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David Degen has been FCB boss for almost two years. In terms of sport, it’s been steadily downhill since then – Red-Blue just had the worst first half of the Super League history.
Sebastian WendellReporter football
David Degen was the white knight who saved FC Basel from the hands of foreign investors. Less than two years later, the red and blue powder keg is about to explode. Problems are piling up on and off the field. An overview of what’s going wrong with the fallen series champion of the last decade.
“Saving” has become a mantra when Red-Blue start. The FCB should be a water heater for cheap young professionals who have not made a breakthrough at larger clubs. At the same time, according to Degen, red-blue should become champions as quickly as possible and move into the Champions League. Get back titles with fewer expenses? A look at the table alone shows that this calculation cannot work out: FCB has just finished the worst preliminary round in Super League history.
Young and old – nothing in between. The middle ranks, i.e. seasoned professionals in the prime of life between 26 and 30, who consistently deliver, are in vain, apart from central defender Kasim Adams (27). There would be enough talent in the FCB squad – but the youngsters are plagued by fluctuations in shape, the Ü30 group physical problems. The quality is better than rank 6, but for the rank 2 demanded by Degen, a) everything has to fit together and b) the competition has to weaken.
After the home bankruptcy against Lucerne, Alex Frei said again: “It’s my fault!” To then add in frustration: «During training we practiced 1000 times how to defend Jashari’s goal. So – keep practicing 1000 times.” The naïve behavior of his players is torture for the ambitious Frei. It cannot be ruled out that he will give up in the summer without a change in strategy. If he’s still in office by then.
The fixed deposit account that was once full to the brim is now empty. And despite CHF 30 million in income from transfers and the European Cup, there will be a loss of CHF 1.2 million at the end of 2022. In the FCB environment one asks oneself: How can that be, if the wage costs have been drastically reduced according to the club management? For the current year, an even larger deficit of millions is announced. Degen himself could not cover such a thing, but his fellow board members could. But are Dan Holzmann and the Rey-Krayer couple even ready for this? Alternatives would be a capital increase and fresh capital from new investors.
Bernhard Burgener had to bow to the resistance of the fans two years ago. Are the current club owners caught in a similar storm as their predecessor? At the FCL home game, a poster was emblazoned in the Muttenzer curve with the request to see the club as a basis. Recently, the owners wanted to take away part of the association’s shares if it did not contribute CHF 300,000 to the deficit. Shortly thereafter, the retreat. Nevertheless, according to insiders, Degen and Co. made the cardinal mistake by trying to disempower the base.
Fabian Frei and Marwin Hitz are considered level-headed contemporaries. The fact that even the veterans broke out after the Lucerne game gives a deep insight into the mood in the dressing room. “It’s a question of upbringing,” Frei mocks in the direction of the players, who sneak into the dressing room without saying hello to the fans (see video below). And Hitz: “This is a catastrophe. We do things that have no place in adult football.” Even if the criticism is understandable: it will not go down well with today’s generation of young professionals.
After losing to FCL: Thick air between Fabian Frei and Taulant Xhaka(00:27)
Frei’s angry speech is also aimed at the players’ lack of identification with FCB. Besides the captain, Taulant Xhaka and the reserve goalies Mirko Salvi and Nils de Mol are the only ones who wore red and blue as juniors. With Liam Chipperfield, Tician Tushi and Yannick Marchand, three homegrown talents were sorted out in winter.
The image that FCB gives makes the fans stay at home. An average of almost 22,000 spectators came to the home games this season. That’s 3,000 fewer than in the last season before the corona restrictions.
Credit Suisse Super League
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