Zitat:
Zitat von adham
... As you know, post treatment of rubber is illegal (to treat a rubber after it leaves the factory). The ITTF noticed a lot of post-treatments by players and also by distributors. The Board of Directors asked the Equipment Committee to find a solution. After some testing and some analysis the Equipment Committee established the minimum friction level of 25mN to detect and make illegal such rubbers. ...
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@Adham
In my humble opinion,
establishing "the minimum friction level" by the Board of Directors is illegal. Even if it was designed "to detect and make illegal" post treatment of rubber. The latter is still questionable to me, but let us concentrate on the main point.
Only Annual General Meeting (AGM) has the right to establish the minimum friction level, not the Board of Directors. This is the central point. If AGM had made the decision (75% majority of all the 205 National Associations required), it would be legal, but AGM didn't do that. What we actually have, is a decision of the Board of Directors only.
Now let me explain,
why AGM only has the right to establish the minimum friction level, not the Board of Directors.
According to ITTF Constitution in the ITTF Handbook, "
Amendments to the Constitution and the Laws of Table Tennis shall be made only at a General Meeting" (
http://www.ittf.com/ittf_handbook/ittf_hb.html, 1.20.03).
And establishing the minimum friction level is in fact
an amendment to The Laws of Table Tennis. ("The Laws of Table Tennis" are described in the Chapter 2 of the ITTF Handbook.)
I said "
in fact", because in "The Laws of Table Tennis" there is no mention of "
friction level" at all. We can only find it in the Technical Leaflet T4: "
Friction for pimples out. The minimum friction level is 25 mN" (
http://www.ittf.com/ittf_equipment/p...ings_2007+.pdf).
Let me explain why establishing the minimum friction level is in fact an amendment to "The Laws of Table Tennis".
The description of the table tennis racket is given in the Chapter 2.04 of "The Laws of Table Tennis". There is no word there about any friction level of rubbers. That clearly means, that
any friction level is legal. That's why all the "frictionless pimples" were authorised by ITTF and had ITTF Logo. A change from "
any friction level" to "
certain friction level" is an amendment to "The Laws of Table Tennis". And this amendment is exactly, what the Board of Directors has no right to do, but has actually done in violation of the Constitution of the ITTF. To me - clearly
illegal, regardless of where this amendment was placed.
I would greatly appreciate your comment on that.