Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and where there are rivers and lakes, there are grievances.
But the ITTF recently made this "ghost fight" grievance, although I just learned about it, it is certainly not the last one to know.
Speaking from the beginning, the "Gong Douju" "titled" by ITTF took place between the ITTF Executive Committee and ITTF President Thomas Wickert.
The core of the story is somewhat clichéd, and it revolves around the struggle for power from beginning to end. What attracts people’s attention is that it is the ITTF’s official “spoiler” that makes the plot of this “power struggle drama” change from “secret fighting "Towards "Ming Zheng".
On the 22nd, Beijing time, the ITTF issued a statement on its website and official social platforms to publicly challenge the current chairman Thomas Victor: "Most members of the ITTF Executive Committee regretted that they had already complained to the ITTF. The chairman has lost trust, confidence and support. Therefore, everyone agrees that before the next annual meeting, all decisions should be made by the executive committee with a majority vote."
In other words, the Executive Committee decided to "remove" the current ITTF President, cancel his exercise of relevant powers and be replaced by the Executive Committee, until a new chairman is elected at the next annual meeting.
Subsequently, the ITTF released a message on its official social platform to announce to its member associations that the 2021 Annual Congress will be held on September 18 this year, and the members will be notified six months in advance.
The ITTF President, Executive Vice President and Board of Directors will be elected at this annual meeting.
Subsequently, the ITTF website also issued a news announcement, in which it said: “In view of the various challenges and difficulties the ITTF has faced recently, the ITTF Executive Committee agreed to hold the annual meeting as soon as possible.”
The notice also stated that since the ITTF annual meeting in 2021 also includes the election of the chairman, executive vice chairman and board of directors, the ITTF nomination committee will formulate a set of election rules.
Also announced is the bidding process for the annual meeting and related activities.
The ITTF Executive Committee is really pressing every step of the way, and all its actions point to an important goal, replacing the current chairman Victor.
Anyone who pays a little attention to table tennis should not be unfamiliar with Victor.
In 2014, the Egyptian-Canadian Salara, who was in charge of the ITTF for 15 years, abdicated early, and the then first vice chairman Victor took over as the seventh president of the ITTF.
On May 31, 2017, at the ITTF conference held during the Düsseldorf World Table Tennis Championships, Victor defeated another nominee, the Belgian star Severus, and was re-elected.
Thomas Victor
However, looking back at the ITTF in recent times, it is not difficult to find that the head of the ITTF is almost "invisible". In many occasions, ITTF CEO Steve Denton has appeared on behalf of ITTF.
The "power" in the hands of the ITTF chairman may have existed in name before the contradiction became public, but this time, the ITTF Executive Committee did not even intend to give him a "name".
So far, someone must be puzzled. Why did Victor end up in such a situation?
In fact, as early as May 2020, ITTF Chief Vice President Khalil Al Mohannadi (Khalil Al Mohannadi) and Finance Executive Vice President Petra Sörling (Petra Sörling) used the form of an open letter. Questioned the leadership of the current chairman Thomas Victor and expressed his hope that he does not want him to run for re-election at the ITTF conference in 2021.
Thomas Victor
This letter was sent to ITTF members by the Swedish Table Tennis Association. The letter mentioned that “the leadership of a new chairman will provide new directions for (ITTF) members”.
Carrier and Thorin also expressed their concerns about Victor’s management of the ITTF in an open letter, including his response to the new crown pneumonia epidemic and his approach of “putting personal interests above the interests of the federation”.
After encountering the accusations, Victor used his power to dismiss Mohamad from the position of chief vice chairman.
However, this approach was opposed by the Executive Committee, which voted to reinstate Officer Mohamad, and at the same time decided to decide all important affairs of the ITTF in the form of a majority vote of the Executive Committee instead of the chairman's decision.
Prior to this, at the end of 2020, the German Table Tennis Association also sent an email questioning the financial status, contract details, equity distribution and ranking points of the WTT (World Table Tennis Professional League).
It is worth mentioning that Thomas Vickert is the former chairman of the German Table Tennis Association, so the outside world generally believes that this email helps Vickert to suppress the opponent's suspicion-because at the time the ITTF Chief Vice President Kari Al-Al-Mohamad, who was later fired by him and reinstated, is a member of the newly formed WTT board of directors.
Khalil Al Mohanad, Chief Vice President of the ITTF and President of the Qatar Table Tennis Association.
Image source: International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) official Weibo.
It is precisely because of this that when the ITTF issued a statement on the 22nd, it specifically responded to the doubts of the German Table Tennis Association: On November 18, 2020, the German Table Tennis Association asked the ITTF Executive Committee "seriously, Harmful and unfounded allegations", but were denied by the conclusion of the PwC investigation.
"The Executive Committee agreed today to send an official letter to the German Table Tennis Association, clarifying its position (which contains some recommendations), and give the German Table Tennis Association a satisfactory answer in about two weeks."
According to media reports, the executive committee’s dissatisfaction with Victor lies in the fact that after the world's table tennis was temporarily shut down due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, he not only failed to deal with it, but also had a problematic attitude.
At the end of 2020, the Men’s and Women’s World Cup and the ITTF Finals will be held in China, which also symbolizes the “restart” of the ITTF. This restart will be represented by ITTF CEO Steve Denton. The Table Tennis Federation made an appearance.
At the beginning of 2021, the World Table Tennis Professional League (WTT) led by Liu Guoliang hosted the Middle East tournament in Qatar, and the chairman of the Qatar Table Tennis Association was Khalil.
Data map: ITTF CEO Steve Denton.
Photo by Wang Xiaogen
During this process, Victor has not been seen.
Instead, just after this series of events were held, Victor, the president of the ITTF, spoke out and attributed the restart of the world table tennis tournament to "just because of luck."
Such inconsistent remarks naturally caused dissatisfaction from the outside world and within the World Table Tennis Federation.
So the ITTF Executive Committee chose to publicly call Victor and put pressure on him.
But Victor is not a fuel-efficient lamp.
At the end of the statement issued by the ITTF on the 22nd, the ITTF website also "at the request of ITTF President Thomas Wickert" with the following supplement at the end of the text: "ITTF President Wickert Announced that legal action was taken against the majority decision of the Executive Committee in the corresponding sports court, saying that this was an'unauthorized interference with its rights and a flagrant violation of the ITTF Charter'."
In other words, this power struggle may even go to court.
Thomas Victor
Some voices pointed out that this power struggle is actually related to the future reform of the world table tennis.
To put it simply, Victor's thinking is relatively conservative and he does not want to make too much adjustment to the existing ITTF system. This is obviously not in line with the drastic reforms of the ITTF in recent years.
The future development of this "gong fight" may have an impact on the future development of world table tennis.
On June 29, 2020, Liu Guoliang, chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, served as the chairman of the WTT Council.
Image source: ITTF official Weibo
On another level, in the ITTF's reform plan, the world table tennis professional league led by Liu Guoliang occupies a pivotal position, and if the reform continues, Liu Guoliang is bound to assume more responsibilities.
Unexpectedly, the ITTF ate and ate it, and even had a voice-over—just heard a thick northeastern accent shouting in the ear: "Also (hài) has a windfall"!