TTCLM: Pre-season ended without winner due to demolition scoring
No winner will be determined for the past 2021/22 season in the Champions League (TTCLM). The Executive Board of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) retrospectively decided on a final discontinuation of the past season. The German champion Borussia Düsseldorf, which had been the only finalist at the time of the interruption due to Russia's war against Ukraine and had therefore been proclaimed the interim winner of this year's top division by a later annulled decision, accepts the decision.
As a result of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the past 2021/22 season in the Champions League will finally go down in the history of the European premier league as a season without a title winner. After examining legal issues and consulting with all parties involved, the Executive Board of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) decided by a final decision to count the past season as canceled. The ETTU justified its decision with the protection of both players and participants as well as the integrity of the competition. German champions Borussia Düsseldorf, who as the only qualified finalist had been declared winners of the top division in the meantime and were later dismissed by the ETTU Sports Tribunal, have already accepted the decision made in an effort to have the Sports Tribunal's ruling recognized.
Preuß: Subsequent continuation "already purely technically impossible".
After the uncertainties about the validity of the exclusion of the Russian clubs Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and TTSC UMMC from Yekaterinburg before their decisive duel due to their country's invasion of Ukraine, the final course of action of the ETTU leadership had already become apparent in the past weeks. Even in the Düsseldorf camp, which had at no time laid claim to the title and had only ever pointed to a lack of foundations on several levels for possible matches against clubs from Russia, the club management had already reckoned with this most pragmatic of all possible solutions to the tricky situation. "In recent weeks, all arguments have been exchanged. The decision of the ETTU is not unexpected for us," explained Borussia manager Andreas Preuß for the record champion of the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL): "In the meantime, the clubs have other squads, have new players under contract, others for it no longer, so that it is already technically no longer possible to play the games. Now there is a verdict, and we accept that."
Düsseldorf had prevailed against 1. FC Saarbrücken TT in the semifinal duel of two TTBL clubs at the beginning of March. In the second semifinal, however, the second leg between Orenburg and UMMC had not yet been played when the ETTU suspended Russian teams from its competitions because of Russia's war. The ETTU Sports Court declared this decision inadmissible, but all model considerations for a staging of the outstanding semifinals and the final, regardless of ethical and political reservations, also remained in practice as unfeasible thought games.
2022/23 stage phases already drawn without teams from Russia
For the upcoming season in Europe's most important club competition, the ETTU has renewed the exclusion of Russian clubs. A decision of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on a comparable case in soccer significantly supports the position of the continental governing body. In the meantime, the draw has already taken place for both TTCLM groups in stage 1 and stage 2 without teams from Russia.