Pre-season Jiří Sobotka continued his job as club manager, it was his third consecutive year as manager. Basel played a total of 55 games this season. Of these 26 were in the domestic league, three were in the
Swiss Cup, two in the
1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup, three in the
Cup of the Alps and 21 were friendly matches. Of these 21 test games 12 were won, five drawn and four were lost.
Roberto Frigerio scored 19 goals in 15 test games. Four alone in the game against FC Laufen and a hat-trick against
Lugano. However, the results of these test games are secondary. The pre-seasons tests were mainly played with lower level, locals teams as release games for the transfers of young players,
Marcel Kunz from FC Gerlafingen,
Walter Baumann from FC Pratteln and
Walter Löffel from FC Moutier.
World tour A well-documented curiosity was the fact that during the winter break of the 1963–64 season the team travelled on a world tour. This saw them visit
British Hong Kong,
Malaysia,
Singapore,
Australia,
New Zealand,
French Polynesia,
Mexico and the
United States. First team manager
Jiří Sobotka together with 16 players and 15 members of staff, supporters and journalists participated in this world tour from 10 January to 10 February 1964. Team captain
Bruno Michaud filmed the events with his super-8 camara. The voyage around the world included 19 flights and numerous bus and train journeys. Club chairman, Lucien Schmidlin, led the group, but as they arrived in the hotel in Bangkok, he realised that 250,000 Swiss Francs were missing. The suitcase that he had filled with the various currencies was not with them. He had left it at home, but Swiss Air were able to deliver this to him within a few days. During the tour a total of ten friendly/test games were played, these are listed below. Five wins, three draws, two defeats, but also three major injuries resulted from these test matches. A broken leg for
Peter Füri, an eye injury for
Walter Baumann and a knee injury for
Bruno Michaud soon reduced the number of players to just 13.
Domestic league There were fourteen teams contesting in the
1963–64 Nationalliga A, these were the top 12 teams from the
previous season 1962–63 and the two newly promoted teams
Schaffhausen and
Cantonal Neuchatel. The Championship was played in a double round-robin, the champions were to be qualified for
1964–65 European Cup and the bottom placed two teams in the table were to be relegated. Basel started well into the season, winning four of the first five matches. Despite three away defeats, up until the winter break the team were championship leaders with seven wins and three draws. The second half of the season, following the world tour, started with three straight defeats. Basel consequently slipped down in the league table and finished the championship in seventh position, with ten wins and six draws from 26 matches, scoring 42 goals conceding 48, with twenty six points, 13 points less than the new champions
La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Karl Odermatt was the team's top goal scorer in the domestic league with 9 goals.
Swiss Cup As title holders in the
Swiss Cup, Basel started in the 3rd principal round, on 5 October 1963, with an easy away win against
SC Schöftland in their attempt to defend this title. In the round of 32 they played away from home against local rivals
Concordia which was also won with ease. In the round of 16 Basel were drawn against lower classed
Porrentruy. However, this was indeed the best period in the Porrentruy club history. Their player-manager at that time was Basel's former striker
Hügi (II) and game ended with a surprising 0–1 defeat, goal scorer in the 56 minute was another former Basel player
René Jaeck. Basel's cup campaign came to an abrupt and disappointing end. But Porrentruy, with a quarter-final win over
Sion, even advanced as far as the semi-finals. Here they were beaten by the new cup winners
Lausanne-Sport.
European Cup Winners' Cup As Swiss Cup holders Basel were qualified for the
1963–64 European Cup Winners' Cup competition. Here they were drawn against the Scottish cup holders
Celtic. Both games ended very disappointingly (1–5 and 0–5) and thus ended with a disastrous aggregate result.
Cup of the Alps In the
Cup of the Alps competition during the group stage Basel played against
Genoa C.F.C.,
Atalanta and
Zürich. All three games were played in the
Landhof, but all three ended in a defeat and the campaign ended. == Players ==