FC Basel to face Valencia and Liverpool

Can Basel continue their Champions League celebrations? Keystone

Swiss football champions FC Basel are set to take on two of Europe's biggest clubs following their qualification for the Champions League.

Christian Gross’s side were pitted against Spanish league champions Valencia and four-time European champions Liverpool during Thursday’s draw in Monaco.

The third team drawn against Basel was Spartak Moskau, who the Swiss side will face at home in the first game of the Champions league opening round on September 17.

“Valencia and Liverpool are really good sides and they’ll be powerful opponents,” FC Basel president, René C. Jäggi told reporters following the draw.

“The Spanish side have been one of the best clubs in Europe for the past three years and Liverpool has a great reputation.”

“It’s an advantage for us though that we’ll be starting against the Russians. I’m sure St Jakob’s park will be sold out more then three times over,” he added.

Hasty return

Valencia will be making a hasty return to Swiss soil having successfully seen off Genevan side Servette in last season’s UEFA Cup competition. The Spanish champions have also more than proven their ability in the Champions League – reaching the competition’s final in two of the past three years.

Liverpool rank among the most legendary clubs on the continent although the most recent of their European Championship titles dates all the way back to 1984.

The English side appear to be rediscovering their former might, however, having returned to the European stage with their 2001 victory in the UEFA Cup.

The visit of Liverpool will also mark a return to Switzerland for the English club’s Swiss defender Stephane Henchoz.

Basel made sure of a place in the Champions League opening round after shocking Scottish champions Celtic in a qualifying match on Wednesday.

Trailing 3-1 from the first leg in Glasgow, Basel struck back to win the second leg 2-0, ensuring Swiss participation in Europe’s biggest club competition for the first time in six years.

Financial rewards

Involvement in the Champions League will certainly provide a welcome boost to the FC Basel coffers, which have been hard-stretched in particular by the building of the club’s new 33,000-seater stadium.

Contributions from the competition organisers, UEFA, along with money from the Champions League marketing pool and ticket sales should earn the Swiss side some SFr 10 million ($6.7 million) – even if they lose all six of their upcoming games.

And if the club can continue to upset some of Europe’s bigger sporting names, the financial rewards would increase accordingly.

For the good of the game

As well as being extremely good news for Basel, the club’s entry into the Champions League is also being hailed as a shot in the arm for Swiss football, following years of disappointment at both club and international level.

“Of course this will have an important effect on all Swiss football,” the football association president Ralph Zloczower told swissinfo on Thursday.

“It should also help our joint bid with Austria to stage the 2008 European Championships, because we can now show that we have something to offer international football.”

Glowing reviews

Switzerland’s media were similarly warm on Thursday in their praise for Basel’s achievement.

“Yessss! – made it!” screamed the tabloid newspaper Blick beneath a picture of Wednesday night’s celebrations. The Basler Zeitung described the local team’s performance as a victory of “combined strength, exertion, bravery, ability and fortune.”

Having twice taken Grasshoppers Zurich into the Champions League, Christian Gross was also well aware of the size of Wednesday’s win, but the Basel manager was keen to stress the difficulties that now lie ahead.

“Getting through (to the opening round) is highly satisfying in sporting terms, and will also bring the club a lot of money,” Gross agreed, “but now we have to keep our feet on the ground and remain realistic.”

Friday’s draw will certainly have helped to get that message home. But it will surely be hard to stop the fans dreaming of even greater exploits, now that the likes of Liverpool and Valencia are heading to northern Switzerland.

swissinfo, Mark Ledsom