According to reason, whether it is from the perspective of continuity in national table tennis or the interests of WTT, keeping Fan Zhendong would be a beneficial decision without any harm. However, when the World Table Tennis Federation provided an opportunity and wanted the Table Tennis Association to mediate, one sentence from 191 turned the expectation into reality. He expressed support, understanding, and respect for the decision of Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, and Ma Long to withdraw from the world rankings.
The question then arises: as the chairman of the Table Tennis Association and the WTT board, why would 191 make such a decision that seems to have the greatest impact on him and the sport of table tennis? The answer is that Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng's departure aligns more with his current interests. As for Ma Long, since he is already in his thirties, even if he does not withdraw, the impact on him would not be significant.
However, there is something that doesn't make sense: if he is not considering the future of table tennis and the national team, then what is he considering? At this moment, a response suddenly appears, saying that 191 might have encountered problems recently and needed a large amount of funds to cover up the losses. Among the conditions for the Beijing team to protect him was the clause to force Fan Zhendong to retire.
If not, why wouldn't he even attend the negotiation meeting for the Doha World Table Tennis Championships? Why, after the Olympics, did he only go as far as Macau?
But if this were true, what is the Beijing team betting on? And what is 191 betting on? Does the Beijing team really believe that 32 can rely on covering up their mistakes to win either the World Cup or the World Table Tennis Championships? What he wants to do is manipulate the Singapore Grand Slam to be held in January to make a big comeback?
Here, I suddenly recall the dark faces at the Paris Olympics. They were so unhappy about Chen Meng winning the championship. Is it because Chen Meng disrupted their star-making plan or because Chen Meng caused them all to suffer a major setback?
Of course, these are all malicious speculations, so there are rumors that the failure at the Paris Olympics made 191 lose at least 50 million yuan. If this were the case, forcing Fan Zhendong to retire would be a way to achieve multiple benefits.
Firstly, he could obtain protection and security from the Beijing team; secondly, as a military man, Fan Zhendong would never accept match-fixing. Therefore, only by immediately eliminating him could his interests be maximized.
It should also be noted that according to the rules announced for the 2025 Doha World Table Tennis Championships, there will be 128 men's and women's singles positions and 64 pairs of men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles positions, with no wild card players participating.
This means that 191's previous statement that Fan Zhendong would represent the country with a wild card has become invalid. Even without such rules, people would not believe that the coaching staff would give Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng such spots, considering that Fan Zhendong won the championship at the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, while 32 came in second. Therefore, if they want 32 to smoothly win the world championship, they must first eliminate those unpredictable factors.
But what I'm thinking is, with the current crackdown on corruption in the sports industry, dare 191 still go towards the mountain with tigers, knowing that there are tigers there?
Finally, I want to say that all of the above are just speculations and cannot be taken seriously. Whether reasonable or not, everyone can just enjoy the show. If there is any infringement, I apologize in advance, please don't block my account!