DPA
Manila
The German basketball team is set to return home early Tuesday from their historic World Cup title won in the Philippines, amid an ongoing fight for recognition of the sport at home.
Sunday’s 83-77 triumph over Serbia in the Manila final was the only game broadcast in Germany on free TV as even the stunning semi-final win over the United States was shown only on streaming portal Magenta Sport, free of charge.
This led to wide-ranging criticism from officials and players led by captain Dennis Schroder, while German basketball federation (DBB) president Ingo Weiss also hit out at a new sports funding system in the country.
“At first we thought that the World Cup would be on TV. But only the final was on TV. Basketball is a great sport and I hope we will get the respect for what we have done over the last two years,” Schröder said.
“I would wish that every game is on TV,” the World Cup MVP added.
Public broadcasters ZDF said on Monday that the final in mid-afternoon German time was watched by 4.6 million people and had a strong market share of 35%.
By comparison, the 4-1 defeat of Germany’s football team against Japan the previous day in a prime time slot was watched by 5.85 million people, a share of 27.6%, according to the broadcasting RTL network.
Weiss meanwhile said that the first-ever global title showed that a new tool to determine the success and medal potential of 26 sports and with it how much funding each sport gets from the Interior Ministry (BMI) was not not working.
Basketball ranks last on the list topped by athletics.
The athletics team returned without a medal for the first time at a world championship last month while the basketball team followed up on a Euros bronze in 2022 with World Cup gold, and had been rated a World Cup contender from the outset.
“For me, it is an absurdity that we have PotAS. An institution that certifies no potential for German basketball. What happens? We become world champions and win European bronze with the men and also have successes with the women’s national team and the junior teams,” Weiss told dpa in Manila.
“We are doing excellently, although PotAS has certified that we have no potential. As a result, we are losing ?250,000 ($267,000) a year, which hurts us.” Olympic discus throw champion Robert Harting had struck a similar line on Sunday when he said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that “you can not shape sport in a political administrative style.
“If basketball players are now invited by the BMI or a similar political level, then this must necessarily be the death of the PotAS system,” Harting said.
