Swiss reap reward for Hasler's work

Switzerland's victory in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Nigeria, that nation's first global football title, was billed as a surprise, but for those who have followed the work done by the Swiss Football Association (SFV-ASF) at youth level, it was reward for years of hard work.

Long-standing success
In fact, Sunday's 1-0 win against holders Nigeria in Abuja was not even Switzerland's first international success at this level, as in 2002 a squad containing Tranquillo Barnetta and Philippe Senderos won the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Denmark. Switzerland have been regular qualifiers at that level since and have also been U19 semi-finalists – not bad for a country with only 200,000 registered footballers.

Hasler influence
Then again, the SFV-ASF has been running a youth system that has become a model. The key was Hansruedi Hasler's appointment as technical director in 1995. The 62-year-old, who will depart for Grasshopper-Club in the winter, has always stated: "It is not the results that count. Much more important is the individual development of the lads."

Guidelines
Formerly coach of second-tier sides FC Grenchen and FC Biel, Hasler is happy to stay out of the limelight, but he laid down the guidelines that set in motion a conveyor belt of young Swiss talent, requiring every professional club to employ a certain number of full-time youth coaches, with SFV-ASF financial support. "The clubs really are the cornerstone of football," Hasler said. "They have had to improve their youth development in recent years. We spend CHF 4m (€2.65m) each year on youth development. These are incredibly important factors, without which we would not be where we are today. When we started the scheme in 1995, there were five, six professional coaches in youth football. Today, there are 80."

New mentality
Roy Hodgson, then Switzerland's senior national-team coach, also played his part by demanding that all national youth sides adopt his 4-4-2 system, and that remains the case today, while regional development centres were also created. Another boost came from second-generation immigrants; many ethnicities were represented in the winning squad in Nigeria, as the forward line of Haris Seferovic and Nassim Ben Khalifa suggests.

'Wonderful highlight'
Success at senior level also brought important psychological progress. Switzerland had often suffered 'honourable defeats' against the biggest nations, but qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 28 years in 1994, thanks to players like Stéphane Chapuisat and Ciriaco Sforza, fostered a more positive mentality. The U17 side stated they were going to the World Cup to win, and their confidence was justified, as was Hasler when he called it "a wonderful highlight at the end of this episode", adding: "You should always leave when you are having a good time."

UEFA praise
UEFA head of football education Frank Ludolph paid tribute to the achievements of Hasler, a member of the UEFA Grassroots Football Panel and the UEFA Coaches Circle. "He definitely is the father of their success," Ludolph told uefa.com. "He is highly recognised as a technical expert in Europe."