The tormented beginnings of female nati

Even today, the Swiss female football team must sometimes fight to be accepted and attracted the public.Image: Wikimédia

The national women’s football team has evolved enormously since 1970. His football has become more physical, more dynamic and more elaborate tactics. But the nati had to fight for a long time to be accepted.

Michael Jucker / Swiss National Museum

The Swiss Women’s Football team has existed since 1970 – a year which also sees the creation of a league. The beginnings are difficult and sown with pitfalls. The players face prejudices and resistances. Many men, including within the Federation, are first critical of them, while others encourage them.

The Swiss played their first unofficial match in 1970 against Austria, to the “Breite” of Schaffhouse, a stadium which is no longer in very good condition, but where national League A matches have already been played. In front of a large audience, the national team is clearly won by 9 to 0 against an Austrian team from Bric and Broc. The first international match recognized by FIFA and the Swiss Football Association will however not be played until 1972 in Basel against France and ended with a draw: 2 points everywhere.

At first, the media are interested, women’s football is new and caused a sensation: television and newspapers speak about it with often misogynist and contemptuous comments. It is not surprising, so that enthusiasm drops quickly.

At the time, photos of the national team rallies were not yet publicly broadcast press photographs. The shots that have reached us and which are mostly kept in the archives of the FCZ Museum come from the personal albums of the players.

Obviously, they are delighted to be together. Like these days, they come from all over Switzerland. During the 1975 rally in Basel, they met the legend of FCB Karli Odermatt. Unfortunately, he did not bring luck to the Swiss, who lose 1 to 3 against England, the cradle of football.

In 1975, the female nati met Karl Odermatt, who was then one of the best footballers in the country.Image: FCZ Museum

The photographs also show the evolution of sports and fashion outfits. The tracksuits and jerseys are sometimes with a wide collar, sometimes adjusted, sometimes ample. During the match against Austria in Schaffhouse, the women wear worn jerseys loaned by a team of juniors, which the players rightly find humiliating. At the time of the creation of the League in 1970, the officials of the association are considering imposing iron support, because it is said that receiving the ball with the chest would cause breast cancer. Fortunately, this project remains a dead letter.

The outfit remains dominated for a long time by men. Until recently, there was no specific shoes and shorts for women, well forced to wear male models, or children’s sizes. Fortunately, things have changed since: jerseys and shorts have been cut for women. Also on shoes, manufacturers of sports items are advancing slowly but surely in the right direction for about five years.

Swiss footballers had long had to be satisfied with junior jerseys. As here during their first international match in 1970 in Schaffhouse.Image: Keystone/PHOTOPRESS-ARCHIV

From a sporting point of view, the team has not really evolved as we would have liked. If in the 1970s, the Swiss still managed to compete with other nations, the situation then changed at all. In the 1980s and 1990s, power relations were very clear. Swiss sportsmen are dominated by most of their opponents.

In 1988, for example, Switzerland played a qualifying match for the European Championship against Germany in Binningen (BL) and lost 10 to 0. In May 1993, the Swiss also lost against the Germans, one of the best teams in Europe at the time. Like so many female matches, the meeting does not take place in a big city, but in the provinces, in this case in Wädenswil (ZH).

The matches of the Swiss women’s football team, here with Helen Barmettler, have long been confined to the provinces.Image: FCZ Museum

The national team, in which Helen Barmettler played between 1972 and 1984, stayed below the average. For decades, qualifications for international tournaments are not there. This is probably also explained by the fact that long, the Swiss Football Association has not invested in promoting the next generation.

However, to have success, new players must constantly assert themselves. In a small country like Switzerland, this is not obvious. The association will take a long time to understand it. The formation of the next generation is only strengthened from the turning point of the millennium. In 2004, the association created the “Women’s Football” department as well as a training center for girls.

In recent years, the number of girls and women practicing football has increased at full speed, which is delightful. Since 2020, women have also been represented at the General Secretariat and the Steering Committee of the Swiss Football Association (ASF). The next generation training is of capital importance for the national team A. It makes it possible to engage players who are better and better trained. And Switzerland is now known to be an exporting nation of young footballers.

Swiss footballer Noelle Maritz in the arsenal jersey. She is now playing for Aston Villa.Image: Wikimédia

For the past fifteen years, the promotion has also been bearing fruit. Switzerland plays an increasingly important role at the international level. The first participation in a World Cup in 2015 marks a major step in the evolution of the women’s team.

Recognition of society, media coverage and attendance at matches are now increasing quickly. Depeats much appreciated by the media contribute there, for example the fastest “hat” hat “of all time, directed by FC player Zurich Fabienne Humm during the 2015 World Cup in Canada, in a match against the equator.

By qualifying for the Women’s Euro 2017, the Swiss also participated for the first time in a large European tournament. From 2012 to 2018, the German coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg marks the team of her footprint and ensured him a great success. The Switzerles participate in the 2015 World Cup in Canada and the 2017 women’s Euro in the Netherlands, but miss the qualification for the 2019 World Cup. Under the direction of Danish Niels Nielsen, the team managed to qualify for Euro 2022 in England and for the World Cup in Australia a year later.

During the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the Swiss, coached by Inka Grings, play against New Zealanders, Norwegians and the Philippines. First of their group, they find themselves in the round of 16 in the face of future Spanish world champions, lose 5 to 1 and are eliminated.

The media visibility and the number of spectators of the national team increase certainly, but remain modest compared to foreigners – and male football in our country. Each participation of juniors or team A in an international tournament has a beneficial effect on the whole of Swiss women’s football. With large support and an increasingly numerous audience, recognition will not be long in coming. In particular, of course, during the matches of the European Women’s Championship, which Switzerland welcomes and which, hopefully, will take place on closed counters.

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