Switzerland

Few countries carry so much weight in world football with so little noise. Switzerland is the game's central bureaucracy, hosting FIFA in Zurich and UEFA in Nyon, but it was also one of the sport's cradles on the continent: Swiss clubs rank among Europe's oldest, from dean FC St. Gallen, of 1879, to Grasshopper of Zurich, and it was Swiss pioneers who spread the seed abroad, starting with Joan Gamper, founder of FC Barcelona. At home, the Super League lives off the balance between Basel, Young Boys and the Zurich historics, with an ultra culture surprisingly fervent by the country's standards. The Nati made history by hosting the 1954 World Cup, the one of the Miracle of Bern, and reinvented itself in the twenty first century as a multicultural team of second generations, from the Xhakas to the Shaqiris, a fixture in the knockout rounds and occasional executioner of world champions, like France at Euro 2020. In 2025 it hosted the Women's Euro and confirmed its vocation as host.