Quote:
Originally Posted by kaiser matias
Oh I know. I'm aware of the situation behind the demise of Acroni, just pointing out that their most successful team by far, where nearly all national team players were from, is now defunct.
And is the government really funding hockey that much there? It seems most of their progress has come from outside the country, whether players leaving at a young age to play abroad (see Kopitar for example), or teams like Acroni (until their demise) and Olympija Ljubljana playing in the Austrian league. Though surely participation in the Olympics next year will have some positive effect.
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Well obviously they're able to produce players good enough to go abroad, Kopitar only played 2 years in Sweden before the NHL. In such a tiny country, they're not going to have the domestic league strength to be able to effectively develop top talent at that age no matter how much funding they are given. The standard of the Slovenian national league is terrible, because nearly 1/4 of the population lives in Ljubljana and Maribor, that's why Olimpija have to go to the Austrian league otherwise top players won't be developed.
