Unfortunately the last season in Switzerland was cancelled due to COVID-19. This not only in Switzerland but also in other leagues and sports.
The cancellation of our championship did not directly affect my team, this because we dropped out of the playoffs shortly before this decision. However, the COVID-19 crisis afterwards has also kept us very busy on various levels.

One thing I would like to say right at the beginning. Even if it was a hard decision, it turned out to be the right one in retrospect.

Thankfully, the Corona Pandemic has not directly affected us so far. I hope it will stay that way, not only for us, but for all the other teams as well.

When we planned the new season, we didn’t know when we would be allowed to train as a team again. So it was the logical step for me to do our season kick-off remotely with Microsoft Teams.
I’m lucky, I work in computer science, to be more precise I deal with Office 365, messaging and also with Microsoft Teams in my daily work.
Long before the COVID-19 crisis I decided to use this collaboration tool for us as a team. Primarily for data exchange, but since last April also for staff meetings and team meetings.
We did an update call with the team every 10 days. This call served to exchange information and discuss updates on the current situation and team topics.

Because we are active in competitive sports, we were able to start team training a little earlier, but this was not as we are used to. The regulations had to be followed. This was also controlled by the police.
I had absolutely no problem with this control of the police. It was important that everyone followed the rules, including us at Zug United.
Apart from the distance rule we had to fulfill other points, we had to desinfect before and after the use of equipment, the used desinfection and cleaning utensils we had to dispose of after a clear instruction. We also had to wear gloves during assembly and disassembly.

Difficulties during transfer talks

Another problem because of COVID-19 were our transfer talks, on the one hand it was uncertain when players from abroad were allowed to come back to Switzerland – not only Switzerland had closed the borders and ordered a Lockdown.
On the other hand, the Lockdown also made it uncertain how and when it would continue.
Understandably, it was not easy to hold talks with foreign players.
Another point was also that due to the season break, several players were very interesting for us. They didn’t want to leave their team because of the season break. Therefore some of the players decided to play another season with their team.
What wasn’t the answer we were hoping for is understandable from another point of view and nice for the club that the players have such a bond.

Studies and examinations

Another complicating factor (not only for us but also for other teams who wanted to make transfers) was that certain players were unable to complete their schooling or profession because of the Lockdown. Some of these were postponed indefinitely and did not contribute to planning safety.
Since the players unfortunately cannot yet live from our sport, education always comes first in my opinion. Of course, I expect a willingness to make sacrifices up to a certain point, but final exams definitely have priority.

Visa problems

What we are unfortunately still very busy with at the moment are the visa problems with the so-called third countries. Our player Snezhka Dubyk, who played in our junior team and is now part of our NLA team, has Ukrainian citizenship.
Unfortunately Switzerland does not currently (as of 21.07.2020) issue visas to citizens of this third country. But even the Ukraine itself has still closed its borders.
Therefore we do not know yet when we will be able to welcome our young players back.

I really hope that this COVID-19 pandemic is over soon, not only for me and my team, but also for all other teams and of course for all of us in general.