Hello from ITTF President

[SpinDevil]

Hi there,

I think it´s quiet ridiculous that the past tournament, formally known as "World Championships" has not yet been renamed into "Chinese Championships with some minor Guests." When I take a look at the those who participated and ended up latest in the round of last 16, I get the feeling that the dates of table tennis events should be better timed. Most of those have played recently numerous competitions in the european leagues and thus I believe that they went literally on their teeth to this tournament.
Today I heard, that the chinese prepared 39 days for this event. This will never happen outside China as the european clubs will never suspend their best players for a long time from their contractural obligations.

I personally fear, that in the near future most players in european clubs will have to decide whether they want to become olympic or world champion or if they want to serve their contracts and earn money.

Past tournaments have shown, that european players, well prepared and in good shape can match their chinese counterparts (with the exception of female players). But when they face the chinese under these conditions they will never have a chance. I don´t want to blame the chinese, because they focus on those events where it counts in respect to public interest. But within the ETTU a process of rethinking should begin. Is it favorable, that the eurpoean championships takes place each year?? Wouldn´t it be better if the scouting and training system should be coordinateted througout all of europe???

If the europeans don´t react soon, they will loose ground in the competitive race. If India with it´s population of nearly one billion people wakes up, the europeans will have to take good care of themselves....

And the ITTF faces the problem, that outside China, the public will not be interested in watching "Chinese Championships" every two years. As a consequence the TV stations outside China will cease its broadcastings from these events.

The dominance of one nation can destroy an entire kind of sport, example: women sleigh......of no interest for other nations than Germany, they lost only one race during the past ten years.....

SpinOn

SpinDevil

[Tony_Iommi]

Good posting, Spin Devil. I like that you - in addition to just addressing the situation - also identified that action needs to be taken by the responsible authorities on the respective national levels. It's not the Chinese to blame nore the ittf.