Deadline for the entry form is Thursday 24th October 2019
The first stage of the ITTF European Team Championships starts on Sunday 26th April 2020. The winners of the 2019 ETTC (men Germany women Romania) and the host of the final stage (Romania) will not take part in stage 1 and will proceed directly to the final stage of the Championship. The final stage will be played in Romania’s Cluj Napoca.
There will be stage 1 groups A B and C. There will be Groups A B and C and the composition of Groups A B and C will be announced no later than 2 months after the final stage of the previous Championships. There will be 18 teams in Groups A: 7 final stage quarter-finalists of the previous Championships (or 6 teams if the host of the final stage finished among these quarter-finalists but was not the winner) 8 final stage group runners-up of the previous Championships (or 7 if the host of the final stage finished among these teams); 3 teams finishing 3rd in the final stage group stage of the previous Championships with the best World Team Ranking at the moment the composition of the Groups A will be announced (or 4 teams if the host of the final stage finished among these teams).
There will be 6 groups each of 3 teams. They will play a double round robin with 2 home matches and 2 away matches. The 6 group winners and 6 group runners up will proceed directly to the final stage of the Championships. The position 3 teams will proceed to stage 2 to compete for the remaining places in the final stage.
All other entered teams that took part in the previous Championships will play in Groups B. There will be groups with 3 or 4 teams depending on the number of entered teams. The matches will be played with a round robin system during one weekend and one host per group. The detailed playing system for the B groups will be published as soon as the number of entered teams is known.
Depending on the number of groups 8 10 or 12 teams from the Groups B will proceed to stage 2 to compete for the remaining 10 places in the final stage (together with the 6 teams from the Groups A). The detailed playing system for and the number of teams from Groups B proceeding to stage 2 will be published as soon as the number of entered teams are known.
All other entered teams will play in Groups C. There will be maximum 4 groups. The matches will be played with a round robin system during one weekend and one host per group. The detailed playing system and the number of teams proceeding to Groups B will be published as soon as the number of entered teams is known.
Stage 1 dates:
A groups round 1: Tuesday 13th October 2020
A groups round 2: Tuesday 17th November 2020
A groups round 3: Tuesday 8th December 2020
B groups: Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October 2020
C groups: Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April 2020
The 2021 dates for the A groups rounds 4 5 and 6 will follow.
