AThis Monday (3 p.m.) the Fraport Skyliners will play their final home game of the season against Würzburg. In all probability it will be their last basketball first division match for at least one season in the ball sports hall. Because the 71:86 on Tuesday evening at the third-to-last Braunschweig showed, to the horror of those responsible for the Skyliners, that the premium class is currently a size too big for the Frankfurt team.
As with the 107:113 at home against the last Bayreuth, the team of coach Klaus Perwas was not ready in a disastrous first half to defend themselves with all their might against the impending crash into the second division. “Unfortunately, it was the second time in a row that we weren’t there in the first half. You can’t win a game the way we defended and our attacks went well,” Perwas complained about the poor performance of his staff.
The only way the Skyliners can avoid relegation is to win all of their remaining three games. Only in their current condition that hardly seems to be affordable. Especially since Frankfurt has never been successful three times in a row in this round. In addition, the Braunschweigers would have to lose each of their three games. In the overall view, everything points to the ugly perspective of second-class status for the designated relegated team.
Skyliners as serial relegators
The frustration is great in Frankfurt: The team “missed everything that you need in such games,” said managing director Yannick Binas on Wednesday of the FAZ. “As an organisation, we probably didn’t manage to make the players aware of the importance of these games. In any case” they would have “missed the character in these two games”. For Binas, it’s now about “showing three times what we want to stand for in Frankfurt basketball”. The players are now “obligated to show that they can do it differently,” demands the managing director and spoke of a “question of character. If not for themselves, they must burn for the club.”
The Skyliners will probably be relegated to the series. Already at the end of the previous season they were no longer good enough for the highest demands. Thanks to a wildcard, however, Frankfurt was still one of the 18 best basketball clubs in Germany. The 700,000 euros that the Hessians had to spend on the Joker will now turn out to be a bad investment: instead of having successfully designed a new construction with the help of the second chance, the Frankfurters will now go further than ever before in their 20+ years -year club history thrown back. It is very likely that the Pro A division of the second division will be the new home for the 2004 German champions.
He is currently “not assuming that there will be a wildcard for the coming season,” said Binas, who “sportingly” expects “two climbers”. This time, seven second division clubs have applied for a Bundesliga license. And other “back doors”, according to the managing director, are “not an issue” for the Skyliners. The people of Frankfurt would face their unusual challenge. “There’s no question that we’ll continue in Pro A if it goes there,” says Binas.
The Hessians have applied for the license. Without going into details, Binas announced that the budget would “definitely be significantly reduced”. Despite this, the Skyliners would seek immediate resurgence. “That has to be the goal, just for the structures we built in Frankfurt.” But Binas warns: “That would definitely not be a sure-fire success, just because of the play-off system in this league. It’s a big undertaking.” Before the final 34th day of the Pro A main round, Vechta leads the table ahead of Tübingen, Karlsruhe and Giessen.
The Skyliners will sign a new coach. There are candidates, but no talks have been held yet, says Binas. Does the manager continue? “We’ll talk about everything after the season and take a look.” There will be plenty to talk about. To ensure a carefree future, the Skyliners made too many mistakes when it came to filling the coaching position – Geert Hammink had to leave in mid-March – and putting together the team.
