Dispute in German table tennis
Neu-Ulm registered for Champions League despite Bundesliga boycott
3/8/2023 5:32 p.m
The “Neu-Ulm case” does not leave German table tennis in peace. It is still unclear whether and in which league Dimitrij Ovtcharov’s club will compete in the coming season. However, the Champions League participation is certain. The association announces that it will therefore change the rules.
The posse about table tennis Bundesliga club TTC Neu-Ulm leads to a sad precedent for international club sport. According to a decision by the Executive Committee of the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB), the test-tube team around national player Dimitrij Ovtcharov can, according to the current status, be the first team not to be tied to a national league system in the new Champions League season after renouncing a new first division license compete in a European club competition.
DTTB President Claudia Herweg justified Neu-Ulm’s report with formalities. Despite the unprecedented constellation, neither the DTTB regulations nor the regulations of the European association ETTU “offer a basis for deciding otherwise”. The association “definitely could not have won” a legal dispute over a refusal to report Neu-Ulm.
The head of the Cologne association emphasized her uneasiness and announced changes to the DTTB regulations for the season after next as a consequence of the “Neu-Ulm case”. The participation of a club in the Champions League without belonging to a national league is “certainly not in the spirit of team sport. I personally hope that we will be able to close the gaps in the regulations,” said Herweg with a view to the next DTTB Bundestag in November.
The stars have long since stopped playing in the Bundesliga
After its foundation in 2019, Neu-Ulm first bought into the Bundesliga and two years later into the Champions League without any qualifications via wildcards. The European Association ties the participation of clubs in the premier class solely to the Champion League results of the past three years and not to participation in a national game. By reaching the quarterfinals last season and taking part in the semifinals, the newcomer is guaranteed a place in the Champions League.
The license waiver was Neu-Ulm’s reaction to the suspension of its two top players Truls Moregardh and Lin Yun-Ju. A few weeks ago, with the approval of the TTC, both had served for other teams abroad against a ban on assignments for other clubs in a current season. Because Neu-Ulm sees the bans imposed by the league association as intrigues by the competition, the club announced its withdrawal from the Bundesliga at the end of February.
Before this season, the Neu-Ulmer signed the four world-class players Ovtcharov, Moregardh, Tomokazu Harimoto and Lin Yun-ju. They won the German Cup competition and were only eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League. In the Bundesliga, other players have been used for the most part for months. He has to decide by March 15 whether Neu-Ulm wants to register a team for the second or third division. The registration period for the regional or Oberliga ends on June 5th.