Her career at EHC Biel started with booze

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She is bursting with energy. Her eyes sparkle when she talks. Your communications are clear. you smile heartily. You, this is Stéphanie Merillat. Currently on everyone’s lips as co-chairman of EHC Biel. In addition, the 54-year-old Seeland is also the mother of the 11-year-old Elsa, who co-owns a real estate company, runs a foundation that supports local sports, culture and music talent and loves to sing for her life.

The woman from Biel is a jack-of-all-trades and you get the impression that she never rests. “Yes, yes, I sleep too, and quite a bit,” she says with a smile. “But I want to take advantage of life. It would be a great shame not to.” She is very organized and wanders around in her different worlds without separating them. “I need this.”

Her favorite player is Hischier

In the 90s she worked as an animator for Club Med, with great pleasure. Before the turn of the millennium, she was also a marketing assistant at UEFA, but she left because she did not see any country where career opportunities for women were limited. “It was a different time and I wasn’t the only one who had problems. But I learned a lot at UEFA.”

As a girl she discovered her love for EHC Biel. As a teenager, she had a crush on defender Beat Cattaruzza. “Posters were put up and you felt like you were in love,” she says with a laugh. Although she is no longer in love, she still has her favorite player, “every season”. When asked, she also reveals his name: “Luca Hischier, I like his elegance.”

“I Was Completely Drunk”

When she was enthusiastic about Cattaruzza at the time, she never imagined that she would ever lead EHC Biel in a managerial position. She always remained connected to the club, sometimes as a sponsor. But getting involved in the club took a long night and a lot of alcohol.

This happened in the spring of 2008, when EHC Biel was promoted back to the NLA after difficult years and the then donor president told her how great it all was at the promotion party. “I was all drunk and snapped at him that this lousy club has never done anything for the Romands.”

Instead of complaining, he asked them to help themselves. And that is how Mérillat ended up on the board of directors and since 2019 she has been co-chairman with Patrick Stalder. “Our families have been friends for a long time, we both have the same vision for the club, we complement each other with our different strengths and that’s why we felt this co-mandate was the best solution,” she explained.

During the game fan, not president

While Stalder takes care of the finances and the German-speaking environment, Mérillat is more active in sponsoring and building bridges for the French-speaking partners. «We are a small region, Bern is very close, Ajoie not far away. We have to deploy our entire network for this.”

But her work on the board of directors is only one aspect. Mérillat is also, without batting an eyelid, a “very emotional fan”. Before and after the games she is there for the sponsors, but during the game she is tense, distracted and occasionally becomes unfair to the opponent and the referees. It’s a disaster,” she says apologetically.

Gin and tonic if you win, chocolate if you lose

When she wins, and as we know there were many for the playoff finalists this season, she always celebrates with a gin and tonic, “that’s a tradition for me”. In defeat, on the other hand, she often grabs a glass of wine and chocolate to comfort herself. Since the last two finals were lost and Biel is 2:3 behind against Servette, wine and chocolate were the order of the day. But of course, the hope remains that two more gin and tonics will be added this season. One on Tuesday after Game 6 and one on Thursday after Game 7.

Especially in the French-speaking Swiss media, Stéphanie Mérillat has almost become a star due to her extroverted nature and her refreshing performances in the popular discussion show “Les beaux parleurs” on RTS. She is even called the “Queen of Biel”. But that’s a bit too much even for her: “I’m just Stéphanie from Biel.”

Source : Blick