The 2022 ETTU Congress was held today in Holiday Inn Westpark Hotel Munich on the occasion of the 2022 European Championships. The meeting was chaired by Acting President Pedro MOURA in the presence of 45 Delegates including four online and ITTF President Petra SORLING and Secretary General Raul CALIN.
In his opening speech ETTU Acting President Pedro MOURA addressed the participants:
“I do so in my capacity as Acting ETTU President. but I stand here representing the whole ETTU Executive Board. We are one team and we have been working hard together over the last five months to ensure we continued to take our sport forward in difficult circumstances.”
He reminded the delegates that the Executive Board decision to not allow Russian and Belarusian players and officials within competitions was in line with the International Olympic Committee and the ITTF and in solidarity with Ukraine and the Olympic Movement.
“These were not easy decisions. Any decision that stops an athlete from being able to compete cannot be taken lightly. But we agreed that it was the best course to take in order to protect the athletes and ensure the integrity of our ETTU competitions. It also showed our support for Ukraine athletes something we have maintained to this day and that we have committed to for the rest of this year and next year.”
“I wish to give a special warm welcome to Ukraine Table Tennis Federation President Alexander ZATS. Thank you for being here with us. As you know we have set up a Crowdfunding Campaign to raise much needed funds which will allow Ukrainian athletes to continue to compete at events this year and in 2023. I hope you will all be able to make a donation to this worthy cause and doing so help our beloved sport to survive in this important European table tennis country – Ukraine.”
ETTU have faced challenges and difficult decisions and we have continued to work hard to operate as close to normal as possible.
“Following the significant disruption in 2020 caused by COVID-19 ETTU was able to deliver all the competitions scheduled for that year with the exception of the European Youth Championships. We continued that momentum in 2021 and 2022 and delivered the complete package of our ETTU events in a remarkable and eminently successful fashion.”
ETTU was able to deliver all the Development Program activities during 2021 and now 2022.
As well as being proud of what we have done we have a huge amount to look forward to.”
First of course is the remainder of the fantastic table tennis competition here at the European Championships.
“As the first time our sport has been included in this prestigious event it is further evidence of table tennis as one of the most popular sports in Europe.
“Looking ahead to 2023 we are already working on our budget and plans for next year as we aim to tackle the challenges head on and turn them into opportunities.We are developing a balanced but ambitious budget which will match our ambitions for our sport.”
ETTU is planning to organise new events to fulfill the needs of the members including the Under-13 European Championships and potentially a new Europe Youth series.
Mr MOURA concluded his speech by congratulating Mrs. Petra SORLING for her election as ITTF President being the first woman to be elected for the job and showing how the table tennis community is really engaging the gender equality issue.
ITTF President Petra SORLING underlined very challenging times: “We have the war in Europe and the Pandemic is still present in the World. These challenging moments reflects on all segments of our sport but one of the ITTF Pillars the Unity is very strong.”
President SORLING was following on four pillars of ITTF Manifesto.
“Nr. 1 is to Unify the ITTF family. I am extremely proud of our cooperation with ETTU and very importantly with German Table Tennis Association. We made a very good agreement with DTTB to move on and we will have future events in Germany. In addition we agreed with Croatia to have World Para and Parkinson’s Championships.”
Munich was highlited once again as a good example for another ITTF pillar – sustainability.
“This is the city of no waste. We are trying to make our sport the same. We will encourage players in the future to use recycled equipment for example. And speaking of Governance we are constantly moving forward. This is a job done by Raul CALIN and also by ETTU but we can not do it without the help of the table tennis community and our members.”
Speaking of business growth President SORLING said:
“It is table tennis growth. It is not only about business and investors coming; we still own 100 percent of table tennis but we are looking for the investors come to bring the external money.”
ITTF President also pointed how much European Championships in Munich the Islamic Solidarity Games and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games are important for table tennis growth by giving the visibility among other sports.
“We are organising the World Championships and we are looking forward to Chengdu but we are also aware that there are lots of questions and doubts. An FAQ platform will trbe launched to answer all the questions.”
President SORLING congratulated ETTU and Germany to a very well organised Championship at the end.
The German Table Tennis Association Claudia HERWEG welcomed all the guests in Munich and praised a very good cooperation between ETTU and LOC Munich.
Congress accepted the EB Proposal for Team Events at the European Championships. The Round of 16 will be added so the winners and runners up in 8 Groups will proceed to the round of 16 and the Championships will be played seven days.
New European Under 13 Championships will be launched in 2023.
Badges of Honour were awarded to Belgium’s Jacques DENYS Serbia’s Aleksandar MATKOVIC Norway’s Sven-Erik NORDBY England’s Alan RANSOME Germany’s Jie SCHÖPP Hungary’s Krisztina TOTH Switzerland’s Nicolas IMHOF.
