Betting debts are honor debts, as Klaus Zaugg knows. But what if the basics of the bet were not met at all? Image: wanda Frischknecht, jardin maoré
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Eismeister Zaugg
Zug and the inability to become a master: Does the “ice master” have to pay CHF 11,084?
EV Zug officially demands CHF 11,084 from the “Eismeister”. Why I am not willing to pay. And why this demand explains us a little bit, why the Zugers have never been champions again since 1998.
The fact is undisputed. On August 7, 2019 I wrote:
«From the 2019/20 season, EV Zug has the great goalkeeper it takes to win championships. But Zug does not yet have the great coach needed to win the title. The new gang general Dan Tangnes a master coach? The Norwegian who has never won anything? He has a two-year contract. If he is still Zug’s trainer with Leonardo Genoni (2019/20) at the end of the first season, every letter of this column should be a “two-man” in the EVZ team fund. »
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The 2019/20 season is now history and Dan Tangnes is still Zug’s trainer. So EV Zug charged me 11,084 francs for the 5524 letters in this column.
I would still like to redeem my betting debts. After all, that’s a matter of honor. But just: Higher circumstances have voided this bet.
EVZ’s invoice to Eismeister Zaugg:
Image: watson
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From my text it is clear and unequivocal: If Zug does not become a champion with Leonardo Genoni, then the days of the coach are numbered. Expectations in Zug are sky-high after the investments in summer 2019 (in addition to Leonardo Genoni, Zug also got the best and most expensive Swiss scorer with Grégory Hofmann).
I’m not a polemic when I say that failing again in the title fight would have cost Dan Tangnes the job. Especially since Zug’s “fear opponent” – SC Bern – missed the playoffs this season. Zugers have already lost the final three times against the Berners: 1997, 2017 and 2019. And it should be remembered that coach Harold Kreis was fired in 2017 after the lost final despite a continuing contract.
Dan Tangnes is still the boss in the EVZ cabin – but the season didn’t really end either. Image: KEYSTONE
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Dear Patrick, dear Reto, you would have kept Dan Tangnes if he had failed in the title fight for the second time in a row after 2019? Come on!
Now you have been spared the test of playoffs or, to put it positively: refused by higher circumstances. There was only one theoretical “mini final”: the last game of the season in Zurich for the qualification victory. You also lost this game.
The EV Zug is a formidable hockey company. I can only take my hat off: a new stadium, a hockey academy, one of the best youth organizations in Europe, a smoothly functioning administration, free of the scent of sulfur, a solid economic foundation, a team that is among the best in the country and everything wonderfully managed by both of you.
Truly I bow as deep as I can. And it would be a great honor for me to support this company with a modest but wholehearted contribution of CHF 11,084.
EVZ CEO Patrick Lengwiler. Image: KEYSTONE
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But just: sport is competition. Pay, even though the sporting prerequisites for this one bet are not given due to force majeure? Pay, even though the hockey technical “manhood test” playoffs have not been passed or could not take place this season?
Sorry, that is not possible. That would be unsportsmanlike in the highest sense. Dear Patrick, dear Reto, I am now a little malicious (as you know) and therefore please be lenient: Just pull out your wallet and pay, although the requested and expected service has not been performed, only one person is doing in Zug: Your President Hans-Peter Strebel.
Perhaps this certainty that one way or the other is paid is one of the reasons why the “bite” for the second title is still missing.
PS: I like to pay for a round of beer for the whole team. Tell me on occasion how much it will cost.
