businessman and architect Ernst Lämmli was the club's chairman and patron at this time. He held this position since the AGM in 1989. In advance of the new season, Lämmli extended the contract with Martin Trümpler as head-coach and thus it was to be his fourth season in this position with the club.
The FCA first team competed in this season's domestic first-tier 1998–99 Nationalliga A with the clear intention of reaching the championship group and to qualify for the European competitions. To achieve this would mean they would have to finish the qualifying stage under the top eight teams. The team also competed in the 1998–99 Swiss Cup. The FCA team had ended the previous league season in seventh position and so had not qualified for the UEFA European competitions and they did not enter the Intertoto Cup.
However, the season did not commence sportingly very successfully. After the first eleven rounds, the team were struggling deep in the lower segment of the league table. Lämmli started exercising pressure on head-coach Trümpler. At the end of September, following a home defeat against Servette Lämmli dismissed Trümpler and for the next match installed Alfred Strasser as coach ad-interim. Despite this measure the team remained in the relegation zone and in spring they had to compete in the promotion/relegation group. Following two league defeats and their elimination from the Swiss Cup, Strasser had to leave as well. Lämmli then appointed the German Jochen Dries as new head-coach. Dries had spent the previous twenty years coaching second and third-tier clubs in Switzerland.
Players The following is the list of the FCA first team squad this season. It also includes players that were in the squad the day the domestic league season started, on 18 July 1998, but subsequently left the club after that date.
Players who left the squad The following is the list of the FCZ first team players that left the squad during the previous season or in the off-season, before the new domestic season began.
Results Legend
Nationalliga A
Qualification phase The first stage of the NLA began on 18 July 1998 and was completed on 13 December. The top eight teams in the qualification phase would advance to the championship group and the last four teams would play against relegation.
Qualification table
Promotion/relegation NLA/NLB
The teams in the ninth to twelfth positions in Nationalliga A competed with the top four teams of Nationalliga B in a Nationalliga A/B promotion/relegation round. This phase began on 28 February 1999 and was completed on 2 June.
Final table
Swiss Cup
The 12 first-tier clubs from the 1998–99 Nationalliga A had been granted byes for the first four rounds and they joined the competition in the fifth round. The first-tier teams were seeded and cound not be drawn against each other. The draw respected regionalities, when possible, and the lower classed team was granted home advantage.
Lausanne-Sport won the cup and this was the their 9th cup title to this date and their second in a row.
References
Sources Switzerland 1998–99 at RSSSF FCA squad 1998–99 at arowa.ch