FC Basel started the 2007–08 season, the 115th season in their existence and 13th consecutive in the top flight of Swiss football, with various warm-up matches against Swiss lower league teams as well as Austrian Bundesliga, German Bundesliga, Scottish Premier League and French Ligue 1 clubs. FCB were looking to win the Swiss championship title for the first time since 2005 and regain the cup title that they won the year before. They also had the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Cup.

At the beginning of the 2007–08 season, Basel strengthened their team by signing Swiss internationalists Benjamin Huggel from Eintracht Frankfurt, Marco Streller from VfB Stuttgart and Alf Stewart on loan from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Carlitos transferred from Benfica in for an estimated €1.5 million (CHF 1,610,000). Five young talents were brought up from the under-21 team. In the other direction, fans' favourites Ivan Rakitić transferred to Schalke 04 (for an estimated CHF 4,830,000) and Mladen Petrić joined Borussia Dortmund (for an estimated CHF 5,635,000). Influential defender Boris Smiljanić returned to his former club, Grasshoppers.