That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Especially since the results of the German Nationalteam has been abysmal over the past decade.
At Nagano Germany finished 9th, 30 years ago in Sarajevo we finished 5th. For this years Olympics Germany reached a new low point by not even qualifying!
Yes it has been a LONG way... to the bottom! And that's where we hope we are, and that from here on (with the new DEB presidency) it will only go up.
Tha national team most certainly hasn't been abysmal over the last decade, that would be an absurd claim. Yes, the last tournament was bad, as was missing the Olympics, but Germany most certainly wasn't on its way down.
It's funny, one or two bad years and "we are doomed". Yet whenever everyone else who is roughly on the same level as Germany has such a stretch no one who criticises the German team bothers to mention it. Belarus managed to reach the quarterfinals this year and even had a chance to win it, but where did they finish the three years prior to that? oh that's right, 14th, 14th and 14th place, terrific
You can do the same for virtually every team, heck if you take the period around 2010/11, Germany fared better than any of its competitors.
In the last decade, Germany made it to the semi-finals for the first time since the knockout-round was reintroduced, we also beat Russia in the World Championship for the first time ever. To act as if Germany has somehow gotten worse and everyone else has only gotten better is ludicrous.
The results are what they have always been, some good years, some average years, some bad years. The difference to the 80s and older, is that there are more countries who have a solid pool of players.
