For many years, FC Basel dominated Swiss football, looking down on their rivals from the top of the mountainous country’s summit. Since 2003, they have won the Swiss Super League 11 times, including eight in a row between 2010 and 2017. With more wins came more prize money, particularly from competing in the Champions League, and as their finances grew ever greater so did their dominance.
Between 2009 and 2018, Basel made it into the group stage of the Champions League seven times, advancing to the last 16 on three occasions, alongside a run to the Europa League semi-finals in 2013 and the quarter-finals in 2014 and 2020. Regular European football – and facing the continent’s biggest teams – brought more money, more attention and made the club attractive to its transfer targets. In Switzerland, nobody could stand up to Basel for quite some time.
Yet the powerhouse
