As a sixteen-year-old, Paul Fischli played his debut in the FC Glarus first team in the third amateur division.
Fischli started playing semi-professionally in 1965 with FC Young Fellows Zürich in the Nationalliga B (later renamed Challenge League).
Young Fellows were promoted at the end of the season to the Nationalliga A (later renamed Swiss Super League).
He became an integral part of the Basel team alongside the likes of René Hasler, Ottmar Hitzfeld and Karl Odermatt and went on to win five League titles and two Swiss Cups between 1968 and 1979.
[2] During his entire period in Basel, Fischli was never a fully professional soccer player; he worked for a sports firm.