The summer of 2022 is a victory for women’s football

Very little was missing and the Swiss footballers could have claimed to belong to the top 8 in Europe. They delivered strong performances against the towering favorites Sweden and the Netherlands. On Sunday in Sheffield, the Swiss could hope for the exploit up to the 84th minute, only then did they concede the 1:2. Shortly before that, Coumba Sow should have given the team the lead.

A win would have been equivalent to qualifying for the quarterfinals. In view of the very strong group, the Swiss can look back with pride on their nine tournament days. They came close to surprising, showing character and ensuring a summer at home with a level of excitement the country had never seen before in women’s football. The last few months have felt like a collective awakening of a society that suddenly discovered that there are also women who are enviably good footballers, who have something to offer and say.

In June, 10,000 people flocked to the Letzigrund for a friendly against England; not so long ago that would have been unthinkable. The national players became advertising media, they greeted you from the front pages and became stars for quite a few people who are worth getting an autograph from. That’s worth something, more than simple results.

The bitter, sudden end of Sheffield reinforces the thesis that more could have been done. But that’s only partially true: Top performers like Lia Wälti or Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic were not in full possession of their strength. And the Swiss only have to blame themselves for losing a better starting position in the opening game against Portugal. Their appearance there had been puzzling, they lost a two-goal lead. The points given away must be blamed on the trainer Nils Nielsen, who did nothing even when even every TV viewer who did not have a Uefa Pro license had long been aware that the dams were about to break.

The question marks around national coach Nils Nielsen

There’s this theory that Nielsen has a kind of higher purpose: that it only needs a limited amount of him on game day. Because the players themselves recognize what tactical tricks are required. What to do. How to defend yourself against the countermeasures of the adversaries. It is a noble vision of an unpretentious trainer: that at some point the development of a collective has progressed so far that it can emancipate itself from a coach. And the players publicly emphasize again and again that they appreciate the freedoms that Nielsen gives them.

Only: Nielsen has been in charge of this team since January 2019. Three and a half years should be enough time to develop a feel for a team. And to know when to take such a risk. A European Championship finals with only three group games is probably not the time for experiments, no matter how lofty the intentions may be. Probably not at all against the only nominally weaker opponent against whom something like a mandatory win is budgeted. It’s a credit to Nielsen that he quickly admitted the mistake, right after the game – self-criticism is rarely practiced in football because you can always blame some blatant injustice: the VAR, the staff situation, the space conditions.

Nielsen’s coaching at the start was the big Swiss failure at this tournament. 2022 is not his year, so far, with zero wins in nine attempts. And a strangely passive orientation in the main World Cup qualifier against Italy (0-1) in April. He also caused a stir with his unconventional communication, for example when he began to put forward the bold opinion that the Swiss national sport is about “always finding someone to blame”.

Sometimes the eyebrows also rise internally when he starts talking and making idiosyncratic comparisons. Nielsen is odd, his answers sometimes quirky. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing with an army of hyper-conformist bores in the football business.

The Dane led this team to the Euros, that was the fulfillment of his duty. And there is still a chance that they will qualify for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Despite all the criticism: the balance sheet is not that bad. His contract expires at the end of the year, but it is still unclear whether the collaboration will continue.

The lack of investment is a problematic signal

In a way, the debate about the coach is a smoke screen. Because the current balance of power in Swiss women’s football only has a limited connection with the national coach, no matter what his name is. The fact that Switzerland are currently number 20 in the world and have been caught or overtaken by countries such as Austria, Belgium and Iceland has nothing to do with tactics and late substitutions. But with the fact that the willingness to invest and the structures in local football are not far off. That applies to the majority of Super League clubs. And also for the Swiss Football Association (SFV), which in autumn 2021 refused to approve the proposed budget increases that are necessary for the implementation of concepts and ideas for youth development. A million francs, that was the volume. Approved: no centime.

The refusal was irrelevant for the cut off at this euro. The staff of the women’s national team may be less than half that of Germany. Still, the players in Leeds lacked for nothing. The problem is that too little has been done in recent years. That the very different requirements for girls compared to those of boys are still significant and are only slowly changing. That promoting women’s football in some places is just lip service.

The summer of 2022 has helped create awareness of these realities, perhaps also putting gentle pressure on decision-makers from the day before yesterday. That can only be helpful for the future. And the next key moments are already coming up in autumn, with the likely World Cup play-offs and the awarding of the 2025 European Championship, for which Switzerland is a candidate. It’s the more important results than this undeserved 1:4 against the Netherlands on Sunday.