National coach Marco Sturm is worried about the future of German ice hockey and takes the DEL into his duty.
Marco Sturm is still hesitating. The national hockey coach is to renew his contract before the Olympic Games, but he is worried about the future of his sport. The 39-year-old demands more support from the German Ice Hockey League in particular.
“If you carry on as before, we won’t be among the top ten in the long term, it just won’t work,”said Sturm in an interview with the Sports Information Service:”You can see how young the other countries are, with us the league and the national team are getting older and older”.
If you want to bring in more Germans, you have to reduce the number of players who were not born in Germany,”said the coach:” Even the promotion license rule does not work as it should. We need to get more U20 players in the DEL to play, also constant. and we’ll get more players in the long run.”
In December, the U20 juniors missed their promotion to the Top Division for the third time in a row. Storm calls for quick solutions,”other nations did it ten years ago”. In order not to fall behind sports such as handball and basketball,”more German players need to be supported so that we get a better, healthier, faster league and national team”.
The former NHL professional receives support from DEB President Franz Reindl:”There are again more young German players who have the quality for the DEL,” Reindl told SID:”We have to think about the next steps now.
At present, the DEL clubs are allowed to contract eleven foreigners and use nine of them per match. This regulation has not been changed since 2012. Up to now, the DEL had always justified a further reduction in the quota of foreigners with the costs.
Because the number of German players is too small, they are too expensive for many clubs. Some clubs – especially the Fischtown Pinguins Bremerhaven and the Iserlohn Roosters – rely on naturalized foreign players.
Despite Storm’s doubts, Reindl hopes for the signature of the national coach under a new contract before the departure of the national team to Pyeongchang next Wednesday “We want a signal before the Olympics – for the team, but also for the fans”, said the DEB president.
Sturm’s current contract expires after the World Cup in Denmark in May. I hope that it will work sooner or later,”said Sturm,” I don’t know if it will work that fast.”
Sturm had taken over the post of national coach in 2015 and once again put the national team among the top eight in the world. He reached the quarter-finals at the 2016 and 2017 World Championships and also qualified for the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in the autumn of 2016.
The head coach of the DEB will bring together his 25-man squad in Füssen after the last DEL matchday before the Olympic break on Friday. After a three-day short training course, the German team will take part in a dress rehearsal on Tuesday in Kloten against Switzerland.
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