Chronicle · Ice hockey
Recruiting from across the Atlantic: the real timeline of a signing from a third country
Between the handshake and the first face-off, there is a file. What plays out week by week, and what can be prepared before the contract is even signed.
The sporting timeline
The permit procedure
Every sporting director knows the scenario: a forward gets injured in October, an agent offers a winger available across the Atlantic, the video is convincing, the deal is done in three calls. Then someone asks the awkward question: when can he play?
The honest answer is: it depends on what was prepared before the three calls. A player from a third country remains subject to the third-country regime, whatever his reputation. Hiring him requires a work permit, examined by the cantonal labour market authority and then subject to the approval of the SEM, as for all professional sportspeople. Neither of these two examinations can be compressed by sporting urgency.
What helps, on the sporting side of the file
When the player plays in well-documented leagues, with public statistics and a legible career path, the sporting file argues itself on the record: showing that the player is a recognised figure in his sport, in the sense the law gives that derogation, becomes a job of compilation more than of argument.
The friction lies elsewhere and is almost always the same. Civil status documents and contracts drafted for another legal system, which have to be translated and sometimes legalised. An effective agent, but one used to other administrations, promising the player an arrival "next week". Pay conceived in another currency and according to other customs, to be measured against the salary and working conditions customary in Switzerland for the sector.
The reverse schedule, not hope
Our method fits in one sentence: start from the date of the first targeted match and work backwards. Each step gets its week, each document its owner, and the player does not board the plane until his permit is waiting for him. A signing who arrives before his right to work gains no days: he adds a problem.
The best lever is still anticipation: as soon as the discussion turns serious, before the contract is even signed, the list of documents can go to the agent and the reverse schedule can be laid out. Clubs that make this move early sign the same players as everyone else. They simply line them up sooner.
The first step
A signing under discussion?
The feasibility assessment examines the position, the player and the canton, then tells you frankly where you stand, before the signature.
The decision to grant a permit rests with the cantonal and federal authorities. We prepare the file and make its case, we do not guarantee its outcome.