Wembley knows his phantom goal and Swiss ice hockey recently got to know Beat Gerber's phantom game. The still-record-breaking National League player has had a match removed from his statistics.
04.10.2024, 08:11
04.10.2024, 08:32
SDA
Beat "Bidu" Gerber has shaped SC Bern for two decades. He is a six-time Swiss champion and holds a league record with 1,270 games in the National League - at least those are the numbers when the former defender hangs up his skates in spring 2023 after 20 professional seasons.
Gerber is likely to be replaced as record player by Davos cult forward Andres Ambühl as early as next week. "Büehli" will then also become the sole record holder with 1270 games. There is a curious story behind this.
Focus on the 2001/02 season
Numbers don't lie, as the saying goes. Nevertheless, it is worth taking a closer look at certain statistics. When the news agency Keystone-SDA set about updating the list of the 1000 club (with all players with 1000 or more games in the National League) in August because of Ambühl's impending record, it came across a curiosity: Gerber is listed with 1270 games in the league, but in his own statistics, the quiet hockey player, who has never sought the limelight, appears at the top with "only" 1269 matches.
An initial analysis shows: The 2001/02 season makes the difference. At that time, Gerber was still wearing the jersey of his youth club SC Langnau, and over Christmas he played with Switzerland at the U20 World Championships in the Czech Republic, in a team with ... Andres Ambühl. In the publicly accessible statistics platform "elitesprospect.com", which is widely known in ice hockey circles, Geber is listed with 39 qualifying games for Langnau. In another statistic by Urs Keel, the figure is only 38. Keel used to be the official statistician of the ice hockey association, and he still supplies Keystone-SDA with valuable data today.
Sifting through old telegrams in the newspapers
Keystone-SDA commissions Keel to check the figure and at the same time asks the retired sports journalist Werner Haller to rummage through his archives. The "statistics pope from the Emmental" tells us that he has gone through the telegrams from the 2001/02 season that were clipped from the Berner Zeitung at the time and has come to the following conclusion: Beat Gerber was used 28 times in 44 qualifying games, ten times he was in the line-up and on the match sheet, but was not used. In contrast to football or basketball, in ice hockey the match appears as such in the statistics, even if a player is not used for a single second. In handball, the procedure is the same.
Haller therefore confirms the 38 games. Keystone-SDA then confronts the National League with the facts. The communications department says that they trust the figures from "eliteprospect.com" and therefore want to stick to the 1270 games. The English platform, founded in 1999, was said to obtain its data from the league. An interplay that works today - but did it work over 20 years ago?
Keystone-SDA is skeptical, writes to "eliteprospect.com", explains the case in detail, but still receives no reply. But then comes the surprise: the statistics platform has now revised the figures in Beat Gerber's profile downwards. From 39 to 38 and accordingly from 1270 to 1269.
League relents at second attempt
Now the ball is back in the National League's court. And this time the league is giving in. After internal clarifications, they decide to adjust the number of games played by Beat Gerber. The long-serving SCB defenseman is therefore "robbed" of one game. The National League cannot explain how the phantom game found its way into the statistics books. However, it confirms that everything that happened before 2007 is linked to external data, mainly that of Keel. The league therefore intends to examine its data more closely at a later date.
For now, however, the stage belongs to Andres Ambühl. And the matter of the "game theft" also has a positive side, at least for the Grisons native and the HCD. Instead of playing an away game in Pruntrut against Ajoie on October 12, the "eternal Büehli" will now be able to play his record-breaking game on Thursday at home against SC Bern. Against the former club of the current record holder. Always with the proviso that Ambühl doesn't get injured, fall ill or pick up a suspension.
