It has now been around a year since the 33rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund (DEB) a new presidium was elected. On May 7, 2022, Dr. Peter Merten for DEB-President elected; Andreas Niederberger, Marc Hindelang and Hauke Hasselbring complete the team. An eventful year lies behind the new one DEB-Leadership, and the recent events were particularly tough. The Deutscher Eishockey-Bund can look back on successful weeks in many respects: The German men's national team becomes runner-up at the 2023 IIHF World Championship in Tampere (FIN) and Riga (LAT), and the team secures the direct title by reaching the semi-finals Qualification for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo (ITA) and the association convinces the delegates at the IIHF Congress to award the 2027 World Championship to Germany.
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten looks back on a successful year for German ice hockey, the association and that DEB-Presidium.
What does the runner-up world championship title mean for the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund and what can the achievement be attributed to?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: “This is of course a sensational success and means tailwind for us in all our activities to promote ice hockey. Of course you have to ask where this great performance comes from and the team and the coaching team should certainly be mentioned here. We as the executive committee are proud to have appointed a coaching team with Harry Kreis and Alex Sulzer that fits the current situation and the team really well. After Toni Söderholm moved to SC Bern, the executive board decided that any interim solutions for the 2023 World Cup were out of the question and that we wanted to immediately look for a new national coach. Christian Künast and Andreas Niederberger took the lead in the task. An excellent team of trainers was selected in coordination with the executive board and the responsible committees. All I can say about Harry is that he will be part of our new management team DEB fits very well with his skills and characteristics. He has a lot of ice hockey experience, which often saves a thousand words. The team understands him and he worked brilliantly with Alex Sulzer and Pekka Kangasalusta as a team during the World Cup. Harry built on what he found, but also provided crucial input. He put the team together, adjusted the team perfectly in each of the World Cup games and found the right connection with the team. Or, as Harry says: Everything came together. "
At the same time, the men's national team managed to qualify directly for the Olympics - how should this success be classified?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: “This success is very high, especially because we currently have a young team and many of these players have the opportunity to play in Milan and Cortina in 2026 and also at the home World Cup in 2027. In addition, it is also great advertising for our sport and we hope to attract more children and young people to ice hockey.”
Another milestone is the award of the 2027 World Cup in our own country. Why could she DEB-Put the application through at the end?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: “After taking office in the new executive board, we decided that we wanted to manage the application process for hosting the 2027 World Cup internally, i.e. with our own team. Under the leadership of Claus Gröbner, reinforced by external specialists such as Christoph Mauer and the employees of mmsports, we have put together a powerful team. This team optimally planned and implemented the entire process right up to the final presentation at the IIHF Congress in Tampere. It was a good decision to set up the process this way. The application was very authentic and that ultimately convinced around three quarters of the delegates. The decision-making processes have run smoothly over the last nine months and the Executive Board has always unanimously decided on all important milestones, such as the selection of the World Cup arenas.”
What does a World Cup in your own country mean for the association and ice hockey in general?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: “It will be an exciting three and a half years with an increasing number of tasks and many decisions to be made. That is a lot of work. But if we do this correctly and in a focused manner, then we hope that the World Cup will be a sporting and economic success. The funds we generate can then be invested in the development of our young talent and in the women's and men's national teams in the following years, which will definitely advance the entire sport even further. As we know from 2010 and 2017, a home World Cup is a crowd puller and will certainly further increase the popularity of ice hockey in Germany.”
How should these successes be dealt with so that the association and the sport can benefit from them in the long term?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: “Three successes within one week, that was the best week ever for German ice hockey. In this respect, it is a great incentive for our “silver heroes” and also the players who were unable to take part this time to take part next time. The latter have seen that it is worth playing a World Cup and we of course hope that the best will be on the ice again at a home World Cup in 2027 and certainly also at the Olympics in 2026 and will play accordingly successfully. An equally important task is not to lose sight of the young talent and to promote and develop it together with the regional associations and the professional leagues.”
The Presidium has now been in office for a good year, what does the balance look like in retrospect?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: “We wanted to place our men's national team among the top eight teams in the world, and we exceeded this goal. We are currently number five in the world rankings. For the women, we wanted to stay in the top division, which we achieved by reaching the World Cup quarter-finals in April in Brampton (KAN). The women's team fought passionately and developed very positively. We hope that the new coach Jeff MacLeod will provide new impetus to place us sustainably in the top eight in the world.
We almost only achieved good results with the Young Talent teams. The women's U18 was promoted, the men's U18 was unfortunately relegated from the top division. All remaining U teams remained in the top divisions. It is important not to let up and to guide development in the right direction through appropriate expertise and the tailwind of the World Cup silver medal. All in all, we are of course very satisfied with the sporting achievements of the past season.
When it comes to sports policy issues, the 2027 World Cup bid was at the top of the agenda. We successfully implemented this goal in Tampere in May. In addition to these sporting and sports policy goals, we have also set ourselves organizational, structural and economic goals, which we are continually working on. In addition, there should also be close exchange and cooperation with the regional associations DEB leagues, the DEL and the DEL2 will continue to be promoted professionally. We are consistently on the right track here.”
What are the next goals of the? DEB?
DEB-President Dr. Peter Merten: After the game is before the game – the next one Deutschland Cup and the next World Cup in Prague and Ostrava in 2024 are coming up. We want to perform as well here as a team as we did in Finland and Latvia and of course we hope that we get the chance to be at the top again. We want to continue to improve on the women’s side and qualify for the 2026 Olympics. Our goal with the young talent teams is to continue to be at the forefront of the world.
ParaIn addition, we want to further expand our coaching training to the high level we have achieved and train more qualified referees.
As far as the 2027 World Cup is concerned, we now need to create a project plan on how we want to successfully implement this major sporting event. Important first steps here are the establishment of a “WM-GmbH” and the composition of an organizing committee.
We are currently planning some measures and campaigns with our sponsors and partners. For example, there will be a Media Day in Mannheim on July 17, 2023, where national players will be available to our supporters for shoots and interviews.
At this point I would like to say on behalf of everyone DEB I would like to once again thank all supporters, partners and sponsors, as well as politicians at federal, state and city levels for the good and trusting cooperation, without which the above-mentioned successes would not have been possible.