If Switzerland qualify for next summer's World Cup finals, it will see them compete in only their second finals since 1966. Having reached Euro 2004, qualification for Germany would mark a considerable upsurge in fortunes for a nation once considered to be on the second tier of European competitors.

Considerable efforts are being made in the country to improve the quality of players available to the national manager. Next year the Swiss Football Association are planning a pro-active approach to help - sending a mailshot out to 628,000 Swiss nationals living abroad in an effort to find potential new players.

"The second-generation Swiss players have brought a great strength to the side and introduced a multicultural aspect that is also an important part of modern Switzerland," says manager Koebi Kuhn.

Switzerland are now 10 years into a youth development programme that accounts for up to one third of the association's 15 to 20 million Swiss franc (€10 to €13 million) annual budget.

The programme, which has seen the creation of four national training academies and the awarding of bonus payments to clubs that introduced their own youth development schemes, has brought unusually fast results.

In 2002 the Swiss won the European Under-17 Championship with a side that included current senior team members Philippe Senderos and Tranquillo Barnetta to earn Switzerland their first title at any level of international football.

In the same year a team including Alexander Frei, Ricardo Cabanas, Daniel Gygax and Stephane Grichting reached the semi-finals in the European under-21 category.

Were it not for the association's own efforts off the pitch, Barnetta, Senderos, Ricardo Cabanas, Colombian-born striker Johan Vonlanthen and newly-capped Swiss-Albanian defender Valon Behrami could all subsequently have been poached by other national teams.

Another factor, according to Kuhn, is the large number of Swiss players now plying their trade in Europe's biggest football leagues.

Only three of Saturday's starting 11 are currently based in Switzerland, with the other eight playing at top-division sides in Italy, England, Germany, France and Holland - suggesting that the country's individual players are already enjoying a stronger footballing reputation than the nation as a whole.

Having guaranteed themselves a place at the 2008 European Championship as the tournament's co-hosts, Kuhn's young team have already made sure of at least one shot at the big time, and that at a point when they are reaching full maturity.