Swiss Ice Hockey is right when it is addressed to players in its M18 selection through an Instagram post and asks them to keep their heads high.
Because, even if they have been relegated to Division I, these young people are not responsible for anything. They are the first victims of a succession of dysfunctions that precipitated Switzerland into the ravine.
Is it acceptable that the technical managers of a federation entrust the keys to a wardrobe to coaches who have never acted as international levels and who therefore have no experience in the management of a World Cup?
Is it tolerable that the coach “forgets” to summon the three best scorers of the M20 Elite championship born in 2008 and evolve all in French-speaking Switzerland?
Do we have the right to think that certain selections are more dictated by political reasons than by sporting reasons? That a coach who aspires to make a career is more inclined to please the sports directors of the ZSC Lions, Berne and Zug than that of Gottéron?
Can we regret that the majority of professional clubs, in the first two categories of play in the country, do not take care of their juniors enough, reluctant to grant them playing time even if it means accepting the errors inherent in inexperience?
Are we entitled to think that hockey has become a sport that is too expensive and too time-consuming to encourage parents to register their children? With the consequence of a weakening pyramid, a competition that is stretching and a level that is driving?
In this context, is it absurd to consider a national structure that would bring together the best 30 (objectively selected) M16, M17, M18 and M20 in a development center with school and/or learning program? Teams that would allow the best to rub shoulders with the best. Teams that would play at the Elite level of their age category, even (for the M20) would be integrated into the Swiss League
Either the federation acts as usual. Makes it believe that it is sensitive to the problem. That she will take the time of an analysis that will not conclude a “is the fault with no luck”. While, in reality, everyone thinks primarily to save their butt.
Or she addresses this failure as a chance to build a new universe in which failure will be definitely a mirage.
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