The Swiss FA’s Footuro and Footura development programmes

Switzerland’s pioneering approach to talent development has seen the small alpine nation emerge as a perennial giant-killer at major international tournaments. In this presentation, Swiss FA Director of Talent Development Patrick Bruggmann outlines how their Footuro and Footura Talent Development Programmes (for the men’s and women’s teams, respectively) are run, and shows how they are helping to consolidate Switzerland’s place at football’s top table.

• Acknowledging talent development as a long-term process that requires sustained commitment from associations, clubs and players.

• Fostering strong relationships with clubs, who have a particularly important role to play in supporting talent development programmes.
  
  
• Particularly for a small nation, prioritising the development of individual players with the potential to play international football over building successful club and junior international teams.

• Assembling a team of experts who can provided tailored support in a range of different fields can help to accelerate players’ development.

Part 1: Footuro/Footura and The Swiss Way
The Swiss Football Association’s Footuro and Footura programmes are a key part of the overarching talent development plan known as The Swiss Way. They were originally set up ahead of EURO 2008 with the short-term aim of delivering immediate results in that tournament, and the long-term objective of creating a system that would allow Switzerland to punch consistently above its weight. In the first part of his presentation, Patrick Bruggmann explains the history of the two programmes, what they are designed to do and how they have evolved over the last two decades.

Part 2: How the programmes work
The second part of the video focuses on the day-to-day operations of the Footuro and Footura schemes. There is a heavy emphasis on developing individual players rather than teams, and convincing clubs to prioritise talent development over results is a major challenge for the programme staff. They also have to work out how to retain “late developers” in the system and how to adapt the men’s Footuro template to female players, but the fact around a third of the current men’s national team squad graduated from Footuro suggests their approach is bearing fruit.