Recently, the incident regarding Fan Zhendong's withdrawal from the international rankings is still fermenting. In response, the WTT World Alliance also gave a response, stating that fines will be imposed for non-participation, and this was not recently made public but was established long ago. Soon after, Fan Zhendong responded on social media, saying that he had never been officially informed that withdrawing from the competition would result in a fine, and he also wished the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) all the best. As an Olympic champion, Fan Zhendong is not afraid of any issues and is using his own strength to defend the honor of athletes.
Currently, this matter is still fermenting. Recently, ITTF President Søren also threw blame during an interview with reporters, expressing great surprise at the withdrawal of two Olympic champions, Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng, and stating that no official response has been received from the Chinese Table Tennis Association. The ITTF's response directly shifts the blame to the Chinese Table Tennis Association, as it is simple to see that there are three parties involved: WTT, the World Table Tennis Federation, and the Chinese Table Tennis Association. Now both WTT and the ITTF claim they were unaware, so where did the documents come from? We await the Chinese Table Tennis Association's response.
It should be noted that Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng are both main players of the national table tennis team. This year, they both won the singles gold medals at the Olympics, helping the national team win a total of five gold medals. Their significance to the national team goes without saying. Liu Guoliang, who is the chairman of the ITTF, is also the second-in-command, a board member of the WTT, and the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, holding important positions in all three roles.
Now, Fan Zhendong's post is undoubtedly slapping in the face of openly challenging these three institutions. Currently, many local media outlets have begun to support him on social media platforms, believing that WTT's commercial matches should focus on athletes rather than enforcing participation through increased penalties, which defeats the purpose of the competitions. At the same time, the long-term sponsors of WTT have been exposed.
It is reported that WTT is controlled by the ITTF and operated by a professional sports event company as a tour event. The event was established in 2021 and aims to enhance the commercial value of table tennis, in other words, to make table tennis more professional. However, WTT's current commercial operations are not doing well, with only four long-term sponsors, all from China. But according to the latest report from CCTV, WTT's annual income is as high as 60 million, yet the players' bonuses are very low, and athletes must pay their own expenses to participate in WTT events, covering their own airfare and hotel costs. For lower-ranked players, participating in competitions means they have to pay out of pocket, just as Måregeard said, considering travel and accommodation costs, if they cannot reach the quarterfinals, they will lose money. If Måregeard is like this, one can imagine that other players are also being severely harmed by this rule.
In summary, the ITTF's response has undoubtedly shifted the blame to the Chinese Table Tennis Association, as both the ITTF and WTT have spoken up. As the third party, the Chinese Table Tennis Association urgently needs to respond to the outside world. Liu Guoliang, as the chairman of the Table Tennis Association, recently attended the opening ceremony of the 2024 Super League Finals and delivered a speech, but did not provide any response.