{"id":49491,"date":"2026-04-15T20:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/49491\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T20:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:27:11","slug":"swiss-national-hockey-team-fires-head-coach-after-fake-covid-19-vaccine-card-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/49491\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss national hockey team fires head coach after fake COVID-19 vaccine card admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Team<\/p>\n

Patrick Fischer was fired Wednesday and replaced by former assistant coach Jan Cadieux. Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

April 15, 2026 3:50 pm EDT<\/p>\n

The most successful hockey coach in Swiss history has been fired a month before the country is scheduled to host the IIHF World Hockey Championship after Patrick Fischer admitted to falsifying a COVID-19 vaccination document to get around China\u2019s travel restrictions for the 2022 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

Fischer was fired Wednesday and replaced by former assistant coach Jan Cadieux.<\/p>\n

The Swiss hockey federation initially backed the 50-year-old Fisher, saying Monday it considered the matter closed after Fischer admitted to making a \u201cserious mistake\u201d and apologized publicly for buying a vaccination certificate ahead of the Beijing Olympics. That apology was made after a report from Swiss public broadcaster SRF revealed he\u2019d been fined nearly 39,000 Swiss francs (approx. $50,000 USD) by local authorities in 2023 for document forgery.<\/p>\n

However, Swiss hockey federation president Urs Kessler said Wednesday that the public outcry over the revelation about Fischer\u2019s conduct forced his association to reconsider its position and instead fire him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust and integrity are central to our sport and to our federation,\u201d said Kessler<\/a>. \u201cIn hindsight, our initial assessment that the matter was closed was too simplistic. It\u2019s about values \u200b\u200band respect that are central to Swiss Ice Hockey and which Patrick Fischer failed to uphold in 2022. The federation regrets that it gave this aspect too little consideration in its initial assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move comes exactly one month before the world championship is set to get underway in Zurich and Fribourg. That tournament was due to be Fischer\u2019s swan song following a 10-year run where he took Switzerland from eighth to second in the world rankings, with Cadieux previously tabbed as his successor following the worlds on home soil.<\/p>\n

Switzerland reached the quarter-finals at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where COVID-19 testing was a requirement and the NHL chose not to send its players because of concerns about the pandemic. Fischer bought a forged vaccination certificate off a social media platform to gain entry to China for the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry if I\u2019ve disappointed people with this situation,\u201d he said Monday in a statement<\/a>. \u201cI was in an extraordinary personal crisis because I didn\u2019t want to be vaccinated. At the same time, I certainly didn\u2019t want to let my team down at the Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Fischer\u2019s tenure with the national team, Switzerland reached three Olympics and claimed a world championship silver on three occasions \u2014 including at last year\u2019s tournament, where it lost 1-0 in overtime to Team USA in the gold medal game.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Apr 15, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Fischer was fired Wednesday and replaced by former assistant coach Jan Cadieux. Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1789,41,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-49491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-swiss","10":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116410610494732499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}