The Big Interview: Marion Daube
The Director of Women's Football at the Swiss Football Federation is in charge of delivering next summer's Euro 2025. She speaks exclusively to WFC about how plans for the tournament are progressing.
It feels scarcely believable we are approaching yet another major tournament in the women’s team, with Euro 2025 promising to be the fourth time in four years the women’s game will be thrust onto the world stage.
The postponement of Euro 2021 by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic means it’s only just over two years since England landed glory for the first time on home soil, backing up the achievement of the Netherlands four years earlier, with a World Cup and Olympic Games squeezing into the two subsequent summers.
Next year, it’s the turn of Switzerland and their wonderous landscapes, quaint cities and high-level public transport network, but more so a football team and indeed a nation in the women’s game that needs the boost that comes hand in hand with drawing in the eyes of an entire continent.
Switzerland currently rank 24th in the world and while they have become regular fixtures at major tournaments, all have ended at the group stage or first knockout round at best.
But with a smattering of top-level talent now playing in some of the world’s top teams, a handful of talented youngsters coming through the system and one of the most experienced head coaches in the game in Pia Sundhage, it could be the perfect recipe of ingredients at the perfect time for the Swiss come 2025.
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Much of the delivery of the tournament though falls on one woman working hard behind the scenes – Marion Daube, Director of Women’s Football at the Swiss football federation.
“We are busy,” Daube laughs, when I ask how things are going with now just ten months to go until the kick off on 2nd July. “It’s going good so far. We are working in a special organisation model with UEFA. We have a team organising the event, the federation, including myself, is responsible for the legacy.
“We have a lot of projects to implement and get running, so there’s a lot [going on], but we’re in a good position at the moment. Everything will be in place. You always have the same discussions over cities, stadiums etc, but they’re all on the right path.”
Daube spent 13 years as Managing Director of FC Zurich, Switzerland’s most successful women’s team, before joining the SFV in 2022 as Project Manager for their bid for the European Championships.
“When the envelope came out, I couldn’t believe it, I was shocked” she laughs. “No one could believe it…it was a very special moment. Our General Secretary was very emotional and I’ve never seen him emotional!
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