"I am proud"

Bader remains ice hockey team manager until 2025

Roger Bader

(Bild: GEPA)

Austria's national ice hockey players will begin their World Championship preparations in the knowledge that their team manager will remain with them for another year. The Austrian Ice Hockey Federation (ÖEHV) has extended the contract with sports director and head coach Roger Bader by one year, including an option for a further year. This option is contingent on success at the 2024 and 2025 World Championships and Olympic qualification.

Bader has held the position of team manager since the end of 2016 and has also been sports director since 2017. When he extended his contract two years ago, the Swiss set himself the goal of turning Austria into an A nation. "From my point of view, this will be the case when we have managed to stay in the top flight three times in a row," the Swiss explained at the time. There's not much left to do now, and if we manage to stay in the group again this year in Prague against group opponents Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, Finland, the Czech Republic, Norway and Great Britain, we will have achieved it.

"We are thus taking Roger's very good and professional work into account and also want to guarantee with the early contract extension that the entire staff can prepare for the upcoming tasks at the World Championship and in the Olympic qualifiers in peace and with full concentration," explained ÖEHV President Klaus Hartmann in a press release on Tuesday.

"I am proud"
"I am proud to be the head coach of Austria's national men's ice hockey team. My goal is for us to establish ourselves among the top 12 nations. We're on the right track to achieve this," said Bader on the extension, adding that "our sole focus is now on the World Championship, where we want to secure our third consecutive title." Bader has been with the ÖEHV since 2014, when he joined the association as head of training.

Preparation for the World Championship starts in three weeks' time with two test matches against Latvia in Riga. The following week, they will play their first home game against Slovenia in Villach. The other opponents are the Czech Republic, Germany and Canada. The World Cup begins for Austria on May 11 against Denmark.