The European Table Tennis Union Extraordinary Congress was held in the Danubius Hotel Arena in Budapest during the ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open. All the guests were welcomed by the Hungarian NOC President Krisztian KULCSAR and Hungarian TTA President Roland NATRAN. The meeting was also attended by ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT and ITTF Executive Vice President for Finances Petra SORLING.
ETTU President Ronald KRAMER explained in his opening speech why this Extraordinary Congress was needed earlier than originally planned.
“With important discussions regarding the future of our sport ahead of us we have to see whether we in Europe are on the right track ” said KRAMER. “During the last year the ETTU Executive Board is worried about a number of issues mostly emanating form ITTF recent decisions and policy. The EB felt and still feels that European table tennis is not as highly valued and respected as it should be. In the history of our sport as well as in the present Europe is the power house of table tennis.”
On the main topic “Debate about the Future of European Table Tennis” President KRAMER highlighted five very important issues.
“The issues are:
– the effects of the new World Ranking for European players;
– the World Table Tennis Calendar and its impact on European table tennis;
– the new World Championships its Global footprint and the European Championships as Continental stage of the WTTC being also the qualifying event for the intercontinental and final stage of the WTTC;
– the importance of our European and National Club and Team Competitions;
– the European Games as Qualifying event for the Olympic Games.”
President KRAMER also elaborated all the topics and stated:
“The Global Footprint of the new World Championships can only be enlarged in Europe if ITTF encourages all National Associations to stage the home and away matches or smaller round robin tournaments in the first two stages. This is where you can attract local attention also for the smaller associations teams and players. In other words ITTF should provide adequate financial funding and much more World Ranking points for the first two stages of our team European Championships that are taking place as the Continental stage of the WTTC.”
