First of many: Switzerland women’s team make history in Seoul
|Switzerland brought a women’s team to the Homeless World Cup for the first time in September when the team travelled to Seoul. Image: Anita Milas
By Fiona Crawford
Worldwide, women’s participation in football is not yet equal to men’s. That’s due to a range of reasons, including long-running gender-based exclusion. The lower participation rate is something football organisers are actively seeking to redress. The Homeless World Cup is no exception, so the addition of the Swiss women’s team to the 2024 tournament and hopefully beyond is cause for celebration.
‘It’s an honour for us to [attend], because for four years, we tried to build up a women’s team. Last year we had only two women, so we put them into the mixed team,’ Swiss Women’s Coach Carmen Peter explains.
Goalkeeper Anastasiia Vasylyshyn was recruited after playing alongside some friends. ‘I thought, Ok, let’s go try it out and just have a look. And it was amazing. Then I thought, Ok, let’s join another team, because we was just three players, and we was not enough to have a real team. So we get another team and the coach of our team asked, “Yay, you have interest to get in a women’s team?” And I said, “Of course, I want to try it.”’ That trial led to ongoing participation and a return trip to play football in Seoul.
As of 2024 and as of having sufficient numbers of players consistently involved in the programme, the Switzerland-based women’s programme selects 10 players, eight of which attend the Homeless World Cup. ‘We do about three training days, two weekends, and then one week. We also don’t do only football—we do also mental trainings. They have coaching, we have discussions, and so that we can get a really good team, not only on the field,’ Carmen Peter explains.
|Switzerland have been bringing a men’s team to the Homeless World Cup since the first tournament in Graz, Austria in 2003. Image: Anita Milas
Preparing alongside the inaugural Swiss women’s team was the Swiss men’s Homeless World Cup team.
The Swiss men’s team has been attending the tournament for some time—since the tournament’s inception in 2003—but 2024 marked the first time Switzerland was able to field both a distinct men’s and women’s team. (As mentioned, in previous years women players joined the men in the mixed, but primarily male player-based, competition.) That meant that the women’s team came with an in-built support network, not that that they needed it—the team took to the Homeless World Cup like seasoned pros. That was in part aided by the fact that they completed some pre-tournament research. But nothing was quite like experiencing the real thing.
‘We saw the pictures from the last years. Also, we talked a lot about how they would have felt and what they did. I think all of us were very excited to see how it really is, how it feels to be on the field and play together. It’s like we got to meet each other just a year ago, or not even a year ago, and now we are like a little family,’ Vanessa Rippstein explains.
Vanessa has a dog at home and wasn’t used to sharing sleeping quarters with others—travelling without her dog and sharing accommodation was an adjustment, but one she was proud of accomplishing. ‘You can get out of your normal day. You go to work, you have your dog or your children or something at home. Everyone body wants something from you. And here you can just focus on yourself, just look after yourself and your team and enjoy, not thinking about your problems. What you have at home, it doesn’t matter in this moment,’ Vanessa says.
‘It’s also fun. It’s relaxing here, because it’s going to another country and going with my friends and just talking with another … Every day it’s a new day. It’s new games, new people.’
The 2025 tournament, will be held closer to home in Norway—a country more familiar in terms of climate and where the Swiss team’s red-and-white knitted scarves might be able to be put to warmth-inducing use. (Seoul was nothing if not warm.) That geographical proximity may also mean the Swiss team is able to attend for a second, and hopefully ongoing, time. That the 2024 tournament attendance marked the first of many.
Words: Fiona Crawford
Images: Anita Milas
|Switzerland are represented by Surprise NGO in the Homeless World Cup network. Surprise are hosting the Women’s Street Soccer EUROs in Basel 21st - 22nd June 2025 in collaboration with UEFA and supported by the Homeless World Cup. The tournament will see 12 women’s teams from the Homeless World Cup network in Europe competing ahead of the Women’s Euro’s tournament which will take place in Switzerland from 2nd July – 27 July 2025. Find out more about their programme.