Invaluably good: The rise is too expensive for Bruck’s handball players. – Sports

It sounds a bit as if Martin Wild were telling stories from a time long gone. It’s only been a good two years since he and his Fürstenfeldbruck handball players did this completely crazy thing. To play in the second Bundesliga, although the sporting, organizational and financial requirements were not met. “Because we felt like it,” recalls Wild, the coach. Traveled to Hamburg for the Wednesday evening league game, took the train back at night and from there went straight to class. Because Wild is also a sports teacher – and he had to appear on time. He’s sure people will talk about it for the rest of their lives, “but looking at it objectively, you have to say: you can do it once.” But again?

The TuS Fürstenfeldbruck, an established sports club in the west of Munich, has been a handball figurehead for years, not only in the greater Munich area, but throughout southern Bavaria. Third division for a decade, now top flight. Second division adventures in the 2020/21 Corona season. And now the question of the second division arises again.

With three games to go, Fürstenfeldbruck’s handball players are second in the third division south, just one point behind leader Oppenweiler and one point ahead of pursuer Kornwestheim. The top two of the five third division groups go into the promotion round, which then play out the second division promoted team in two groups of five. Thirteen third-division teams have registered their interest with the German Handball Federation (DHB), five of them from the hard-fought southern squadron.

In terms of sport, the Bruckers are again so successful that they cannot keep up economically

In Fürstenfeldbruck, despite their sporting success, they have to ask themselves whether it would even make sense to play the promotion round. Because “we have developed a bit, but not decisively,” says handball department head Michael Schneck. There is neither a full-time managing director nor a sports director, sponsorship money is scarce and the venue is a school gym. In addition, the DHB has expanded the requirements, and so in future the second division clubs will also have to show an electronic buzzer for the timeout, an LED wall for advertising on the sidelines and a hall floor on which only handball lines can be found. That would mean that TuS Fürstenfeldbruck would have to get the appropriate carpeting and roll it out in the hall for every home game, dismantle it again and store it somewhere, Schneck outlines.

Elsewhere there is more. At TuS Vinnhorst, for example, the undisputed leader of the third division group North and particularly eyed by TuS Fürstenfeldbruck: In Falk Kolodziej, Matthias Hild and goalkeeper Stefan Hanemann there are three former TuS players under contract. Constance, Brucker’s long-time rival and currently back in league two, has long been working under professional conditions, says Wild: Arrival for the away game the day before, training sessions also in the morning. Of course, this is only possible if working players reduce their working hours and can be remunerated accordingly by the club.

HT Munich is striving to get into the third league, and the campaign for the greatest talents from the region has already begun

Wild, 44, has been the Brucker trainer since 2010. The sporting boom is also his work. He has been building new successful teams here for years. Even when six players left the club at the end of the previous season – including the most promising young talents – a newly formed squad then drove the club to ask itself the fundamental question again: Is the second division even possible in Fürstenfeldbruck? It doesn’t look like that. Schneck says the general conditions would probably not be sufficient. Next week you want to make a decision as to whether you would even compete in the promotion round. And Martin Wild also says, quite a bit disillusioned, that “unfortunately, the second division probably cannot be a realistic goal”.

It is clear that TuS Fürstenfeldbruck is again facing a major upheaval. Again, half a dozen players will dock elsewhere or quit altogether. Wild doesn’t want to say who that is, nor who the two newcomers who have already been confirmed are. According to SZ information, captain Yannick Engelmann will compete for HT Munich in the future, circle player Julian Prause is drawn to TSV Allach. Both clubs are Bayern league teams with ambitions. HT Munich – a syndicate of handball players from Unterhaching and Taufkirchen – confidently went through the preliminary round of the Bayernliga Süd and is currently leading the promotion round to the third division with a narrow lead. Korbinian Lex, the former captain of TuS Fürstenfeldbruck, has also been in action there since the beginning of the year. In coach Johannes Borschel, 39, he finds someone there with whom he last played for two years at TuS Fürstenfeldbruck. And Marco Müller, trainer at TSV Allach, also has a Brucker past: he was Martin Wild’s assistant trainer for years.

For the first time in years, TuS Fürstenfeldbruck could face serious competitors in the area, also in the fight for those talents who recently always found their way to Fürstenfeldbruck. “It’s a dangerous situation for us. We have to be on our guard in the long term,” says Martin Wild. HT trainer Borschel says: “Competition stimulates business.” It would be good for the entire region if there were more than just one third division team.