Help, we're running out of national team stars. How can Switzerland train more and better young players with Swiss passports? Nati Director Pierluigi Tami, Patrick Bruggmann, Director of Football Development and blue Sport expert and former Nati star Alex Frei discuss this topic.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The Swiss senior team has been among the world's best for years. This is anything but a matter of course and does not automatically remain so.
- Various exponents of Swiss football are already sounding the alarm because Switzerland has a problem with young talent.
- Young players with Swiss passports are not being used enough in the top two divisions. Compared to Croatia, for example, the situation looks bleak.
If you look around the Swiss football landscape, there is a certain sense of alarm. While the senior team has been a regular at major tournaments for years and only narrowly missed out on reaching the semi-finals at the last European Championship, the situation is much less rosy in the youth game. A recently published study commissioned by the SFA shows that Switzerland lags far behind other comparable leagues when it comes to enabling young players to make the leap to the pros.
Your opinion is needed: Would an increase in the Super League and Challenge League solve the problem of young Swiss players? Or do you have other effective ideas? Then let us know in the comments column.
In the football talk Heimspiel, national team director Pierluigi Tami, director of football development Patrick Bruggmann and blue Sport expert and former national team star Alex Frei go in search of clues. There is no argument, because the three experts, who are firmly rooted in the football business, agree on most points. The tenor is clear: in Switzerland, young talents get far too little playing time in one of the top two divisions. And match practice is exactly what players of this age need to take the next step.
A possible solution that everyone would welcome: An increase in the size of the Super League and Challenge League. Not everyone agrees on whether regulations could speed up the process, such as restricting foreign players or obliging clubs to use young players.
However, Alex Frei sees another reason why talented players in Switzerland may have a more difficult time than those from Croatia, for example, the country that scored best in the aforementioned study. He finds the comparison with Croatia very interesting. "But what you mustn't forget is that you have a dual education system in Switzerland. The boys who are in the U15 here all do an apprenticeship, they go to business schools or secondary schools. I'm not sure that every one of these almost 800 players in Croatia has done an apprenticeship or is still in school until 17."
Number of players produced from 2013 to 2023
He doesn't mean that "in a bad way", says Frei and explains: "I just want to say that there's also something else going on in Switzerland, not just sport alone. And what you mustn't forget in training is that you have to deal with people. It's not like I run a mustard pigeon factory where I go and turn a screw somewhere and then 10,000 mustard pigeons come out again. You always have a few cycles in a training program, in an association you also have cycles where sometimes things go a little better and sometimes a little less well. You can't completely disregard that despite all the criticism or everything you want to improve."
Figures from the current Super League season
The young talent trophy already rewards clubs that rely on young players with a Swiss passport. The club with the most minutes played by young players (born in 2003 or later) at the end of the season will receive CHF 250,000. FC Luzern currently leads this table with a large lead over Yverdon-Sport and Lausanne-Sport. FC Sion is at the bottom of the table.
However, this amount is probably too small for the clubs to be seriously tempted by it. Head of Sport Remo Meyer from the flagship club Lucerne told blue Sport: "This reward is a side effect, we are not interested in this amount. This is our club philosophy: we want to offer a platform for young players who are willing and have the potential to play in the Super League. We have been pursuing this philosophy for years now."
The start to the new season certainly does not promise any improvement. In the first few games, only five clubs have put more faith in their young Swiss players than in the previous season. "The clubs are under pressure. They absolutely want to be at the international level and definitely don't want to be relegated. That's not easy to achieve with young players who still need to gain experience," says Bruggmann, who would like to see more clubs focus on youth. Because there is currently no doubt that there is a need for action.
