The TTC Neu-Ulm triggered a tremor in the table tennis scene on Thursday (February 23, 2022) with its announcement that it would not apply for a license for the league but still wanted to compete in the Champions League. The club, which is run by investor Florian Ebner, puts pressure on the associations and at the same time puts itself on the sidelines.
The club and its best-known player Dimitrij Ovtcharov denounced that the penalties against the top players were disproportionate and also criticized the role of TTBL supervisory board chairman Andreas Preuss, who is also a manager at Borussia Düsseldorf. An arbitral tribunal will now clarify whether the ban and in particular the point in time at which it is banned against the players is justified.
Statements by the investor not tenable
According to their own statement, they could not wait for this decision: the club did not apply for a license for the Bundesliga. The second accusation, in the direction of the TTBL and Borussia Düsseldorf, is easy to refute. Because these double roles as with Preuss are common practice in top-class sport – the best example is DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke, who also acts as managing director at Borussia Dortmund.
Neu-Ulm nevertheless criticized the alleged conflict of interest. What the club hides from its allegations: he voted for it himself. “Andreas Preuss was unanimously elected by the clubs, including the vote from Neu-Ulm”, emphasized both Düsseldorf and the TTBL. The DTTB also assessed the allegations in the person of President Claudia Herweg: “It is inappropriate that the conflict is being conducted on a personal level. Andreas Preuss has earned his reputation through excellent work.”
Club entered the Bundesliga via wild card
Neu-Ulm is still relatively new: media entrepreneur Ebner founded the association in 2019 and put a lot of money into it. He applied for participation in the TTBL by wildcard. The TTC also got into the Champions League via wildcard. At that time, those involved saw the chance to advance table tennis in Germany.
Four years later, this goal has failed miserably: the TTC Neu-Ulm has neither a large youth base nor a base of lower-class teams. National coach Jörg Roßkopf emphasized in the Sportschau interview last summer: “It’s important not just to buy blindly, but to develop something out of it.”
TTBL Managing Director Stehle: “Neu-Ulm is not about the league”
No doubt: You cannot survive in the TTBL without a major sponsor or investor. Almost all clubs are on the road with a big sponsor as financier. But the clubs promote young people and support – and they respect the league rules.
According to TTBL Managing Director Nico Stehle, Neu-Ulm does not do exactly that: “They obviously don’t care about the league. They intentionally broke the rules. We had to protect our statutes.”
Club often with a different league line-up
If you look at the appearances of the top stars that Ebner lured to Neu-Ulm, this impression is confirmed: In the league, mostly three talented young athletes from Russia played, who have a middle-class Bundesliga level and were bought earlier.
TTC Neu-Ulm boss Florian Ebner
Top players like Ovtcharov, Tomokazu Harimoto and Truls Moregardh were used just often enough to qualify for the Final Four in the cup. In the Champions League, Neu-Ulm often had a completely different, significantly better line-up.
DTTB has to register Neu-Ulm for the premier class
From a purely sporting point of view, the TTC Neu-Ulm is only allowed to play the Champions League. Participation there depends on international sporting success – the club was in the semi-finals this year – and according to the statutes of the ETTU is not tied to league membership – a loophole that Ebner now wants to exploit.
Only the DTTB has to play along and register Neu-Ulm. The association confirmed this to the sports show and announced a thorough examination of the facts. There should also be a discussion between all those involved: “Hopefully that will be sorted out on Monday after the Europe Top 16 tournament.” At least Neu-Ulm made it clear: “We definitely want to finish this season properly.”
Way questionable, gaps pointed out
A conclusion of the dispute: The TTC Neu-Ulm and above all the investor Ebner have disclosed their own interests, but the manner appears extremely questionable. In any case, the image of the sport, the club and the league has suffered.
But all the quarrels have something good: Neu-Ulm showed obvious gaps, especially in the statutes of the ETTU. And the behavior may make you think about whether participation in the Champions League should not be linked to a league membership. Otherwise, another disputed topic, known from football, quickly comes to mind: the Super League.