Hockey: Swiss delight at Junior World Cup – from crowd-funding to winning two out of two on debut

As the final hooter went at Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium with the tournament debutants defeating Chile 3-2 in a thriller, a few hundred fans had become Swiss supporters.

Swiss players celebrate after scoring a goal in the junior Hockey World Cup. Hockey India

Minutes before Switzerland’s match against Chile at the FIH Men’s Junior World Cup was scheduled to start, a man wearing Swiss gear made his way to the stands while taking cover from the incessant rain.

He began distributing miniature Swiss national flags – easily over a 100 of them – attached to plastic straws. It was Punleuk Kam, Managing Director of Swiss Hockey, who asked fans to pose for a photograph holding the flags and asked them to cheer as well. He then turned to the press and joked, “Switzerland is a neutral country. So if you wave the flag and cheer for us, you are still supporting both teams!”

As the final hooter went at Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium with the tournament debutants defeating Chile 3-2 in a thriller, a few hundred fans had become Swiss supporters. It was their second successive victory after the 4-0 win over Oman on Friday. And just like that, they find themselves on 6 points and dreaming of a possible quarterfinal spot (even though they still have to play India).

“Can’t be better, right? It can’t,” beamed their Dutch head coach Jair Levie. “We showed a lot of ambition and so much fire. It felt like a home game. We have tried to do everything we can to put field hockey into the picture. It’s all about ice hockey in Switzerland, and now with all that we have done here, we’ll get this to work.”

It was their second successive victory after the 4-0 win over Oman on Friday. And just like that, they find themselves on 6 points and dreaming of a possible quarterfinal spot (even though they still have to play India). (Photo: Vinayakk)

The sport is played only in certain pockets of the country. “Field hockey has come to Switzerland through France. We can play outdoor field hockey only from April till the end of October, rest of the time we have to play indoors. Big cities like Zurich, Basel and Geneva have astroturf pitches, we may have five or six of them but there are zero facilities like this one in Chennai,” the team’s travelling reserve Corsin Rauch tells The Indian Express. “This is very exciting for us, two wins in two matches is amazing, a dream come true.”

Also Read | FIH Junior Men’s World Cup tournament guide: India’s squad, schedule, ticket information and where to watch

It wasn’t easy to get even this far. Having qualified by winning the Men’s 2024 EuroHockey U21 Championship II-B, the Swiss group had to resort to crowd-funding. On the website ibelieveinyou, their project with a request of 30,000 Swiss francs resulted in a collection of CHF 30,259.

“It’s an amateur sport,” Levie said. “The players have to spend themselves, and we had to use crowd-funding. Some of them had to give up university, take free time from work etc. You really have to love hockey to be able to do all this. The official funding is only a little bit, but hopefully this World Cup will help change that.”