In the table tennis district of Kleve, a dispute over the planned reform has flared up

Table tennis
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Trouble in the table tennis district of Niederrhein

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So far and no further – in the dispute over the structural reform, the table tennis net becomes a border fence.
Foto: Pixabay

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Kleve district The structural reform of the West German Table Tennis Association planned for 2023 is fueling the fire. The district board is divided because chairman Klaus Verburg is said to have voted against the will of the clubs for the plans.

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Around three weeks ago, Dirk van Rheinberg was unanimously elected deputy chairman of the Niederrhein table tennis district from SV Bislich. Only a few days later, the 46-year-old resigned from his position. Dirk van Rheinberg felt he was “betrayed” in the vote on the structural reform, through the decision of which the West German Table Tennis Association (WTTV) divides its association area into 13 new districts on July 1, 2023. He criticizes the district chairman Klaus Verburg from Kleve.

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In the run-up to the Association Day, which took place at the end of August, the associations were asked for an opinion, which resulted in a clear vote against the structural reform. However, not all district board members saw it that way. “It cannot be that our chairman is still voting for the reform with the vote made available by the district,” said Dirk van Rheinberg in an email that the editorial team had received. Verburg, who is also active in the WTTV Presidium, was not the only delegate who voted twice for the structural reform.

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“He admitted that to me and another board member. This vocal behavior is a kick in the buttocks for all district clubs that have given a clear mandate on the way. Here, personal interests in WTTV were put before those of the clubs, ”said Dirk van Rheinberg. He speaks of a breach of trust and sees no more basis for further cooperation. Verburg can understand that “not everyone thinks the WTTV decision is great. But there is no point in starting all over again. WTTV will not do that ”.

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In a meeting with all district chairmen, the WTTV Presidium decided to divide the association area into 13 districts by July 1, 2023 (from the 2023/2024 season). “It has absolute priority to stop the downward trend in club and team numbers,” says the announcement on structural reform. At the district level, reasonable gaming operations are no longer guaranteed in many places, and the youth sector should also benefit from the amalgamation at the district level.

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The table tennis district of Niederrhein will be divided up in such a way that clubs from the Wesel district (including Rheinberg, Alpen, Xanten, Kamp-Lintfort, Wesel) in the new district 7 will in future also face opponents from the former Krefeld or Rhein-Ruhr district (Duisburg, Mülheim, Oberhausen). The other half of the Lower Rhine (Kleve, Goch, Rees, Geldern) can be found in District 6, where it can go as far as Viersen, Mönchengladbach and the Rhine district of Neuss. Due to the regional class division and political allocation, it is easy to talk about further trips.

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“Mathematically, however, the new districts only make up half or even a third of the size of the previous districts. In the play classes of the current district level, it may even be that you don’t even notice the changes, ”argues the WTTV and formally rules out driving regularly from one end of the new district to the other. However, this could possibly occur in a district league, “but this is the order of the day.” The merging of the districts could lead to reduced circular leagues, and the different team strengths (teams of six and four) could also become a problem. Should clubs from the Lower Rhine region go to the Essen area, for example, there will also be weekly game days from the 2023/2024 season.

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It remains to be seen whether clubs from border regions such as GSV Suderwick or SuS Isselburg, which politically belong to the district of Borken and the administrative district of Münster, will apply to continue playing in their traditional area.

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