Last week left women’s football fans outraged as they learnt that Switzerland’s federal government have made the dreadful decision to slaughter funds for the Euros 2025 – causing a 73% decrease in the competition funds.
The prestigious tournament which was originally allocated 15 million Swiss Francs (£13.5m), has now been diminished to a minute 4 million Swiss Francs. In comparison, this is one seventh of the finance that was invested into Switzerland when they co-hosted the men’s Euros with Austria – and that was sixteen years ago. This is the first time since this 2008 Euros that Switzerland has had the opportunity to organise an international football competition on this scale – and this organisation, or lack of so to say, has served as yet another reminder of the discrimination that the women’s game faces.
At the end of January, the Swiss government stated that the competition should provide an opportunity to promote women’s sport, with the aim of increasing the number of women taking part in sport and professionalising women’s football structures. So far, it’s created major disappointment and simply reinforced the message that female athletes are nowhere near as valued as their male counterparts.
We’ve seen how powerful the last Euros was in changing the perception of the women’s game, creating over 400,000 new opportunities for girls and women in grassroots football in England alone and breaking several attendance, broadcast and social media engagement records. The growth of the game is something to nurture and capitalise on, especially after such recent success at the World Cup. Women’s football is the fasting-growing sport on the globe and the world is watching. But as we’ve seen so many time before, it’s an opportunity pushed to the side – the last on the priority list and the first point of call when funding must be cut.
The tournament intends to take place on July 2-27, 2025, in the cities of Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lucerne, St Gallen, Sion, Thun and Zurich, after Switzerland beat strong competition from the likes of France and Poland to host, what they promised to be, a historic event. However, it’s becoming seemingly obvious that this competition might end up being historic for all the wrong reasons. It’s a missed opportunity to showcase women’s football in Switzerland in all its glory and sends completely the wrong message for young female footballers across the globe.
Switzerland was an early pioneer in women’s football, being one of the first countries in Europe to form a women’s national team, and launching their women’s national league in 1970. As a result, the number of licensed female players has increased from 20,000 in 2016 to 25,000 in 2020. In 2021, the Swiss Federal Council adopted the Equality Strategy, aiming for women and men to have equal economic status and security without violence and discrimination, by 2030. Five years before this target, they have done exactly the opposite, using female athletes as their first point of call to save money.
It very much seems like Switzerland’s Federal Government are expecting the women’s football community to accept this disgraceful decision, and to simply make the most of this situation. Like we should expect to be grateful to simply have a tournament, regardless of how much promised funding has been taken away without a second thought of the implications. However, our expectations are high – and this simply doesn’t cut it.
Hosting the Euros to say they can invest in women’s football without actually investing in women’s football… Switzerland – it’s not a good look.
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