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Report nowPatrick Fischer speaks publicly for the first time since the Covid affair. In an interview produced by a PR agency, he talks about his fake Covid certificate.
"For the first time since my resignation, I am speaking openly about the events surrounding the Covid affair, the past few months and my view of much of what happened back then," Patrick Fischer wrote on Instagram on Monday evening. On Tuesday, he posted a video interview on YouTube to give his view of things.
However, the term "interview" should be treated with caution. The interview was recorded by Signorell GmbH, the PR agency of former professional field hockey player Riccardo Signorell. The questions were asked by former Blick editor-in-chief Peter Röthlisberger, who now advises companies and managers on communication issues with his company "Chefredaktion". Röthlisberger is therefore a professional in making managers look good in media appearances.
The conversation with Patrick Fischer should therefore not be seen as a journalistic interview, but as a PR appearance with a professional agency in the background.
"I deal with certain issues, especially when it comes to my health and my body. I listen closely to my gut feeling. That's my anchor. I trust it. That's why it was clear to me that I wouldn't get vaccinated."
"The Covid period was very foggy and uncertain. Things were a bit more relaxed in Switzerland, but China still had a vaccination requirement for entry. I knew I had a problem because I wanted to go to China with the boys. That's why I decided to buy a certificate. As a national coach, I shouldn't have done that, but my gut feeling also told me that I had a responsibility for my body. That put me in a difficult situation, the most difficult in my ten years as national team coach. I didn't take responsibility as a national team coach, but I did for myself. As a national team coach, I violated my role model function, there's nothing to gloss over. But personally, I have remained true to myself."
"The Covid protocol looked like this: We were tested every day at the performance center in Switzerland, on departure and then also in Beijing itself. If you test positive, you go into quarantine. I knew that I wasn't any more of a risk than the others - as soon as I got the virus, I would go into quarantine. That gave me the certainty that I wasn't putting the team at risk.
"That was also the most difficult part of the whole campaign. It was claimed that I had endangered everyone. That's simply not true. That has never happened in the history of the Olympic Games. If someone commits an offense, for example a doping offender, then the person is singled out as an individual. Russia was excluded once because it systematically doped in 2014. But I don't think you can compare that. That's why I was sure that the whole delegation wouldn't have been sent home even if they had caught me. We don't know, but it's just never happened before."
"I'm a person who trusts quickly and the relationship of trust with SRF was very strong. Then Covid became an issue and I stumbled over it. I didn't see any danger. For me, Covid was over and I knew that I would communicate that. That was important for me."
"I'm not the only one who tells things 'off the record'. Our head of media made that very clear. He said that it was logical that it wasn't meant for the public. That was also confirmed by Schmitz. He even wrote to us the next day in an e-mail that he was aware of the off-the-record agreement. That irritated me. That SRF then communicated that it had never been 'off the record'. That's simply not true. An agreement was broken. That was very irritating, because it also made our head of media look bad. I still don't know why it was never communicated by the association. Why we never made it clear that we had this agreement."
"I was well advised. I was told that I should bring calm so that the team could concentrate on their task. That was the most important thing in this situation."
"I was in Slovakia and felt a lot of support from the staff and players. It wasn't easy for them either. The home World Cup is just around the corner - they also discussed whether they wanted to boycott. I always told them: Get the job done! You know how to do it."
"They knew I was struggling. They presented me with a contract one day that said I had to be at the U20 World Championships in Edmonton (December 2021) and the World Championships in Helsinki (May 2022). I needed a vaccination for that. And if I was absent, there would be sanctions amounting to over half a million francs. I signed that. But I found it annoying, it increased the pressure even more. It gave the association confirmation that I was vaccinated. That's why I could no longer go into quarantine."
"Looking back, it would have been the right decision not to sign the contract and accept the consequences."
"So many people came up to me and my wife during this whole time, supported us, encouraged us and shared our suffering. I'm very grateful for that, it's done us an incredible amount of good. At the same time, the main core, my family and my wife are not used to storms like this. I've seen what an incredible family I have. They've given me a lot of support."
"What hit me emotionally was what happened after the dismissal. The Nati had a home game two or three days later in Biel. A girl had made this poster for me (shows poster in conversation).
It was then simply snatched out of the girl's hand. These messages of thanks - flags and the like - were also simply taken away from the fans during the World Cup. I find that very exciting. Who commissioned this? The messages weren't directed at anyone. It was just a thank you to me. That hit me the hardest."
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