Handball World Cup: Consequences for DHB team after corona chaos

The German handball players have arrived – and healthy too: the German team landed in Cairo on Tuesday, the countdown to the handball world championship in Egypt, which begins on Wednesday, is gradually ticking down, the hot phase begins. (Schedule of the Handball World Cup 2021)

The DHB team delegation went to Giza in isolation and moved into a five-star hotel not far from the famous pyramids. The players will hardly get to see the wonder of the world, for now they will only leave their hotel to train and for the three preliminary round matches.

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The fact that there will now be a little more space in the hotel because the USA will no longer move into their booked rooms in the same place is not much fun. On the contrary: even before the tournament starts, there is corona chaos on the Nile.

With the Czech Republic and the Americans, two nations canceled their participation in the World Cup after several positive results, thus confirming the fears of the critics.

Even more: the German opponents in the preliminary round Cape Verde, which, according to media reports, has been shaken by seven corona cases, could soon also be affected. And Brazil is also affected by seven corona cases. Will Germany end up in trouble? SPORT1 answers the most important questions about the corona farce.

How hard did it get for the Czechs?

Among the Czechs, a total of 17 people from the supervisory staff and team are affected by the corona virus.

“You are not able to travel to Egypt,” it said on Tuesday at a press conference of the association. “We saw no light at the end of the tunnel,” said association boss Jaroslav Chvalny.

Head coach Jan Filip said after the decision: “It hurts a lot, we were so looking forward to it.”

How did the US team get infected?

US national coach Robert Hedin confirmed to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenpostenthat 18 players in his team were sick with COVID-19. He was also infected. “It’s incredibly intense,” said the coach, who had wanted to start the journey hours before the ominous certainty.

“We’re sending twelve players to Egypt on Wednesday, but we have no defense,” said Hedin – and added: “But we have a goalkeeper.”

Hedin could not clearly answer how the infections came about. “We were tested the whole time. On Monday we did a quick test that was negative,” reported the Swede. There is a suspicion that a player who came from the USA brought the virus with him.

The US team played a friendly against Danish club Ribe-Esbjerg HH on Friday. One of the opponent’s players has now also tested positive.

The team nominated before the outbreak also included seven players active in Germany, but none of them is under contract with a first division club.

Who are the World Cup successors?

Instead of the Americans, for whom it would have been the first World Cup participation in 20 years, Switzerland is now playing in the difficult Group E against Austria and co-favorite Norway and record holder France.

Remarkable: For the Confederates, it is the first return to the World Cup in 26 years.

North Macedonia is stepping into the breach for the Czech Republic. The team will meet Sweden in Group D on Thursday, with hosts Egypt and Chile as other opponents.

What about Germany’s opponent Cape Verde?

The outsider, who apparently complains about seven positive cases, is preparing for the tournament in Portugal.

Should the debutant not be able to participate either, the German team would play against successor Netherlands. (Squad of the DHB team at the Handball World Cup 2021)

Even if there was a good mood in the selection of the German Handball Federation around national coach Alfred Gislason after the recently completed European Championship qualification: The recent development is thought-provoking.

“The big question that you have to ask yourself is whether this bubble can even be formed in Cairo,” said ex-international Christian Schwarzer on Tuesday evening SPORT1. “The teams can do it, but do you get everything else involved in the bubble? The NBA showed it. But they played in Disney World.”

Schwarzer added: “Should corona cases occur during the tournament, I don’t know whether and how the tournament could be ended.” The fact that the cases are massively increasing even before the start of the World Cup makes the matter all the more difficult.

How is the DHB team doing?

So far the journey has been problem-free. Upon arrival at the airport Kairo International PCR tests were carried out on all passengers in the bus on the tarmac, after which everyone went into isolation.

So far, all corona tests by the German delegation have been negative, it said. Worth mentioning: With Uruguay, Cape Verde and Hungary as well as the teams from Group E (Norway, France, Austria, USA) the Germans share one of the four World Cup hotels and live in the Marriott Mena House in Giza.

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The Corona issue is also highly sensitive in the German camp: The three German Champions League heroes Patrick Wiencek, Hendrik Pekeler and Steffen Weinhold had waived their tournament participation for private reasons and concerns about infection – and were criticized by keeper Andreas Wolff been.

Wolff, in turn, had subsequently traded in a rebuke from Gislason – and had him row back with regard to his statements.

The German squad had already experienced firsthand how quickly it can go with an infection when several players were caught immediately after the European Championship qualification in Estonia in November.

How is it tested, what happens to the infected?

According to the latest developments, one thing is clear: Entry into the tournament bubble will be a challenge for the nations concerned.

After arriving in Egypt, all nations will be tested for the corona virus according to the protocol. They then go into isolation until the test result is known. Anyone who can show a negative result counts in the bubble.

The Egyptian laboratories work quickly – test results are available within three hours. The tests are carried out every 48 hours, and infected players are apparently supposed to be flown out.

As the picture reported, the German association concluded an agreement with a company on possible return transports (up to 40,000 euros per flight).

What does the situation mean for the course of the tournament and the schedule?

A change to the schedule seems to have been no longer ruled out since Tuesday at the latest.

If a team has to cancel its first game due to corona, it would be rated as lost with 0:10 goals and 0: 2 points; if the team misses the second game, they would be excluded from the tournament.

In any case, quite a few observers are asking themselves the question: How serious can a World Cup start when a team arrives at the venue decimated in every second group of the preliminary round?

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With sports information service (SID)

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