Brain gain gives Swiss the edge

Swiss journalist MATHIEU TRUFFER looks from the other side at New Zealand's role in his country's cup challenge

Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth parading down Queen St under a Swiss flag must have been a strange sight for many New Zealanders.

I wonder what the Swiss would think if our gold medal-winning skiers signed up for an exotic billionaire and whizzed down the Matterhorn with the silver fern painted on their backsides.

But it seems that such things happen in modern sport.

I remember Coutts' and Butterworth's first media conference in Geneva.

To a few sailing enthusiasts, it was bizarre to see New Zealanders who had just defended the America's Cup sign up with billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

But to local observers, it looked like a very ordinary Swiss story.

Landlocked Switzerland has relied for centuries on foreign competence to create new industries and businesses.

More than one-third of Geneva's population do not hold Swiss passports. Almost half the university teachers and researchers are of foreign origin.

And some of the most emblematic banks and insurance companies have foreigners at their head.

International input is such that many businesses converse in English every day.

As a rule, importing foreign brains has proved immensely successful for a country without any natural resources and which was for a long time among Europe's poorest.

Ernesto Bertarelli, born in Italy, is no different. He is now applying what made him successful with biochemistry giant Serono.

To have a successful America's Cup syndicate, he concluded, the best thing to do was to buy the world's best sailors.

But sport is not just any kind of business. It is also about emotion.

In sport, rivalries flourish. Passion erupts. Supporters shout, laugh and cry. Subjectivity takes over.

Whether Alinghi can create such passion, in Switzerland and abroad, remains to be seen.

The syndicate has made tremendous efforts to create interest at home.

It has flown journalists around the world, financed and had broadcasted dozens of television stories.

But so far, it has yet to create anything close to what Prada did in Italy in 2000, or, above all, what Team New Zealand have achieved at home.

It is all the more striking because Switzerland's interest in sailing is strong. When Pierre Fehlmann's UBS won the Whitbread round-the-world race with a Swiss crew in 1986 ahead of Sir Peter Blake's Lion New Zealand, the country was ecstatic.

And Swiss sailors have done more to make people cheer in recent years. Bernard Stamm, who is leading the single-handed Around Alone race, is an extremely popular figure.

It is obvious that Coutts and Bertarelli have developed more than a business relationship in the last two years. Both are roughly the same age, immensely successful in their jobs, and have strong personalities.

They are now real friends and have a mutual understanding.

But the team still needs to find itself a purpose which could be significant to the public.

Alinghi's boats were built in Switzerland using the country's best technology. The team's management has so far been swift and efficient - very Swiss.

But no man in the team has so far captured the public's imagination. Bertarelli himself keeps turning down interviews. Coutts, Butterworth and Co have never craved for media attention and probably never will. It is an open question whether Bertarelli's private ambition can capture the public's imagination, or whether it will remain just a business.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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