Axel Geerken, Managing Director of MT Melsungen, strongly criticized the national coach Christian Prokop, who was controversial after the disappointing European Championship, and fired up the discussions about his dismissal.
“I really don’t want anything bad for him, but as a national coach he seems to be overwhelmed,”Geerken told the trade magazine Handballwoche (Tuesday edition). We have to “think very carefully” about whether we are going to go to next year’s home World Cup with Prokop as national coach,”Geerken said.
The consequences of the missed semi-finals are “not yet foreseeable – not for the HBL, not for the DHB and certainly not for handball sports in the small and at school” The damage of Prokop’s commitment could “quickly add up to a million euros if you don’t act”, said Geerken.
Prokop, who had inherited the successful coach Dagur Sigurdsson a year ago, has a contract with the DHB until 2022. The federation had loosened him from the Bundesliga club SC DHfK Leipzig for about 500,000 euros.
Also Geerken, who in Melsungen with Finn Lemke, Julius Kühn and Tobias Reichmann supervises three national players, have also noticed the known atmospheric disturbances in the team.
“All of us – and especially in the clubs – have enjoyed and used the newly created spirit of our 2016 national players. And now I really don’t understand why a trainer without necessity has to dismantle a team endowed with great spirit, emotions and decision-making skills,”said Geerken.
According to Geerken, Prokop is surely a good club coach, where the team follows him out of a certain familiarity. But the European Championships with the clash of the best coaches and players on the continent are something else.
DHB Vice President Hanning does not rule out a separation from Prokop after the main round’s end at the European Championships “We would like to continue with Christian Prokop. I hope that we will not arrive at a different assessment of the situation,”said Hanning in the ZDF sports studio and announced a detailed analysis with the coach and the Players’ Council:” We will work this out critically and honestly over the next six weeks.