2006 Basel hooligan incident

The 2006 Basel hooligan incident (often called "Disgrace of Basel") occurred on 13 May 2006 in Basel, Switzerland. On that day hooligans supporting the Swiss football club FC Basel 1893 stormed the field of the St. Jakob-Park after a championship-deciding match against the FC Zürich. FC Zürich scored in the dying moments of the match and won 2–1. The goal ended the dream of Basel winning the Swiss Super League a third time in a row. This resulted in property damage and riots between hooligans of both the FCB and their rival supporters after the match. This riot is considered as one of the worst incidents involving hooliganism in Swiss sport to date.

FC Basel and FC Zürich were practically neck and neck for the entire 2005–06 Swiss Super League season. It all came down to a last match between the last two championship competing teams on the 13 May in Basel. The situation was that Basel were in first position in the league table, three points ahead, and they had a home fixture in the sold out St. Jakob-Park against their sole remaining rivals for the championship title Zürich. Therefore, Basel needed one sole point to be Swiss champions, a draw would have been sufficient. Zürich, on the other hand, required a win to top Basel and win the championship.

The game itself was fought fiercely with many fouls on both sides. In the 90th minute the score was 1-1 which would have meant that Basel would have been championship winners by three points. The Basel fans and the officials were already celebrating and preparing for the victory celebrations. During the last few minutes of the match Basel played very defensively, keeping the ball out of their half of the field. In the 93rd minute Zürich were awarded a throw-in from the right side of the field. The ball was thrown in, some twenty meters further forward from the correct point, to the right flank of the field, from where midfielder Florian Stahel crossed the ball into the Basel penalty area. The Basel defense failed to remove the ball from their penalty area and it came to Zürich defender Iulian Filipescu who shot the ball past Basel goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbühler into the left hand corner of the goal. Referee Massimo Busacca ended the match directly after the goal and Zürich were champions.

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