photo: FC BASEL Website
Year Founded: 1893
Stadium: Saint Jakob Park (42,500 seats)
Manager: Urs Fischer
Champions League participation over the past 10 years: 2008/09, 2011/12 (Advanced to Round of 16), 2013/14, 2014/15 (Advanced to Round of 16)
About Basel: After a terrific year under former Maccabi coach Paulo Sousa, Basel advanced to the Round of 16 in the Champions League but has now undergone a roster overhaul for the 2015/16 year. Urs Fischer has taken over for Sousa and key players Derlis Gonzalez, Fabian Schar and Fabian Frei left the club while iconic captain Marco Streller has retired. However the Swiss champions are still loaded with local stars and have added Marc Janko, Zdravko Kuzmanović from Inter and Jean-Paul Boetius from Feyenoord.
When Paulo Sousa coached Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2013/14, the Yellow-and-Blue faced Basel from Switzerland in two different rounds for a total of 4 matches. In the summer of 2013, Maccabi was eliminated in the third round of the Champions League qualifying matches and in February 2014 they were upended by Basel yet again this time in the Europa League Round of 32.
