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Over and above discreet banking, fine chocolate and noisy cuckoo clocks
the Swiss are very fond of football which is why the nation boasts the Switzerland
national football team which is controlled by the Swiss Football
Association (SFA). Founded in 1895, the SFA was a co-founder of FIFA in
1904. And although the Swiss national football team's international
fortunes have been mixed, it has been competing internationally since
1934 when it entered its first FIFA World Cup.
Hosted that year by Italy, the Switzerland national football team
reached the quarterfinals, ultimately finishing seventh out of sixteen
when it was knocked out by Czechoslovakia 3-2. In the 1938 World Cup
the Swiss national football team again made it to the quarterfinals,
this time finishing seventh out of fifteen, beaten by Hungary 2-0. In
the following five World Cups, the Swiss team mostly made it to Round 1
or the quarterfinals. However, the wheels fell off in the 70s and 80s.
The Switzerland national football team failed to qualify for six
straight World Cups until the 1994 World Cup in the United States,
where it made it to Round 2, beaten 3-0 by Spain. In the 2006 World Cup
in Germany the Swiss squad again made it to Round 2, where it lost to
the Ukraine on aggregate. And most recently, in 2009 the Switzerland
national football team qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Nicknamed the 'Schweizer Nati' in German, the Swiss national football
team is coached by German-born Ottmar Hitzfeld, who has overseen the
team since 2008.
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