DEL club does not accept relegation

The German Ice Hockey League is once again threatened with a summer theater. The sporting relegation of the DEL founding member Krefeld Pinguine is having legal repercussions. The KEV, which has been struggling financially and sportingly for years, does not want to accept that the two-time champions should actually enter the DEL 31 as bottom of the table after 2 years of first division. Managing director Sergei Savelyev confirmed on Thursday that the club would appeal to the DEL arbitration court. “We have lawyers working on it. We need really strong arguments,” Savelyev said at a press conference. After the 1-6 defeat the evening before at Adler Mannheim and the sporting relegation, Savelyev cited “distortion of competition” as a result of the corona pandemic as the reason for the sports legal steps. “This is the most unsportsmanlike relegation in the history of the DEL,” complained the self-confident 25-year-old Russian. There have not been many relegations from the DEL since it was founded in 1994. Based on the American model, the Bundesliga successor is a closed system almost the entire time, as long as a club did not withdraw for financial reasons or had to go bankrupt - the penguins themselves prevented this with great difficulty only two years ago. The last sporting team to be relegated were the Kassel Huskies, but that was 16 years ago. The people of Krefeld cannot understand that there should be a relegation again in this season of all times, in which a number of matches were canceled due to corona and could only partially be made up. “There should never have been a relegation this season,” Krefeld’s assistant coach Boris Blank told MagentaSport on Wednesday. “As far as Corona is concerned, this season was worse than last season.” The reintroduction of relegation should have applied then, but it was overturned again - due to corona. What are the legal chances? Of course, Krefeld doesn't want to appear as a sore loser. They point out that in the end they will have played all 56 preliminary round games and played catch-up games at inopportune times with a very small squad - but not other teams. Just 24 hours before the difficult catch-up game against title contender Mannheim, the penguins had struggled in another catch-up game to win 3-2 after extra time against their rivals Schwenningen. “Today we were just tired, we couldn’t do anything anymore,” said Blank. The competitors Schwenningen (55 games) and Iserlohn (54) played fewer games until the end of the main round on Sunday and were sent into quarantine by their health authorities during sensitive phases. “We had eight to ten players sick or injured. Once healthy, the players had to play three or four games a week. We couldn’t compensate for that,” said Blank. It is uncertain whether the intended appeal to the DEL arbitration court will be successful. “I'm not a lawyer. “I can’t say what chances we have,” Savalyev admitted. But even in the opinion of the SVE players' union, the arguments from the bottom of the table cannot be dismissed. “You have to look at which team played how many games and at what point in time these games took place or were rescheduled,” said SVE managing director Christopher Röder German press agency . Nevertheless: The planning for the 2nd league had long since begun. Savelyev sees the Penguins as prepared for the coming season, regardless of the arbitration court's ruling. “Whatever happens, we will be prepared,” he declared. A descent with announcement Nevertheless, many of Krefeld's problems are also of their own making. The champions from 1952 and 2003 have been languishing at the bottom of the table for years. Last year, then-coach Clark Donatelli said he would be able to play for the championship this season. The American, who had long been on leave, only received a tired smile in view of Krefeld's modest opportunities in the industry. Just like Savelyev for his hectic squad composition with enormous player fluctuation. At least some professionals also admitted that the team was simply too bad. “That was absolutely embarrassing of us and reflected the whole season a bit,” said defender Dominik Tiffels and apologized to “the fans and the city”: “As a player, you don’t want to be part of something like that.”

OF Germany	SP	TV	P
1. Bremerhaven	51	160:115	104
2. Eisbären Berlin	51	180:132	102
3. Straubing Tigers	51	161:127	91
4. Grizzly's Wolfsburg	51	149:139	87
5. EHC Munich	51	152:129	86
6. Schwenningen	51	154:142	82
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DEL club does not accept relegation

A year ago, the Krefeld Pinguine sounded like they wanted to play for the title. The traditional club is now the first DEL relegated club in 16 years. The club has had problems for years. But he doesn't want to accept relegation and is planning legal action.

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