Too few football fields, referees, coaches and dressing rooms: Swiss amateur football is in danger of collapsing

It’s actually booming, Swiss football. There are about 320,000 players today, more than ever before. And that’s exactly the problem. There are many football players, but not enough fields, changing rooms, coaches, volunteers and referees.

A 2018 club study clearly showed how precarious the situation is in amateur and amateur football. 13 percent of the large clubs (more than 300 members) indicate that they have imposed an admission ban on children and young people. And 40 percent of those surveyed said their infrastructure was too small. These values ​​have probably deteriorated since then.

Raphael Kern is also very familiar with these figures. He is head of football at the Swiss Football Association (SFV). “We are victims of our own success,” he explains. “We have a huge influx of children, including many girls. We are of course very happy with that, but it also creates new challenges.”

Blick spoke to many club and association representatives. Everyone has their individual problems, but clubs like FC Birsfelden are representative of hundreds of others with their challenges. In our big report we show what the problems are and how they can be solved. The problem with this is that there are no simple solutions in sight.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified coaches,” says Birsfelden-
President Dominik Hürner also explains why that could be: “A trainer today needs a lot more social and professional competence than before. So he has to spend more time and only receives a small expense allowance.” If a club has too few coaches, this has far-reaching consequences: no new children can be taken on.

There are several ways to recruit new coaches. For example, the “18plus coach” project was launched in the canton of Zurich. It is aimed at people who don’t feel like the more complex «Youth+Sport»
want to follow a coaching program. “’18plus Coach’ is an accessible offer,” explains SFV football manager Kern, “part of the course can be followed online. This offer is very well received.”

What can also eliminate the trainer shortage are so-called pool training. They are especially useful for the E and F juniors. There, the different teams of a year of the club train together and no longer individually. Fewer coaches are needed for this and, as a pleasant side effect, the football field is also less stressed.

“Without artificial turf, many clubs would no longer be able to keep up the whole thing,” says SFV-Kern. City clubs in particular are bursting at the seams. Despite artificial grass. For example, FC Unterstrass, a local club in Zurich. The Steinkluppe football field is located in the middle of the residential area, so there is no free space for a new second field. It is understandable that Unterstrass can only take in a very limited number of children per year.

Or the example of FC Wiedikon, another local club in Zurich. Today the club has almost twice as many players as ten years ago. Also because every fourth member is now a woman. Wiedikon also symbolizes many problems in basic football. In addition to the main field (artificial grass Heuried), the club also has two secondary fields (natural grass Küngenmatt and school building Döltschi).

But because the provision, like so many in Switzerland, does not belong to the club but to the municipality, in many cases the clubs are powerless and at the mercy of what is decided. If it has rained too hard, the city may decide to close the field and then the specter of many amateur footballers appears: “No access to the grass field”.

At the same time, not only football clubs need more and more space. Wiedikon chairman Roger Ansorg: “There are now two school containers on the Küngenmatt and there is no more light. That is why only the F-Juniors are allowed to play here. And there is now also a school container on the Döltschiplein. So we have to reject 100 children year after year and in the new season we can’t even play all our home games at home.”

A quick, cheap solution is not in sight. In the city of Zurich, there are some projects for more football pitches, but the wheels of politics are known to grind slowly. It will take years, if not ten years, before these projects can be realized, the objections have been rejected and the voters have said yes. About 20 new places would be needed in the city of Zurich alone to withstand the attack. Ansorg says: “We urgently need more space and we need it now. The city is becoming more densely built up, while leisure activities such as football are not being expanded. Sometimes you wonder if football no longer belongs in the city.”

Raphael Kern of the SFV is not so pessimistic. “A review is currently taking place.” Two years ago, the SFV started the “Quality Club” project, a promotion program for clubs, to tackle this problem as well. Kern explains: “We coach the clubs and prepare them individually for the future, because each club has its own challenges.” He says about the lack of football pitches: “We are convinced that there is a solution for many clubs. We therefore show them how to improve their infrastructure, how to successfully launch a good project and how to lobby convincingly.”

