Foxes from Berlin lack assistance in engraving the championship trophy!
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Who needs a palace when you've got a championship trophy? Berlin’s Foxes have clinched their first German Handball title, but they’ve got a bit of fun work to do — engrave their name onto the trophy. It seems the champions are footing the bill for this honor.
In the aftermath of their thrilling 38:33 win over Rhein-Neckar Lions, the Foxes received the real deal, but the engraving was suspiciously absent. Instead, the champions were left celebrating with the inscription of 2024’s SC Magdeburg. Ex-National player and Foxes’ business manager Volker Zerbe (56) explained to B.Z., “It seems the champion always covers the engraving cost themselves. We're not complaining.”
The 925 Sterling silver piece, worth approximately 12,000 euros, measuring 46 cm in diameter, and weighing around 3 kg, was looked after by Fabian Wiede (31).
"I got to take it home after the party, it spent the night at my place," shared Wiede.
The Foxes' trophy's got pull
Nils Lichtlein (22) and Wiede transported the newly-acquired Berlin Foxes’ trophy, nestled safely in a Rimowa case, to the reception held by Berlin's Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner (52/CDU), in the Red City Hall. From now on, Zerbe will be responsible for safeguarding the silverware and its engravings.
Zerbe chuckled, "We can still afford that, we've only been champions once so far."
It's quite unusual for the winning team to bear the cost and responsibility of engraving their trophy. Even in the rules of the Daikin Handball Bundesliga (HBL), it's not explicitly stated that the champion, cup winner, or Super Cup winner must cover the engraving themselves. Oliver Lücke from the HBL management asserted, "The procedure for engraving is regulated in our guidelines. We haven't received any questions about this yet."
According to the regulations for the conduct of games in the Daikin HBL, it is stated in paragraph 3, section 10: ... the champion, cup winner, and Super Cup winner of a season must have the championship trophy, cup, and Super Cup engraved by the company Koch & Bergfeld Corpus, Hoerneckerstraße 33, 28217 Bremen. The engraved championship trophy, DHB cup, and Super Cup must be handed in to the HBL management at least 4 weeks before the last matchday, 4 weeks before the Final4, and 4 weeks before the Super Cup. If the trophy has any damage caused by the club after it was handed over, the club has to bear the costs for the engraver's work.
- The Berlin Foxes, now European champions in handball, will have to arrange for the engraving of their name on their trophy, just as they covered the cost for the recent German Handball title.
- Despite the unusual practice of champions self-funding the engraving of their trophies, the Daikin Handball Bundesliga regulations state clearly that the champion, cup winner, and Super Cup winner must have their trophies engraved by Koch & Bergfeld Corpus, Bremen.
