According to a Swiss newspaper, the Finnish hockey icon had to deal with the employment office.
In his first coaching career, Ville Peltonen immediately got into the big money. Tomi Jokela/AOP
Finnish hockey legend, current coach of Helsinki IFK Ville Peltonen49, is a Swiss online magazine Watson’s demanded from his former club Lausanne HC 713,000 francs as salary for two years, which currently corresponds to more than 720,000 euros.
The amount demanded by Peltonen is revealed in the documents that Watson obtained.
The spring -95 lion hero started his head coaching career in Lausanne in the 2018–19 season. In the spring of the following season, i.e. 2020, Peltonen received his departure passes from the club, even though the parties had signed an extension contract in December 2019.
The disputes being processed in court may be related to Peltonen’s and Lausanne’s coaching contract and dismissals.
Kari’s handshake
CEO of Lausanne HC Chris Wolf commented to Watson that the club has made a payment of 360,000 francs to Peltos. According to the Swiss online magazine, it does not yet appear in the documents, but if this is the case, Peltonen’s demands have been halved by now.
– My lawyer is handling the matter in Switzerland. It is an unfinished matter, Peltonen was content to say to Iltalehti.
After Peltonen moved to the sidelines, the Canadian took the responsibility for Lausanne Craig MacTavishwho has also coached in the NHL for years.
According to Watson, MacTavish also demands salary receivables from the club, 806,640 francs to be exact.
Thus, Watson calculates that the former coaches demand about 1.16 million francs from the club.
Watson’s editor Klaus Zauggin according to Peltonen, MacTavish and Lausanne’s disputes are unusual. Coach firings have traditionally been handled with a golden handshake.
According to Zaugg Kari Jalonen and boss of SC Bern Marc Lüthi came to an agreement in a little over 30 minutes, when the Finn was fired from the Ogyric club at the beginning of 2020.
Money man
According to Watson, Peltonen’s and MacTavish’s receivables are net salaries.
According to the online newspaper, Lausanne may be paid even more than four million, if other payments, such as lawyers’ fees, also fall to the club.
According to Watson, Peltonen even had to go to the employment office because of the matter.
– It was a humiliation for the Finnish hockey icon that cannot be compared to anything else, the journalist Zaugg paints in his story.
Peltonen led Lausanne to the best result in the club’s history in the spring. Lausanne was third in the regular season and reached all the way to the semi-finals.
At the moment, the club is third last in the Swiss league.
Since 2021, Peltonen has worked in the league as HIFK’s coach. Last season, HIFK was fifth in the regular season under Peltonen’s leadership. TPS was better in the quarterfinals, winning the match 4–3.
Currently, HIFK is in eighth place in the League. The beginning of the season was difficult, but now the Helsinki team is on a streak of 15 matches.
However, the puck legend hardly needs to worry about money matters. In his career, Peltonen played three different “stints” in North America, which produced almost 400 NHL regular season games. In addition to that, Peltonen played for example in the KHL, Switzerland, Sweden and in the Finnish money clubs HIFK and Jokerei.
The company, which is 100 percent owned by Peltonen, made a profit of almost one million in 2021. The company had financial income of up to 1.4 million euros.
– There are investments in shares and various holdings and they have been sold. Just normal business, Peltonen told IL.
– There is also one bigger store. It has to do with shares owned by my company in some other companies and stuff.