Nico Elvedi Svenja Fölmli non-immigrant backgrounds. Ten per cent of the former had reported it. Women’s football is another issue. Switzerland’s female players are not only starved of the limelight but also discriminated against. Gender equality is lacking. But at least the SFA are aware of this. Ahead of the Women’s World Cup in summer 2023, they published a promotional video featuring a family at the dinner table. The daughter asks her dad whether they are going to watch the World Cup together. “There is no World Cup this summer.” Yes, there is one, says the daughter. Ah, you mean the women’s national team. Does anyone even know them? Does anyone even know them?! Until recently, Ramona Bachmann scored for Paris Saint-Germain, one of the top teams in the French Division 1 Féminine. She now plays for the Houston Dash (USA) in the National Women’s Soccer League. Lia Wälti stars for Arsenal in the English FA Women’s Super League. Riola Xhemaili signed for serial German Bundesliga winners VfL Wolfsburg in 2023. Like Murat Yakin’s citizenship application, women’s football in Switzerland is stuck in the slow lane. No “significant public interest”? Professionalism remains a distant goal for the Swiss Women’s Super League. Those in the know say that equal opportunities for girls in terms of access to good-quality coaching and school-and-sports environments are virtually non-existent. There have been stories of women setting up all-girl teams, only for the male club members to dismiss the idea. Men still get the best training slots, the newest kit and the best pitches at some clubs. Female coaches are still a rarity, because there were far fewer female players 20 years ago than there are today. And there are barely any female coaching courses, despite women stressing repeatedly that a coaching course is not always the most pleasant of experiences if every other attendee is male. This is the status quo. And this is where we lag behind other European countries. Switzerland will host the Women’s European Championship in summer 2025. It promises to be a celebration of football featuring all the sights and sounds of a major tournament. Euro 2025 will be a litmus test of whether successful integration in Swiss football also applies to the women. *The author reported on the men’s national team as a journalist from 2004 to 2024. Photos Pages 14 to 16: Alamy, Players Forumfree, Schweizerischer Fussballverband/football.ch Fabian Schär Remo Freuler Céderic Zesiger Alisha Lehmann Noah Okafor Lia Wälti Ramona Bachmann Riola Xhemaili Swiss Review / May 2024 / No.3 Sport 16
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