HBL has increased the pressure on those responsible at the DHB and national coach Christian Prokop:”The only thing that can help people and Christian Prokop is success,”HBL Managing Director Frank Bohmann told SID. They will support Prokop “as much as possible, because this success is also extremely important for us.”
The continuation of the cooperation with Prokop is a “decision that we have to accept”, said Bohmann:”There is a certain risk involved, but the assessment of the topic would have been very ambivalent in the league”. We will continue to seek critical dialogue with the goal of success.”
Managing director Dierk Schmäschke of the SG Flensburg-Handewitt made a similar statement:”Now all those involved must pull themselves together in order to create a reasonable basis,”Schmäschke told the Danish-German daily Flensborg-Avis.
And Melsungen’s manager Axel Geerken, who had described Prokop as “overwhelmed” and “burned” after the main round’s end at the European Championships, said in the Hessian Lower Saxony General Assembly:”I still stand by what I said, but they will continue to support the DHB” We hope that it will be a successful World Cup,”said Geerken.
Ex-world handball player Daniel Stephan denounced the adherence to Prokop as a “glaring mistake”. He wrote in his Sport1 column:” It’s just not right at the back and front between Prokop and the team:”In the facts, all you can do is come to the conclusion that you have to take a leave of absence for Christian Prokop”.
DHB vice-president Bob Hanning had been decisive in the vote of the Prokop association. His power would have prevailed against the facts,”Hanning is unbeatable in politics. He placed his people on the board of directors, which he then convinced them to hold on to Prokop,”said Stephan.
Hanning had linked a continuation of his personal DHB involvement with Prokop’s fate before the vote.
“With the confession of Prokop, the unrest is not over, but instead the DHB has made itself vulnerable,” said Stephan:”Should the results not be forthcoming, you’re facing a pile of shattered material, and the whole situation is” not worthy of a German national team “.