Four Big Decisions for the Future made at the 2018 ITTF AGM

LIEBHERR 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad

Big decisions to drive global table tennis forward were made today 1 May at the 2018 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Annual General Meeting held during the LIEBHERR 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad Sweden.

The meeting chaired by ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT was attended by 135 associations who had unanimously approved that the 2020 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships be awarded to Busan Korea after Ekaterinburg Russia and San Jose USA withdrew from the race.

Both Russia and USA have declared their intention to bid again for the World Championships in the coming years.

Thomas WEIKERT stated “The entire AGM was impressed about the quality of the Busan bid. I am certain that our Korean colleges will do an amazing job at hosting an spectatcular World Championships that will inspire millions across the world to play and enjoy table tennis. We look forward to welcoming back USA and Russia  to again big for the world’s biggest table tennis event soon.”

For the first time the ITTF presented a Strategic Plan for the next six years to its members. The Strategic Plan which was accepted by the AGM combined the input of all global table tennis stakeholders with over 2 500 people taking the chance to add their input.

Table Tennis. For all. For life. This is the new vision adopted by the ITTF in its Strategic Plan which embodies ITTF’s overall strategy detailed in the 24-page document created with the assistance of Deloitte an internationally renowned consulting company. The key five strategic priorities that will form the pillars of ITTF’s direction are: Organisation & Governance High Performance & Development International Events Promotion & Revenue.

The ITTF presented the ITTF Foundation which will be tasked to evolve our award-winning Development program with a strong focus on Corporate Social Responsibility activities to promote solidarity through table tennis.

WEIKERT added “Today was a historic day for the ITTF. My Executive Committee and I are very happy with the key decisions made by the AGM. Our team has been working hard for positive change to take the ITTF to the next level. We believe that these four decisions will have a profound impact on the ITTF in a myriad of different levels.”