EURO 2004 QUALIFIER: Swiss journalist Christian Andiel examines the relationship between the Yakin brothers, Murat and Hakan, and its potential to harm Switzerland's challenge.

It's a curious image, but one you see at every FC Basel training session. An old Turkish woman, with curly grey hair, arrives at the training ground on a three-wheeled bike with a basket on the front.

Everyone knows her, Basel manager Christian Gross greets her by name, often she is the only person allowed sit beside the pitch. She is visiting her sons at work. She is Emine Yakin, mother of Murat and Hakan.

The scene says much about the closeness of the Yakin family. The father left when Hakan was very young, leaving Murat to take the role of "head of the clan". To this day Hakan looks up to Murat, sees him as his adviser, his closest confidant.

Often Murat and Hakan walk their mother home after training, to the little village of Munchenstein, five minutes from the pitch, where they grew up and where they still regularly return for her cooking.

This closeness perhaps explains why the talented Yakin brothers are back playing their football in Switzerland and not abroad in a more competitive league.

Murat had spells in Germany with Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern and in his homeland of Turkey with Fenerbahce, but things didn't work out and he left all three clubs before the end of his contract.

Hakan joined Paris St Germain during the summer but he was in trouble after five days when he flew to Zurich for a hernia operation without the club's consent. PSG promptly declared the player's €1.7 million transfer null and void so Hakan left Paris to return to his "nest" in tiny little Basel, back into the arms of Emine and Murat.

Both brothers need to feel loved and appreciated, for their clubs and coaches to have absolute faith and confidence in them, otherwise they walk away. They are at home in Basel and in the leisurely surroundings of Swiss football, but are often overstretched at international level. Murat, a defender, had a torrid time in Moscow last month, where Russia beat Switzerland 4-1, with Dmitri Bulykin turning him inside out in the build-up to the second goal.

But the Swiss team needs the Yakins, especially Hakan. With a great left foot he is the most important creative player in the attack, making his possible absence for the Irish game, with an ankle injury, a potentially huge blow to manager Kobi Kuhn.

"Hakan will play," said Kuhn yesterday, "but I am not hopeful that there is enough time to get him in the right shape."

Another problem is the relationship between the Yakins and some of their team mates. Many resent what they feel is the special treatment the Yakins receive, especially Murat.

Before the match against Russia he arrived late at the team hotel, and wore his regular clothes instead of the "uniform" that his team-mates were required to wear. It was all very childish.

Even Christian Gross, who was Murat's manager at Grasshoppers and now again at Basel, criticised the player: "The other players are angry at the status afforded to Murat - and that is their right, these players are successful in foreign leagues."

None of it seems to concern Murat too much. He knows the players who complain about him are from the French-speaking group, the same group that hounded Ciriaco Sforza out of the team two years ago. Murat does his own thing, only looks out for himself, he's not concerned about what the others think of him. If he didn't feel he had the total support of Kuhn then it's possible that he would walk away from the national team, just as he did when Gilbert Gress was manager.

On Saturday, Murat will play in defence alongside Stephane Henchoz, one of the "rebels" against him. Kuhn must clear the air between them, that's one of his most important jobs in the next few days. To get the best out of him and to keep him happy Kuhn must support him, but he cannot alienate Henchoz, Johann Vogel or Patrick Muller, two more of Murat's "enemies", either.

Kuhn wants the national team to be a kind of family, with him as the leader, but Murat Yakin is used to being the head of the clan, and his brother expects him to fill that role. It won't be easy to find a compromise, in which nobody loses face, but if Kuhn manages to lose against Ireland, then loses one of his best defenders, and then his best forward, he could well end up losing his job.

Christian Andiel is a journalist with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.