A Swiss hockey coach has been fired as he admits to using a fake COVID-19 vaccination certificate to get around China’s travel restrictions for the 2022 Winter Olympics. In a statement late Monday, head coach Patrick Fischer said he made a “serious mistake in this matter” by traveling to Beijing with the Swiss men’s team using false paperwork.

Fischer had said before he was fired that “I’m very sorry if I’ve disappointed people with this situation. I was in an extraordinary personal crisis because I didn’t want to be vaccinated. At the same time, I certainly didn’t want to let my team down at the Olympic Games.”

The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation initially supported him, saying the case was closed because he had admitted to his mistake. But that changed on Wednesday with news of his termination.

“The case is legally closed but has triggered a public debate about values and trust, which the federation takes very seriously,” federation president Urs Kessler said in a statement.

“From today’s perspective, our initial assessment — that the matter was concluded — was too short-sighted. This is about values and respect, which are fundamental to Swiss Ice Hockey and which Patrick Fischer did not uphold in 2022.”

Switzerland hosts the World Championship next month. Fischer was already due to step down after that. Jan Cadieux, Switzerland’s former under-20 coach who had already been announced as Fischer’s replacement beginning next year, will take over in the new job immediately, the federation said.

Fischer was one of Switzerland’s most successful hockey coaches. He’d been in the post since 2015 and took the team to three Olympics, as well as winning three world championship silver medals. Under his guidance, the team reached the quarterfinals at the 2022 Olympics, where COVID-19 testing was a requirement, and the NHL stayed away because of the pandemic.

Ahead of the 2022 Olympics, China had some of the strictest COVID-19 rules in the world. It insisted that any athletes heading to the Games had to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or choose a three-week quarantine in a hotel.