As everyone expected, only day after the AGM, the ETTU Congress held at Hotel Marriott in Paris on May 16th, was under big influences of the ITTF Elections’ result. Delegates from Croatia, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland led the group that demanded addit,
As everyone expected, only day after the AGM, the ETTU Congress held at Hotel Marriott in Paris on May 16th, was under big influences of the ITTF Elections’ result. Delegates from Croatia, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland led the group that demanded additional items on the agenda with most of the questions directly addressed to the ETTU President Stefano BOSI.
Recent divisions coming up within ETTU family have been argued by DTTB President Thomas WEIKERT who complained scarce transparency and spent polemic words about budget, marketing and other financial issues. ETTU President BOSI returned accusations to sender reminding how ETTU budget has been regularly illustrated in any previous occasions by the ETTU Vice President for Finances Camille GONDERINGER, but also explained some difficulties due to the financial crisis and the hard moments many associations are passing through.
The lack of organizers didn’t make the situation easier of course, but President BOSI proudly defended the work the ETTU staff did in recent years as well as their professional skills. Regarding marketing, President BOSI reminded the delegates how almost all the sponsors of ITTF are coming from the Asia and IOC. Notwithstanding, the problem occurred with a third party not fulfilling their financial obligations was an unexpected problem that provoked complaints by Danish President Aksel BECKMANN for delayed payment of International TV rights revenue as regards to 2012 European Championships in Herning. Being the ETTU in legal process against defaulting partner, President BOSI hoped for a quick and positive solution.
“For sure this is not a easy moment – Stefano BOSI stated – but to exploit any opportunity to blame everything ETTU did and is doing doesn’t help at all. We’ve to recover a more serene atmosphere and unity of intents”. Indeed, ETTU also achieved some success meanwhile. After a year of heavy negotiations, table tennis was part of the first European Games to be staged in Baku in 2015. That will provide the National Associations a great opportunity and new resources ETTU intends to invest into development projects.
Most of the propositions on agenda in Paris are given now to further evaluation to the new expert group. The team of experts will prepare and study the documents regarding regulations of the European Championships, European Youth Championships, European Veterans Team Championships and Europe Top-12. Their work will be presented at the Congress in Austria during the LIEBHERR European Championships next October.
After the meeting, ETTU Executive Board nominated the the working group’s members: Mr. Nikolas ENDAL (ETTU VP – coordinator), Mrs. Heike AHLERT (GER), Mr. Anton HAMRAN (SVK), Mr. Oivind ERIKSEN (ETTU TC), Mrs. Sonja GREFBERG (FIN), Mr. Malcolm MACFARLANE (IOM), Mr. Vladimir SAMSONOV (players’ representative), Mr. Roman PLESE (ETTU Competition Manager), Mr. Maurizio EVANGELISTA (ETTU Marketing and Communication Manager).
The Congress approved the new European club competitions’ regulations for Women’S events. Greenland has been accepted as 57th member association of the ETTU.
