Other Events | 30 Apr 2014

SHARARA will retire as President of ITTF

“On September 1st I will step down and retire as President of ITTF,” announced Adham SHARARA today at the press conference held after the AGM.”I will take over the new position of Chairman and Mister Thomas WEIKERT, Deputy President will become President

“On September 1st I will step down and retire as President of ITTF,” announced Adham SHARARA today at the press conference held after the AGM.”I will take over the new position of Chairman and Mister Thomas WEIKERT, Deputy President will become President and occupy the position until the elections in 2017. According to Constitution he is the person to assume the Presidency and I can assure you that I will never retire from the position of President if I did not think that the Deputy President has the full capabilities, abilities and skills to take over this position as well as the full support of the Executive Committee and today the full support of the AGM.”

President SHARARA explained the reason for creating a new position in ITTF. “Initially this position was though about by the Executive Committee, because last year in Paris we had some criticism and some complains from the candidate running for President. The other candidate felt that to be President and Chairman at the same time and also being the candidate for the position of the President is unfair. “

In Paris SHARARA stepped down from position of Chair, but the solution for future had to be created. “We thought it is the best way to create position of Chairman independent from President. This position is not political; chairman cannot run for Presidency and cannot vote. This way the President is completely detached from running the AGM and Chairman cannot be the candidate for any position in the Executive Committee. We thought it is the best way to go forward and when Executive Committee agreed and we went with the proposal, very quickly I become interested myself with this position.”

This is not new tactic in business world, but very few sports associations practice  it. “Other the Chairing the AGM, this position will have two responsibilities. We will have to review the Constitution. Our Constitution is to be rewritten and it need time and focus to do it. Second one, is to deliver P5 Action plan. I have promised to Deputy President, who will soon become the President, that I will continue to do that work and then to handed to him and to his team to decide what to do with it. At least I have the responsibility to complete that work.”

Thomas WEIKERT, Deputy President, will stay on his duty in DTTB and he already spoke with all sides involved. “I am honored to get the job as President and certainly Adham did a great job in previous 14 years. There is much work ahead of us and I am glad that I will have him on my side. This is the challenge, our plans are big. We have 220 member associations and we want to have table tennis all over the world. Further development will be our major task”, stressed WEIKERT.