Kristijan Pejinovic (President TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen): "We want to pull something off in the play-offs".
After a one-year abstinence, former champion TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen in the Table Tennis Bundesliga is already determined as a participant in the play-offs of the TTBL. In an interview, club president Kristijan Pejinovic takes stock of the season so far, talks about personnel matters at the Oberschwaben club and, as a member of the TTBL supervisory board, also about the issue of promotion.
Kristijan Pejinovic, the TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen are facing top matches in the table tennis Bundesliga at the end of the main round against Post SV Mühlhausen and at 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT. Are these matches, which can almost be called "play-offs light", already a meaningful test for the real play-off round in the TTBL?
No, I don't think so. I assume that none of the teams will be at their best in these last matches, also so that one or the other player can be spared for the play-offs. That's why I don't think that these matches will be decisive for the play-off round.
In the last two matches, the final positions behind the already determined main round winner Borussia Düsseldorf are at stake. Do tactical considerations regarding a possible semifinal opponent or just the avoidance of certain constellations play a role?
I think that because of the tight schedule, which no one is happy about right now, one or two attractive matches won't take place, but that has less to do with tactics or strategy and more to do with the fact that this is a time to freshen up and prepare for the playoffs. In addition, all the play-off participants and candidates already know each other inside and out, so there's not much room for tactical maneuvering.
Whatever the outcome of the games, your team is sure to be in the playoffs. How important is that for your club after being a spectator in the final round last season?
The play-offs are always important for us, so we're very happy to be back. It also means we've achieved our second goal of the season after participating in the Final Four in the Cup.
Is it already possible to draw a well-founded interim conclusion of the season?
If we can tick off both of our main goals at this point in time, we can already speak of a successful round overall.
What will your team be aiming for in the play-off round?
After the hard work of the past few months, of course you also want a free skate, and we'll do our best to achieve that. We want to achieve something in the play-offs. But whether we succeed will also depend on which players are available to us, who is injured or not, who is fresh enough or overtired. After the recent hard weeks for the players, you can at least recognize some phenomena that you don't like so much, but you have to gradually come to terms with these circumstances and partly also make friends with them. But we want to look positively ahead and see that we conjure something on the parquet.
In Ochsenhausen, too, personnel planning is as much a part of the second half of the season as spring. Was the contract extension with Can Akkuzu at the beginning of the month also a reward for his remarkable improvement in the second half of the season?
Of course Can Akkuzu is an important building block for us. He's a homegrown player, so we didn't want to make so many changes and would rather build on that.
Among the personnel matters in your team is the "Kanak Jha case". At the beginning of the last week in March, your player was suspended retroactively for one year until December because of missed doping tests. How did Khanak Jha take the decision and how will the TTF deal with the situation?
Of course I am very sorry for Kanak and our team. Ultimately, he was also an important building block for the current season. We will see how to plan further, how he plans further. Of course, we had to come up with other options, because until recently you couldn't be sure what would happen either. In this context, however, our team deserves special respect for the fact that it has been able to get along without Kanak for such a long time and is coping well.
What can you say about Ochsenhausen's further squad planning for the new season?
Certainly squad planning is an important keyword for us at the moment, as it is every year at this time. We are already in many talks. At the moment we can't say anything concrete, but we will be able to share news in the near future.
You are also a member of the TTBL supervisory board. The league can't be satisfied with the fact that once again no second-division team wanted to be promoted and as a result there are only eleven teams in the TTBL instead of the scheduled twelve. Is that a snapshot or is it a structural problem?
On the one hand, it is a snapshot. But it doesn't mean that basically no one wants to move up, because there are interested parties. On the other hand, we on the Supervisory Board are aware that there is definitely a structural problem. However, table tennis is not alone with this problem; it also exists in other sports. Of course, we are looking at how we can build bridges, and we have been dealing with this issue for quite some time. We've already made some progress, for example by integrating doubles into our system at the request of the second-division clubs. In the recent past, there have also been promoted clubs, such as 1. FSV Mainz 05, which we are very happy about. I'm also sure that clubs will be promoted again in the future. The hurdles for this are certainly somewhat higher, but these hurdles also exist in basketball or ice hockey. It's not easy to make it from the second to the first division, because once you've qualified, you have to overcome a whole range of other challenges. Of course, we're always trying to lend a helping hand, and we're also looking at what else will be needed in the future. I am sure that we will also achieve positive results with this.