The biggest mystery since the start of the playoffs

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A generous club with a modern arena in one of Switzerland’s most beautiful cities in a prime location on Lake Geneva is looking for players for its team in the National League. As a professional, would you respond to this ad? No question.

However, there is not even a picture of Gregory Finger, sole owner of the club since January 2023. Nowhere. The man is a ghost. What you think you know: Finger was born in Moscow in 1966, has worked and probably lived in the region for about 20 years, is a Russian, American and Swiss national, and has – depending on the source – assets of between $500 million and $1 billion. Finger is said to have connections to several Russian oligarchs.

Playoff Record: Missed three times, eliminated five times in the quarterfinals

Since the club returned to NL in 2013, they once qualified for the semi-finals (2019 against the Tigers) with high costs. The quarterfinals ended five times and the playoffs were missed three times. This season Lausanne employed a total of ten foreigners, some of whom were top class but apparently signed at random (two Slovaks, one Austrian, three Canadians, one Swede, two Finns and one Czech) and at least several Swiss national players – it was not enough for a place among the top ten teams of the competition.

Stephan says goodbye softly

In the final phase of the current season, Lausanne lost the historic games with an overall score of 1:13 (in Biel and against Zug) and behaved like a team that wanted to give itself a gift by ending the season early. No urgency, no revolt, not even resistance. Behind the scenes, insiders report, athletic director John Fust and coach Geoff Ward (60, a former NHL coach and Fust’s successor behind the gang) couldn’t agree on a common line. Hopes that behind-the-scenes turmoil would subside with the departure of unpredictable former sporting director and co-owner Petr Svoboda were not fulfilled.

In the wake of the turbulence, goalkeeper Tobias Stephan (39) quietly retired from the professional business after 19 seasons in the National League, several years abroad (with an NHL game for Dallas) and a World Cup silver medal (2013, Stockholm ).

Continue like this, but hope for a different result?

Lausanne will try again next season. With the same managerial staff? That would be like hoping to get a different result by using the same methods over and over.

Source : Blick