Women's European Football Championship | Host Switzerland: In the land of new opportunities

"It will be a fantastic show with a fantastic atmosphere!" With these words, Dominique Blanc is certainly not over-promising for the Women's European Championship. The President of the Swiss Football Association (SFV) can already look forward to a virtually sold-out tournament before the official opening match this Wednesday in Basel between the hosts from Switzerland and Norway. And from a sporting perspective, it will be an exciting three and a half weeks: with the 16 participating teams, a relatively evenly matched field starts. When the title is up for grabs in the final on July 27, several teams are in contention: the world champions from Spain , the European champions from England, the Olympic bronze medalists from Germany , the World Cup bronze medalists from Sweden, the French and the Dutch.

The Aftermath

Major tournaments always raise high hopes for what comes next. For women's football, this means visibility, professionalization, growth – more of everything, both big and small. With the tournament, European football's governing body, UEFA, aims to do nothing less than "set a global benchmark for sporting events," as director Nadine Keßler describes it. Significant investments are being made to achieve this. At the 2013 European Championship in Sweden, UEFA paid €2.2 million in prize money; four years later, at the tournament in the Netherlands, it was €8 million; and then double that in 2022 in England. Now it's €41 million. Keßler explains why: "We're improving enormously because we know how important prize money is, what it does in terms of public awareness and promoting development."

When the women's soccer team from Thun plays in the Swiss Super League, an average attendance of only around 200 spectators is observed. The picture is similar for the first division teams from Aarau and Rapperswil-Jona. The contrast could not be greater, given that the European Championship has now reached new dimensions even before kickoff: With more than 600,000 tickets sold, small Switzerland has surpassed the motherland of football. At the European Championships in England three years ago, 575,000 fans flocked to the stadiums. After the final in Basel, not only the European champions could be celebrated, but also a tournament that was completely sold out with 673,000 spectators.

The boom

Whether it's this European Championship or a World Cup , general interest during such major events, with their special character, is far greater than in everyday football. This is precisely what the SFV is banking on. "Countless girls will discover football for themselves in the wake of the boom that the European Championship will trigger in Switzerland," the association writes.

Role models can also help drive development – ​​Ramona Bachmann is a big one in Switzerland. "I do think this is the best national team I've played for so far," says the midfielder, who has already won league titles in four countries. The problem: The team's star player will miss the European Championship due to injury. This reduces the hosts' chances in Group A, which includes Finland, Iceland, and opening opponents Norway – and with it their hopes of generating additional euphoria with sporting success. The Swiss women's football team most recently lost 1-0 to Norway, their toughest group opponent, in Sion at the beginning of June, and was relegated from Division A of the best European teams in the Nations League.

Other countries have dreamed of a boom following home tournaments or the success of their national teams – and were disappointed, like Germany after the 2011 World Cup. Women's football is still a loss-making business. As is the case here in the Bundesliga or at the European Championships in Switzerland. According to Keßler, UEFA expects a loss of more than €30 million, but this is part of a long-term investment plan: Between 2024 and 2030, the European governing body intends to invest €1 billion in women's football.

The goal

The goal of UEFA, the German Football Association (DFB), and most clubs is for women's football to be self-financing. Despite years of effort, this still seems unrealistic. You can't tell a financier where to invest. Nor can you force people to watch women's football matches. "Our sport is called football," says Dirk Zingler. The president of 1. FC Union spoke about the rise of the Berlin women's football team to the Bundesliga. He doesn't understand the approach of establishing women's football as a self-sustaining system, calling it an "ideological goal." So there are other, certainly successful paths—such as the "Union ecosystem" described by Zingler, in which the men's professional team finances the entire club.

Words are cheap, as female footballers know only too well. The DFB continues to justify different bonus payments for its women's and men's teams with revenue. If they win the European Championship, each female player would receive €120,000, while the men received €400,000 at last year's European Championship. They can wait until the women eventually earn as much money as the men, so they can then pay them the same. Other national associations have long been putting their money where their mouth is with "equal pay."

How lasting the impact of the European Championship will be in Switzerland remains to be seen. Will there be many more spectators than the average of 702 attending Super League matches in the long run? After all, professionalization, development, and growth are determined at the grassroots level. Major tournaments and victories for national teams are the pinnacle of success, but it is earned at the clubs. Therefore, the SFV is linking the tournament to a legacy program: by 2027, the number of currently approximately 40,000 active female players in Switzerland is to double. These players will then be coached by 4,750 female coaches; there are currently 2,743. With the European Championship and the hoped-for "social impact," the association aims to "create new opportunities for girls and women."