FC Basel has not been able to stop the free fall even under Heiko Vogel. After four defeats and no goals scored, the Palatine must take his hat off at the Rheinknie
FC Basel is only a shadow of its former self. Once serial champions in Switzerland and hosts of atmospheric Champions League evenings, the traditional club is currently bumbling around at the bottom of the Super League table. Even Heiko Vogel could not stop the FCB’s downfall.
On Tuesday, the club suspended the 47-year-old Palatine, who had replaced his compatriot Timo Schultz just over a month ago. The former St. Paulianer had handed over the Basel at the change of baton still as table fourth last and with five points on the account. Under Vogel, no further points were added. And no goal either.
0:3 against Lausanne Ouchy, 0:3 in Bern, 0:1 against Servette and most recently 0:3 at Lausanne-Sport. The consequence: Basel, with its meager five points, is twelfth and last in the Swiss top flight, and is currently already five points behind second-to-last place, which would lead to relegation at the end of the season. The newly created championship round is currently eleven points away.
Failing turnaround – Celestini’s curious exit in Sion
“As the bottom of the table with an ever-increasing gap to the front places and due to the lack of turnaround, FC Basel 1893 sees itself after the recent performances in the league to terminate the cooperation with Heiko Vogel with immediate effect,” the club announced on Tuesday. Vogel and his team had not succeeded in “breaking out of the negative spiral and, in the view of the sports commission, the targeted solutions could not be brought on the pitch enough.”
Vogel’s successor ahead of Wednesday’s Cup Round of 16 tie at SC Kriens will be former Swiss international Fabio Celestini, who has been given a contract until the end of the season. The 48-year-old led FC Luzern to a Cup victory in 2021, but he also knows his way around short and unsuccessful spells, as Vogel now does: In the previous season, he took over FC Sion, now in the second division, in November, but after six games without a win and a temporary one-week leave of absence at the end of February, he had to leave the Valais club again as 98-day coach.
For Vogel – who is known in Germany for his work at Bayern Munich (second division, U19), Borussia Mönchengladbach (second division), the then third division team KFC Uerdingen and FC Ingolstadt – Tuesday marked the end of his third term at FC Basel, which he had already coached from October 2011 to October 2012, during which time he won the double. At the beginning of this year, he returned to the border triangle as sports director. A good two months later, he became interim coach after Alex Frei’s departure and took FCB to the semifinals of the Conference League. After the Schultz exit, he then moved back into the post at the end of September.