In theory, there should actually be enough referees, because every club has to provide a referee for every active team. In other words, if there are more teams, there should automatically be more referees. In practice, however, it looks different.

“Each regional association in Switzerland has too few referees,” said Marcel Stofer, chairman of the referee committee of the Eastern Swiss Football Association (OFV). “During Corona we had a lot of layoffs. At that time, many people realized that there was life without whistling. We still feel the aftermath of that today.”

A second reason in Eastern Switzerland: many new referees drop out relatively quickly. The reasons for this? ‘I see two. First, there are some who realize relatively quickly that they had imagined the hobby differently. And secondly, there are many who are motivated but lose interest due to the verbal attacks of spectators and players. Understandably they tell themselves that I don’t have to be insulted every weekend. It’s a shame because it means we’re losing skilled people.”

The situation in the Football Association of the Zurich Region (FVRZ) is particularly dramatic. Andreas Baumann is head referee there. “We have about 700 referees, about 80 of whom are usually unavailable because they are absent from work, injured or on vacation.” Due to the shortage, a full round of the 2nd and 3rd league was postponed last season as a precaution to relieve the weekend.

Keeping the game going is still a mammoth task. That is why there is one person in the FVRZ who is solely responsible for appointing referees. The regional federation is therefore considering tightening the reins. If a club has not provided enough referees to date, it will get away with a fine. Baumann: “As a precaution, we have already informed the clubs that we could also remove teams from the game in the future if some clubs provide far too few referees.”

An example from the Zurich Oberland shows how brutal individual clubs are. A club there allows 20 teams to participate in league operations, but provides only one umpire. So far they have simply paid the fines of up to CHF 6,000 every six months. It is quite possible that this club will face heavier sanctions in the coming years.

review. The trainer used to shower with the kids. Fortunately unthinkable today. Everyone needs their own wardrobe. Also the many girls and women. Raphael Kern of the SFV: “Compared to the past, some clubs now also need a cloakroom and shower for the coaches, the players, the referees. Coordinating that in a weekend full of games is like playing Tetris.”

The example of FC Trimbach shows how big the problem and the search for a solution is. The Solothurn club has 13 teams but only four changing rooms with a shared shower room. The case is clear: the club needs new, larger cloakrooms.

So far so good. However, there is a huge problem in implementation. Co-chair Martin Schmalz explains: “The infrastructure belongs to the community, which is not doing well financially. A few years ago there was a project for a new football accommodation. This was discussed at the neighborhood meeting, but at the same time it was also about the renovation of the kindergarten, which was raining due to a leaking roof. It goes without saying that the limited resources available to the municipality were used for the kindergarten.”

The project for a new football field then petered out and FC Trimbach is still waiting for a solution.

25 kilometers to the west it sounds similar at FC Klus Balsthal. President Luigi Furcillo: “We also have too few wardrobes and cannot wait too long.” Although he emphasizes that the cooperation with the community is good, he is annoyed that not everyone understands FC’s needs. “We are not doing this for ourselves. There is a large section of foreigners in our community. Sport connects and integrates.”

A working group is currently being set up in Balsthal. The goal: to solve the problem in three to five years. Until then, some football players have to shower in the surrounding school buildings and some at home.

What now?

Balsthal’s example shows that creative and unorthodox ideas are necessary to live with the consequences of the tree. An example of such an idea is the “Find your team” project of the Football Federation of North-Western Switzerland (FVNWS). Alain Burger is responsible for this. “We had conducted a survey among all clubs. Surprisingly, the number of free places was higher than the number of children on the waiting lists. That is why we started our project in 2021. On the homepage you can enter where you live and the age of the child that is still looking for a club. Then you get a list of all the clubs in the area that still have room.”

The project has been well received by the market, says Burger. He gets positive feedback. The whole thing has one drawback: until now in football – unlike many other sports – it was completely logical that you send your child to the FC where you live. Burger would also find it ideal, but: “My daughter plays volleyball. She doesn’t mind that she can’t do this in our village. Maybe we should accept that in football in the future.”

Playing football in the neighboring village – not a pleasant prospect. But unfortunately one that could soon become a reality.