German Federation's boss slams sports funding system: 'It's absurd' / News - Basketnews.com

Ingo Weiss, the president of the German Basketball Federation, slammed the sports funding system in Germany. Basketball, the 26th-highest ranked sport to bring a medal in the ranking, won the World Cup, while the number one sport did not bring a single medal this year.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The German national team showed beautiful offensive basketball in the 2023 FIBA World Cup and won the gold medal, defeating Team USA in the process. The country's basketball federation, however, is an afterthought in Germany, at least in the funding process.

Germany / Schedule

Germany Latvia81-79 USA Germany111-113 Germany Serbia83-77

The day after the victory that brought the first-ever World Cup gold for Germany, the federation's president, Ingo Weiss, highly criticized the PotAS (Potential Analysis System) system used to determine funding for sports organizations.

"For me, it is an absurdity that we have PotAS. An institution that certifies that German basketball has no potential," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "What happens? We become world champions and win the EuroBasket bronze with the men, and also have successes with the women’s national team and the junior teams."

The men's national team captured EuroBasket bronze in 2022 and won the FIBA World Cup this year. The women's team, meanwhile, placed 6th in this year's EuroBasket after not even qualifying for the previous five tournaments - the best accomplishment since 1997.

The PotAS system analyzes the infrastructure and the chance each sports federation can bring home a medal in the sport's world championships. The ranking is then later used to determine the funding each federation gets.

Athletics are placed 1st in the PotAS system with an 80.73% chance to win a medal, while table tennis (80.4%), equestrian (79.4%), canoeing (78.7%), and triathlon (76.94%) round out the top five. Basketball, meanwhile, is 26th in the ranking with just (46.94%). It's surpassed by seemingly smaller sports, such as fencing (54.37%), taekwondo (54.73%), gymnastics (54.78%), and golf (55.64%).

"Things are going excellent for us, even though PotAS has not certified any potential for us. As a result, we lose 250,000 euros a year, which hurts us," Weiss said.

Notably, Athletics, a sport in first place in the PotAS standings, did not bring in a single medal from the recently held World Championships. Javelin thrower Julian Weber finished 4th, while four other athletes finished 5th in their respective sports.

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