A national team reprimanded for its use of Swiss symbols, a parliament which takes up the issue, a Federal Council forced to change a law… Can we be more Swiss than the affair which reached its epilogue on Monday in Bern? One thing is certain: Swiss selections of all disciplines and all levels will now be free to use the country’s coat of arms without special authorization.
Let’s rewind for those who haven’t followed. In May 2024, the Swiss ice hockey team reached the final of the World Cup played in the Czech Republic with a jersey proudly displaying the country’s coat of arms, a white cross crest on a red background. No problem for the cross or the background, but since 2017 and the entry into force of the “Swissness” project, the use of the crest has been reserved for the Confederation. Exceptions were possible – Victorinox or TCS benefiting from them for example – but they required exceptional authorizations granted by the Federal Council. Problem: the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation (SIHF) had not requested one. Neither for its men’s national team, nor for its women’s counterpart, nor for its junior selections.
As early as 2018, the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) informed the body that its use of the Swiss coat of arms was abusive, without this producing any effect. This year, the IPI therefore took action, the SIHF counter-attacked before the Federal Administrative Court, which ruled in favor of the IPI. The two parties then reached an agreement: an agreement was signed so that the current jersey, bearing the illegal coat of arms, could be used until the end of 2026 before the national teams changed it. The federation admitted being at fault.
“Honored” coat of arms
But in the meantime, administrative chicanery had become a political affair. And if, in front of parliament, Federal Councilor Beat Jans tried hard to argue that there was no need to change a law for a particular case which had been settled, that it was important that the Confederation remained the only one to be able to use the badge and that we should not “open Pandora’s box” of a legislative correction for so little, not everyone was of his opinion.
Two similar motions tabled in both Chambers, by Bernese socialist deputy Matthias Aebischer and by Lucerne PLR senator Damian Müller, requested that national teams be able to legally use the Swiss coat of arms. On Monday, the National Council supported by 137 votes to 24 Damian Müller’s text, already accepted by the Council of States. Matthias Aebischer announced that he would immediately withdraw his text.
For the commission, the Vaudois UDC Sylvain Freymond argued that the national teams are “a powerful symbol of cohesion and representation”. They do not use the coat of arms “in a commercial and abusive manner, but honor them”. It is therefore a question of offering them “legitimate recognition”. Beat Jans and his colleagues now have two years to amend the law.
