HB Ludwigsburg is facing the end – and thus also the German national handball team.
“We have no idea what happens now. We all have to collect all right now and don’t make it too quick,” said DHB leader Xenia Smits of the “Bietigheimer Zeitung” after the double winner had noticed on Monday evening that he was missing the economic basis in order to continue to bind the players to their existing contracts.
This should break down the sporting figurehead of the women’s handball Bundesliga (HBF)-of all people in the year in which Germany is the co-host of the World Cup (November 26th to December 14th) and women handball should experience another boom.
Ludwigsburg, which made an application to open insolvency proceedings two weeks ago, forms the basic structure of the DHB team of national coach Markus Gaugisch.
In addition to Smits, DHB captain Antje Döll, shooting star Viola Leuchter, right wing Jenny Behrend and the back room players Mareike Thomaier and Lena Degenhardt suddenly lack the perspective.
“Sure, I have a thing of the future, but my bigger worries and emotions are going towards my team,” said the 31-year-old smits, who probably has to look for a new club.
Handball: Smits feels “perplexed, stuck and very empty”
However, this could not be so easy, since the squad planning is “largely completed by most clubs” almost three weeks before the start of the season, as Smits itself says.
She feels “baffled, stuck and very empty”, Germany’s handball player in 2024 admitted to “SWR Sport”: “We are just at a loss.”
With her team, Smits has dominated the scene in Germany in recent years. The team won four championship titles (2022 to 2025), cup wins in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 as well as triumphs in the Supercup and in the European League.
In 2023/24, the team also reached the final of the Champions League. Until the end of the 2023/24 season, the team played under the name SG BBM Bietigheim before moving to Ludwigsburg and ran under a new structure.
The association is hoping for a continuation of the game. But it is clear that this – if at all – would be under completely different signs. The aim is to preserve at least a perspective for the women’s handball location Ludwigsburg.
Should Ludwigsburg actually open the new season in the Supercup Duel with the HSG Blomberg-Lippe on August 23 in the SAP Garden in Munich, then probably with a completely different, cheaper squad.
The start in the league is scheduled for a week later. The HBF had recently stated that the opening of insolvency proceedings would result in a deduction of eight points at the end of the main round.