- As bottom of the table, FC Basel is in its worst sporting crisis since 1994.
- Nevertheless, fans want to dedicate a museum to the club and thereby make a statement.
- Fans collect money for the museum, for example by auctioning old jerseys and jogging with the club owner.
The sporting failures cause deep pain among fans. “It touches everyone’s heart in this city,” says former FCB player Massimo Ceccaroni. For a die-hard FCB fan, last place in the table is almost unbearable.
750 francs for a walk with the FCB legend
At an auction for the FCB Museum, fans were able to take a walk with him through the Basel Autumn Fair. The last offer was 750 francs.
Legend:
He was there the last time FCB was relegated to the second best league: Massimo Ceccaroni. At the auction for the FCB Museum, someone offered 750 francs for a trip to the trade fair with the FCB legend.
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Silke Dean would never consider letting the club down because of a few bad seasons. She even had the logo of her favorite club tattooed on her upper arm.
2,600 francs for a jog with the FCB president
She also sees an opportunity in the crisis: “Now the real fans are separating from the viewers. As a real fan, you stick with the club even when things aren’t going well.”
Legend:
Fan love that gets under your skin.
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Silke Dean offered 2,600 francs at the auction for a jogging session with the club president and former FCB player David Degen. “It’s for a good cause!”
Now the real fans are separating from the spectators.
By the good cause, Dean means the FCB Museum. There is nothing like this in this football-loving city. A committed group of fans, including Thilo Mangold, want to change that. He has in mind a place that, on the one hand, deals with the history of football in Basel.
The museum wants to be more than just FCB nostalgia
On the other hand, the museum should also address the interfaces between business, society and politics. “We don’t want a red and blue temple in which only the heroes of yesteryear are worshiped,” says Thilo Mangold.
Legend:
Here fans will one day be able to delve into the history of FC Basel. Thilo Mangold stands in the rooms of the planned FCB museum.
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Nevertheless, it is also important to Mangold that the FCB is memorialized with the museum. “With a museum like this we would be at the forefront of Europe – the Champions League, so to speak!” If there is no longer enough sport for the Champions League, at least the museum should serve.
With a museum like this we would be at the forefront of Europe – the Champions League, so to speak!
FC Basel is part of this city, whether it is in first or last place in the table. Honorary President Bernhard Heusler also shares this opinion. A museum is justified. «It’s about respect for the past. The history of this association goes far beyond the individual people. That’s why it’s high time that such a project was developed in Basel.”
Legend:
Red and blue cult objects could soon be on display here.
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The FCB Museum has already found a home: an old barn opposite the St. Jakob-Park stadium. The barn belongs to the non-profit Christoph Merian Foundation, which also donated 1 million francs to finance the museum. Now around 2 million are still missing. The opening is planned for 2026.
There are these football museums in Switzerland
Whether FC Basel plays in the sporting Champions League again or whether relegation has become a reality – for the many football fans in Basel, a visit to the museum will be a must either way.