Women's European Football Championship | A Swiss summer fairytale

Tiina Kipari looks tired and happy as she boards the special Swiss Federal Railways train waiting for football fans at the Bern Wankdorf stop last Friday. The Swiss women's national team had just bid a more than honorable farewell to Spain in the quarterfinals (0-2), with the players completing a lap of honor with a "Merci Fans" sign. The Swedish-born player's face, painted with a Swiss flag, hardly reflects any gloom. Quite the opposite. The 53-year-old is convinced that she, along with the nearly 30,000 other people in the Wankdorf Stadium, witnessed a revival.

She clearly has a special instinct for this: Her job is to teach children the value of sports. Kipari has lived with her family in Switzerland for ten years and works as the director of youth and sports at the primary school in Wilen, in the canton of Schwyz. She believes that football is necessary to promote girls in society.

Many have always been interested, but often were afraid to be the only girl playing football with a group of boys. These girls lacked role models, the teacher explained. Now, a change is underway: Five or six from each class, she explained, are now keen to play football.

The local soccer club is involved in Kipari's school. The Swiss Football Association offers programs for women to teach the relevant classes. She thinks this is wonderful. Back in Scandinavia, Kipari had already put forward the theory that the math formula works better when the three components are right: running, performing, and learning.

But why should it be soccer? "Because you don't need as much equipment as for skiing or ice hockey. Because the clubs aren't as expensive as for tennis," says the teacher. A compelling argument.

Before the quarterfinals, 25,000 people marched together through Bern's old town to the Wankdorf Stadium – the very place where Helmut Rahn shot Germany to its first World Cup title in 1954. Who would have expected such enthusiasm from the Swiss for the women's national team?

"I would never have believed that something like this would happen in Switzerland."

Pia Sundhage coach of the Swiss national football team

Even the coach of the Swiss national football team and Swedish globetrotter Pia Sundhage was astonished: "I would never have believed something like this would happen in Switzerland," said the 65-year-old. When she moved to Bern a year and a half ago, she would never have imagined such a wave of enthusiasm. She did coach the Swedish national team during their home European Championship in 2013 and experienced a hype there that made the players famous. "But that was over ten years ago," Sundhage said. "We've learned a lot since then. I think the starting position for Switzerland is better than it was back then in Sweden."

For at least one summer, the level-headed captain of the Swiss women's team, Lia Wälti, is more popular than Granit Xhaka, the combative leader of the men's team. Many had thought that only Alisha Lehmann could generate such attention. The Swiss international, with nearly 17 million followers on Instagram and another 12 million on TikTok, is the world's most widely followed female footballer. Her self-promotion seems borderline – and at times has little to do with sports. But at this European Championship, football is the focus.

The 14th edition of the tournament has already been a complete success in terms of atmosphere and organization before the final kicks off on Sunday. The amateurish, sometimes provincial atmosphere that prevailed at, for example, the 2009 European Championship in Finland and even the 2013 European Championship in Sweden is history. And yet, the 2025 European Championship will still be a familiar, sometimes lively event, despite the now highly professional conditions for the teams, who now even use the most luxurious hotels.

The entire project was managed by the European Football Union (UEFA) , which has its headquarters in Nyon, a beautiful region on Lake Geneva. Nadine Keßler was in charge. The 2013 European Champion and 2014 World Player of the Year is convinced that only healthy growth can help women's football. Nevertheless, there was a new record attendance of more than 600,000, and almost all stadiums were sold out, with capacities ranging from 7,750 (Sion) to 34,250 (Basel).

The Women's European Championship formed a counterpoint to the actions of FIFA, the world football governing body also based in Switzerland. Its president, Gianni Infantino, is ruthlessly pursuing his expansionist ambitions, continually inflating the men's and women's competitions – or inventing entirely new ones. The seemingly absurd Club World Cup in the USA , partly held concurrently with the Women's European Championship, was made possible by Saudi donors. The FIFA boss had to work together with US President Donald Trump. The next Women's World Cup, also organized by FIFA, will be held in Brazil in 2027, followed by the USA. 48 teams are planned for 2031.

The 2029 Women's European Championship will remain at 16 participants, regardless of whether it takes place in Germany, Poland, Italy, Portugal, or Sweden and Denmark. Why impose a shell that wouldn't fit? Why inflate the competition when many European nations aren't (yet) ready, argues Keßler. She doesn't want to build castles in the air.

In Switzerland, there were fan zones like the one in Basel at Barfüsserplatz, which seemed perfectly fitting. In Zurich, ten large, red soccer goals, so-called "Red Goals," pointed the way. A project by Hamburg light artist Michael Batz, which had already been used at the 2006 World Cup. Young people gathered at one of these goals at Idaplatz in the evenings for public viewings of many games. The televisions were tightly packed to celebrate new heroines. Such as Géraldine Reuteler, a fine technician who had a huge tattoo on her left thigh. A saying in English that was self-explanatory for the 26-year-old: "The world is much bigger than your brain. Stop living only in your head."

At 13, Reuteler left home to train as a soccer player at a national academy. For seven years she has played for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt, but she has never been as popular as she was this summer. "Reuteler redeems an entire nation," shouted Calvin Stettler of Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) into the microphone after she scored a crucial goal. She was named "Player of the Match" in three consecutive group matches, and clubs like Olympique Lyonnais and Paris St. Germain are now vying to sign her. There she could perhaps earn 20,000 or 25,000 euros a month—three times what she earns in Germany. Salaries for the best women are rising rapidly, but are still a long way from the insane sums earned by men.

"The Swiss population was swept away by the tournament."

Tanja Reinhardt Marketing Organization Switzerland Tourism

Tourism also hopes to benefit from the hype surrounding the European Championship, as Tanja Reinhardt from the state marketing organization Switzerland Tourism explains. Among the 600,000 stadium visitors were more foreign guests than ever before. Four million overnight stays from Germany already occur each year – and this number could rise in the future. "Some clichés are also being dispelled. I've also heard German guests say: 'It's not that expensive.' A pizza doesn't cost €7.50 here anymore," says Reinhardt. "And they've seen that public transport works. In some cases, it's almost too perfect." She sees the effects both internally and externally: "The Swiss population has been swept along by the tournament. Football isn't the number one sport, especially not in winter."

But women's football didn't attract people everywhere. The "2. Akt Sportsbar," not far from the popular Schanzengraben in Zurich, offers football broadcasts several days a week. On nine screens, along with fast food and beer. As Switzerland's last group match aired and the SRF presenter once again roared his joy to the nation, the landlord stood alone at the bar. He explained that his bar had been packed the days before. During the semifinals of the Club World Cup. Chelsea FC and Paris St. Germain simply played more attractively than Alisha Lehmann, he said succinctly. On July 14, his hangout closed for two weeks. In the middle of the Women's European Championship.