After being relegated from the German ice hockey league, the Krefeld Pinguine renewed their accusation of distorting competition.

Managing Director Sergej Saveljew confirmed the 1:6 (0:1, 1:3, 0:1) defeat at the Adler Mannheim on Wednesday, which made the penguins' last place in the table perfect at the end of the main round, before the DEL arbitration board wanting to pull.

Co-trainer Boris Blank also raged after the first sporting relegation of a DEL club since 2006.

"In a Corona season like this, there must be no relegation," complained the former international at MagentaSport.

“This season was worse than last season.

Last season the relegation was canceled and the season there is a relegation.

“We couldn’t compensate for that”

Although a number of games had been canceled this season due to corona and some could not be made up for, the DEL stuck to the relegation rule this season.

“We had eight to ten players sick or injured.

The players, when they recovered, had to play three or four games a week.

We couldn't compensate for that," Blank continued to complain.

The strain was enormous again this week.

It was only on Tuesday that the Penguins had delayed relegation by beating their direct competitor Schwenningen 3-2 after extra time.

Only one evening later, in another catch-up game in Mannheim, the strength for a coup was missing.

“No reproach to the team.

She gave everything,” said Blank.

"Absolutely embarrassing for us"

However, some players saw this differently and also pointed out their own omissions this season.

“Of course something like this is exhausting.

But that was absolutely embarrassing for us today and reflects the whole season a bit,” said defender Dominik Tiffels.

And striker Alexander Weiß said: "I'm sorry for the whole city, where the club is something like a religion."

Krefeld is the first DEL relegated since 2006, when the Kassel Huskies had to go down.

The Bietigheim Steelers were promoted last year and are the 15th team this season, but no club had to go to the DEL2 because of the corona pandemic.

The DEL and DEL2 had actually agreed on a relegation rule for the 2020/21 season.