FC Basel and FCZ try to reinterpret their identity before the direct duel

Sometimes it’s very simple in football: give people a star and they suddenly think everything is wonderful again. FC Basel recently used this old recipe when it brought Xherdan Shaqiri back to his youth club. The effect of the move was considerable: the signing of the aging ball artist sent the Basel public into euphoria.

The wave of happiness was given the lovely name “Shaq Effect”. This was not only expressed in journalistic somersaults about father-son relationships, in emotionally charged prose of memories, or even in the fact that Shaqiri’s arrival was celebrated as an antidote “against global warming, war in Ukraine, Islamist attacks” as in the “Weltwoche”. The “Shaq Effect” was also noticeable in tangible numbers.

Several thousand Basel residents gathered at the St. Jakob-Park stadium when Shaqiri was introduced. Shirt sales exploded thanks to the new number 10. When Shaqiri sat on the bench for the first time against Yverdon, more than 30,000 spectators watched instead of just under 20,000. When Shaqiri stepped onto the pitch after 66 minutes with the score at 2-0, the stadium was transformed into a temple of joy.

A team is not a casting show for transfers

Such moments have been missing in St. Jakob-Park in recent years. Under president Bernhard Burgener and his successor David Degen, FC Basel was primarily concerned with itself. The public was annoyed by the legal maneuvers involved in the takeover, and asked whether FCB would become an ordinary joint-stock company and no longer a club in which everyone could participate. In terms of sport, things went downhill; a year ago, FCB was bottom of the table. Outside of the fan base, it lost its importance as an institution and people became indifferent. Not even the specter of relegation was a source of fear anymore.

The reason for this was not only the slow pace of the game. It was also the personnel on the pitch, who came and went like in a market place – and often didn’t even know which club they were playing for and against whom. The fans had barely learned the name of the new player with the number XY on their back when he had already been transferred away. Or he had disappeared onto the bench. That doesn’t create any identification. And no team grows together anyway if the players come from somewhere and go somewhere else, primarily seeking their own salvation in a transfer to a club where there is more money to be made.

Who remembers Riccardo Calafiori, the Italian defender who lay down on the ground in the Letzigrund shortly after being substituted for fear of injury and then signed a contract in Bologna three days later? Or Renato Veiga, who, after his first match for FCB, talked about the Champions League without the Portuguese seeming to care that his team was bottom of the league?

Today, the Calafioris and Veigas are remembered because the two players alone brought FC Basel around 30 million Swiss francs. These examples illustrate the balancing act that FCB President David Degen, a former player agent, attempted with his personnel policy: on the one hand, to earn as much money as possible from transfers and, with the income, to put the club on a sound financial footing until 2026 – this seems to be working. On the other hand, this comes at the expense of public interest. Who would be excited about an anonymous transfer casting instead of a team, which was also pretty unsuccessful in sporting terms?

How sustainable is the “Shaq effect”?

Bringing Shaqiri home shows that Degen was apparently convinced that FCB should not only offer resale shares, but also identification figures. The “Shaq effect” also brings back memories of bringing Alex Frei, Marco Streller, Benjamin Huggel, Matias Delgado, Valentin Stocker and Fabian Frei home in the years of sustained success under former president Bernhard Heusler.

At the same time, in the general euphoria, the disposal of deserving older players such as Michael Lang or, most recently, FCB record player Fabian Frei, is pushed into the background; only Taulant Xhaka of the older players is still grumbling on the substitutes’ bench. The farewell to captain Fabian Frei in St. Jakob-Park on Saturday evening should therefore be free of bitterness, because the audience is focusing its attention on Shaqiri.

It remains to be seen how much Shaqiri can help the team on the pitch? The answer to this question alone will keep fans and the media busy in the coming months.

It is also unclear whether Degen wants to optimise the mix of potential identification players such as Dominik Schmid, Albian Ajeti or Leon Avdullahu with the many new arrivals and whether coach Fabio Celestini will replace half of his team again in the winter. The “Shaq effect” could fizzle out as suddenly as it took hold of FCB. But that is of little concern at the moment.

How does FCB see itself? A member of staff at the club answers disarmingly directly that the time is of course ripe for a nice double for the multiple champions and cup winners.

The FCZ is being rebuilt with a heavy hand

FC Zurich is far from this cheerful sobriety. While FCB is trying to balance the cold transfer machine with its sporting ambitions and the needs of the public, FCZ, champions of 2022, is trying to do just the opposite: to finally get to the point where it can make money from player sales, like FCB or YB. The FCZ management said at the end of last year that they want to be where Basel and Bern are now in two or three years. They want to “get away from the constant ups and downs,” said President Ancillo Canepa.

For this purpose, Canepa has brought in Milos Malenovic as sporting director, who, like Degen, is a seasoned player agent. After last season with a lot of rumblings, Malenovic has also rebuilt the squad in line with the pattern of young, transfer-friendly players – and has also replaced almost the entire staff.

Head coach Ricardo Moniz is a tough trainer who is not afraid of unusual discipline. For example, Moniz ordered a deserving FCZ player like Jonathan Okita to leave the field immediately after being substituted because the Dutchman did not like something. The young striker Labinot Bajrami, who was only given a professional contract in the spring, was sent straight to FC Winterthur after a similar incident. And where are the FCZ players from the club’s own youth team who make you want to go to the stadium?

From the selection of ten strikers, you can watch Okita become a shadow of his former self – or Daniel Afriyie stagnate. The other attackers seem interchangeable. Only the experienced Antonio Marchesano, Nikola Katic and the goalie Yanick Brecher seem to be safe bets. Moniz can claim that he has not lost a game against a Swiss team so far.

A lot is new at FCZ, but is it better? The fans in the mighty south curve are still busy celebrating themselves, as long as the results are more or less right. There is a tense calm around them about what will become of the new FCZ. It doesn’t look like a successful transfer machine at this club at the moment – just a cold one.