UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 not only brings top-level sports to Basel but also leaves a lasting legacy: more girls and women in football. The Sports Office Basel-Stadt and the Football Association of Northwestern Switzerland are setting impulses for greater participation in sports with an extensive legacy program.
Even after the end of UEFA Women’s Euro 2025, girls’ and women’s football in Switzerland should be strengthened. The Swiss Football Association (SFV), the Football Association of Northwestern Switzerland, and a project group from the Sports Office Basel-Stadt are coordinating the legacy program, which is aligned with the activities of the Host City and the sports offices of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft in the Northwestern Switzerland region.
Goals of the Legacy Program
One goal of the legacy program is to activate more women and girls for organized and unaffiliated sports. The number of licensed players, coaches, officials, and referees should double. In addition, the existing football infrastructure should be used more efficiently and adapted as needed to enable a 15 percent increase in pitch occupancy. The topic of inclusion in all its facets will also be incorporated into the program design.
To implement and achieve the goals, numerous ideas are being developed, projects launched, and offerings expanded with various partner organizations.
Cantonal Measures
The Sports Office Basel-Stadt is focusing on concrete measures:
- Optimization of sports infrastructure: In workshops with Basel sports clubs, the Sports Office identified capacity potentials, from which concrete measures are now being derived. These include organizational and structural optimizations, such as artificial turf or mobile lighting, which are being examined. The Soccer Court is available as a temporary space. It is currently set up at Messeplatz and can be used for training, events, or free football playing. The court was opened on July 2, 2024, during the “One Year to Go” event. Since its opening, over 310 online bookings have been made.
- Promotion of sports projects: New or further developed public welfare-oriented sports initiatives for girls and women can be supported with funds from the Swisslos Sports Fund Basel-Stadt. This support is intended to benefit all sports. So far, eleven projects have received a total of over 85,000 francs.
- School sports: With additional offerings in voluntary school sports and the new teaching material “Football with a Difference” in the form of a course for compulsory physical education, new impulses are being specifically set in the school sector.
- Events: The Freestyle Football Challenge, where girls and women can show their skills with the ball, will run until the end of May 2025. On June 21, 2025, the RecordKick will take place at the St. Jakob sports facility. At this event with a diverse supporting program, two teams with at least 130 players each, aged 16 and over, will compete on eight connected playing fields. On the same weekend, June 21 and 22, 2025, the Women’s Streetsoccer Euro 2025 will also be held at the St. Jakob sports facility. In addition to last year’s and this year’s Surprise Street Football National Team, eight partner organizations of the Homeless World Cup Foundation from other European countries will be invited.
Projects and Offerings of the Football Association of Northwestern Switzerland
The Football Association of Northwestern Switzerland (FVNWS) is involved as one of the 13 regional associations in the comprehensive legacy program of the Swiss Football Association (SFV). This includes a total of 27 different projects. The focus of the measures in grassroots football are:
- Club Coaching actively supports clubs in promoting women’s and girls’ football.
- The Legacy Challenge has been motivating Swiss clubs since the end of January 2025 for various activities around women’s and girls’ football with collection points and prizes.
- The “Girls Football” program, which has been successfully offering a low-threshold entry for girls up to twelve years old for several years, will be expanded from four to nine locations.
The program also includes numerous training opportunities and mobilization campaigns for new coaches and referees.
Since the beginning of the legacy activities in 2024, the number of girls playing football in the Northwestern Switzerland region has increased by 17.8 percent. Currently, 2,613 licensed women and girls play in one of the 90 clubs of the regional association.