Instead of a crisis, there is quiet EM euphoria

When the national team plays against Germany in Letzigrund on Friday, there will be more people in the stadium than at any previous women’s Football game in Switzerland. 16,000 of a possible 18,500 tickets were sold at the beginning of the week – breaking the October record again.

Seven months before the home European Championship, it is slowly becoming apparent that something is moving in Swiss women’s football. In the stands, but also on the pitch: in the 1-1 draw against Australia and the 2-1 draw against France, the Swiss played better than they have for a long time.

The difference compared to the situation a year ago is huge.

In autumn 2023, the Swiss national team reached the lowest point in a turbulent year with a 7-1 defeat against Spain. It was a dreary evening in Letzigrund, where the team completely fell apart against the world champions. At that time, the Swiss Football Association (SFV) was busy with several construction sites.

In the men’s A team, the question was whether they wanted to continue with coach Murat Yakin, and the women’s coach was also controversial. Inka Grings has only had the position since the beginning of the year; although she reached the round of 16 at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 2023, she only achieved one win in fourteen games, a 2-0 win against the Philippines.

Just as serious as the meager balance were the conflicts that Grings had, especially with the leading players, and which were due to communication deficiencies. The situation was so dire that the leading players put pressure on the SFV leadership and demanded Grings’ removal.

The problem was solved unexpectedly smoothly in mid-November: it became public that Grings had received parts of her very low salary in a previous job as coach of the SV Straelen men’s team in 2019/20 and that she now received the old invoice with a damage amount of 13,350 euros settled. The fact that the association only found out about it from the media gave the SFV a reason to release Grings.

The alleged attack has not yet been clarified

The serious crisis in Swiss women’s football in autumn 2023 was exacerbated by an alleged attack on the delegation when it traveled back to Switzerland after the World Cup in New Zealand. An association employee is said to have grabbed a player’s neck during a security check. The loss of trust stemmed from the fact that the top of the SFV was not informed of this until the end of September 2023, i.e. six weeks later. Although Grings and Marion Daube, the SFV’s director of women’s football, are said to have known about it long beforehand.

Fourteen months have now passed since the SFV fired the employee in question and filed a report with Swiss Sport Integrity, the reporting and investigation body for Swiss sport. Its head, Markus Pfisterer, says that the duration of the investigation in this area is not exceptionally long. But the case has an international component, and there are deadlines to be taken into account if those affected request access to files. The time horizon remains open.

The case is the last dark component that remains from the autumn crisis. The future, however, looks much brighter than seemed possible at the time. This is mainly due to the commitment of the renowned trainer Pia Sundhage.

A stroke of luck? Yes. A coincidence? No. The search committee for the national coach position made only limited progress when Daube took the initiative. She knew that Sundhage had recently been fired as Brazil’s national coach and was initially hesitant to simply call the world-renowned coach with Olympic victories and World Cup medals in Coaching Palmarès.

Sundhage has already experienced a home European Championship

But Sundhage was open to the idea of ​​coaching small Switzerland after big women’s football nations such as Sweden, the USA and Brazil. The 64-year-old experienced a home European Championship as national coach in her native Sweden in 2013 and still raves about the euphoria that was sparked in the country back then.

When Daube suggested Sundhage to the SFV central board, she said: “Whether you know her or not: We have a good option with Pia. If we don’t do that, I’ll go to another planet.” The central board agreed.

The association was prepared to spend a lot on optimal preparation for the European Championship. First of all, personnel decisions were expensive: Sundhage was allowed to bring two assistant coaches with him; Anders Johansson and Lilie Persson have accompanied Sundhage on previous engagements.

When Sundhage took the post in February, she spoke of two cornerstones of her philosophy: a camaraderie environment and a strong performance culture. Good team spirit is important to her, but she also demands a lot. The players praise their social skills, precise analyzes and preparations. And that she communicates very clearly what she wants from the individual player and the team. That was exactly what was missing under Grings. After games at their clubs, the players receive WhatsApp messages with congratulations, a few inputs on points that caught Sundhage’s attention, or asking if everything was okay if someone didn’t play.

The Swiss had to learn to communicate on the pitch

Sundhage also attaches great importance to communication between the players – on and off the pitch. Meriame Terchoun says: “When Pia was new to us, she told us that it made her nervous when it was so quiet on the pitch.” The Swiss first had to learn what communicating more on the pitch meant: celebrating a successful defensive action with a shout and letting out their emotions more. Use your body language to signal to your teammates that everyone is there for the other – regardless of whether they are a rookie or a team leader. Every player is an important part of the whole.

The effect of this is noticeable and visible, the team radiates more security again after ten games with Sundhage (seven of which were wins, and they were promoted back to the Nations League A), which was joined by young players like Naomi Luyet, Iman Beney and Sydney Schertenleib confident, played well. The fact that the team has recently used a more pragmatic system with five defensive players provides more stability against top teams like France or now Germany and England. Sundhage is working intensively with the team on more successful counterattacks, including a special sprint program that the players implement.

And there are two other personnel who have brought the team forward: In March, Nadine Angerer joined the staff as goalie coach – the German was a world footballer and world champion and she has trained goalies in the USA for the past ten years. Sundhage says of her influence: “It’s contagious to have someone with such a winning mentality on the team. She has also worked with so many great trainers that I also constantly benefit from her experience.”

Finally, in early summer, former Swiss national player Johan Djourou was brought in as a link between staff and team – he also impresses with the charisma and detailed work from a long career in top football.

Business flights and a body scanner as details for optimal preparation

Of the ten million francs for the legacy of the EM (five come from the federal government, five from the SFV), part will also be invested in the framework conditions for the immediate preparation for the EM. The aim is to support the A team players individually if they have a deficit somewhere. Or to enable the staff to visit the players in their clubs more often and to intensify the exchange with the coaches on site.

But it’s also about details. The team has a body scanner that checks the players’ legs every morning after breakfast for any inflammation. The association is also working more in the mental area so that the players can deal with the special pressure of a home European Championship. Players like Ramona Bachmann and Ana Crnogorcevic, who play in the USA, made it possible for the SFV to take a business flight to get together. Director Marion Daube says: “All of this should give the players a good feeling.”

Despite all the positive developments, the lack of breadth in the squad remains a problem that cannot be resolved by the European Championships in July 2025. The Swiss will feel this especially in the friendly games against Germany and England (on Tuesday), although their record against these teams is miserable: 29 games, 27 defeats, 2 draws.

Several important players are out due to health reasons. Above all, Captain Lia Wälti, who has only just recovered from her cruciate ligament tear and was once again the undisputed center of the Swiss team when she returned in October. She is missing after a procedure for an abscess.

Géraldine Reuteler and Luana Bühler as well as 18-year-old Naomi Luyet, who was delighted with her dream goal against France and who would have liked to have given Sundhage more playing time, are also not there. In the middle of the week, Ramona Bachmann was struggling with flu symptoms – whether she will play against Germany will not be decided until Friday.

Collaboration: Peter B. Birrer