The German table tennis star Timo Boll and his club Borussia Düsseldorf have been dismissed by the European association ETTU as Champions League winners.
The ETTU justified the decision in a statement with the successful appeal of the two Russian semi-finalists to the ETTU Sports Court against their exclusion because of their country's war of aggression against Ukraine.
According to the ruling, club teams should not be treated as representatives of their countries.
ETTU Vice-President Heike Ahlert (Schleswig) told SID that the ETTU executive wanted to decide “as quickly and promptly as possible” on how to deal with the decision.
There is room for the termination of the competition, which would mean that the sports court ruling would come to nothing, at least for the time being, or a principle action at the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for a final rejection of the protests by Fakel Orenburg and UMMC Yekaterinburg.
However, according to Ahlert, the scheduling of the semi-finals for both teams and a subsequent final against Düsseldorf, ordered by the sports court, is "not an option".
Dusseldorf was declared the winner of the Champions League in early March, a week after Russia's war against Ukraine began, after beating Bundesliga rivals 1. FC Saarbrücken in the semifinals.
A final was not possible after the ETTU leadership excluded Orenburg and Yekaterinburg.
However, Düsseldorf and Saarbrücken did not want to play against Russian teams in the finals beforehand.
The sports court decision was not expected at Boll's club.
"We are very surprised, also because the overall situation has only gotten worse," said Düsseldorf manager Andreas Preuss when asked by SID: "We were already a very sad Champions League winner in March, but now we don't know at all whether we shouldn’t feel like winners again or not yet.”
For Preuß, compliance with the ETTU sports court ruling is out of the question: "I don't have the imagination for that and possibly for games in the new season against Russian teams.
In the current situation, one can hardly say that an understanding should take place through sport.”