Champions League Women | 6 Sep 2022

Budaörsi Sport Club will start their 20th European season

The women's table tennis team of the Budaörsi Sport Club will participate in the group stage of the European Table Tennis Champions League of the 2022/2023 season in Linares, Spain, on 7th and 8th September.

During these two days, the current Hungarian champion will face the Greek Panthinaikos, the Austrian Bodensdorf and the host team, the Spanish champion, Linares. The goal of SH-ITB Budaörsi SC is to compete for the first spot in the group, which would probably require two feats, as the Greek and Spanish parties are extremely strong.

The team of Budaörs celebrates regardless of the results of the upcoming Champions League matches. In the fall of 2003, Budaörs played its first European cup match, and every season after that, it participated in one of the European Table Tennis Union's (ETTU) cup series. The 2022/2023 season is therefore the 20th international appearance in a row for Budaörs.

In every country and in every sport, it is rare for a sports association to set a goal for two decades and then be able to achieve that, this way making its team represent the club, the city, the sport and the country by participating at the highest level of professional sports. Having performed in 17 countries over the past 19 years, the team tried to achieve the best possible results, the most exciting trips being the ones to the Azores Islands belonging to Portugal and the three Russian tours to Kazan, Taganrog and Tyumen. Everyone who was part of these successes can rightly be proud of the silver and bronze medals of the Champions League, the silver medal of the Europe Cup and the bronze medal of the ETTU Cup.

Overall, however, the greatest pride is the constancy of the 20 cup seasons. The fundamental concept of the management of the Budaörsi Sport Club is that only players who are either part of the Hungarian national team or speak Hungarian at a native level can form part of the team. This direction was chosen by the club management for two reasons, on the one hand, with the aim of being able to professionally help Hungarian table tennis with its activities, by enabling the players of the Hungarian national team to play high-level international matches in a domestic association, and on the other hand, to strengthen the community by being able to talk in Hungarian with each other before, during and after the matches. With this attitude, the Budaörsi Sport Club really feels that it represents Hungary at the forefront of European table tennis.

There were several occasions that could have upset this creed, however, the club – as it did in the last 19 seasons – starts the current 20th season in accordance with the above-mentioned concept.

For this success story to reach its 20th year, the club had many partners; thanks to the presidency of the Budaörs Sport Club, the Municipality of the City of Budaörs, the Hungarian Table Tennis Federation, the 2i Kft., the SH-ITB Kft., the Mikrohungária Kft., the Butterfly Magyarország Kft., the Decathlon, the management of the sports hall of Budaörs and, of course, the sports managers, coaches and the players who have been members of the team for the past two decades. The goal of the team at each match is to represent its partners at the highest possible level in Europe.

The goal of the table tennis department of Budaörs for the next two years is to maintain its domestic and international success in a manner worthy of the previous years, especially in the centenary year of the Budaörs Sport Club in 2024, and to relive the incomparable feeling of its athletes qualifying for the Olympics. The club will do everything to ensure that after Tokyo this can happen again in Paris in 2024.

The women's table tennis team of Budaörs has proven with its results, professional concept and perseverance in the past nearly 20 years that it represents a value that is worth supporting. In order for the association to be able to achieve the its goals and maintain this high level, it is essential for new partners to be involved in addition to the current sponsors.

The Budaörsi Sport Club celebrates its 20th appearance on the European level as a real festivity.