A big dispute has escalated: The top team TTC Neu-Ulm is withdrawing from the Bundesliga. Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Co. only play in the Champions League.
Neu-Ulm – table tennis bang in Germany! The TTC Neu-Ulm is withdrawing from the table tennis Bundesliga after only four years and wants to concentrate solely on the Champions League with stars like Dimitrij Ovtcharov. The club announced this on Thursday in a press release and in a letter to the league association TTBL.
The Neu-Ulmer did not apply for a Bundesliga license in the next season just before the deadline and this step further escalated a dispute with the TTBL and with the German champions Borussia Düsseldorf.
Table tennis dispute reaches rock bottom: TTC Neu-Ulm voluntarily dismounts
“The fact that the farewell has to take place in front of a great home crowd after winning the Final Four in the cup so grandiosely is bitter and really hurts everyone involved!” writes the TTC Neu-Ulm. You are asked to be classified as a “voluntary relegation”.
“We very much regret that the club no longer wants to apply for a Bundesliga license,” said league manager Nico Stehle of the German Press Agency. “But the club has shown on several occasions that it’s not about the league at all. He also doesn’t respect the league as an institution that protects its rules.”
Table tennis: Ovtcharov-Team Neu-Ulm said goodbye to the Bundesliga
The background to this dispute is a ten-game ban for the two Neu-Ulm stars Truls Moregardh and Lin Yun-Ju. The club had signed the vice world champion from Sweden, the world number eight from Taiwan, the Olympic bronze medalist Ovtcharov and the Japanese Tomokazu Harimoto before this season, especially for the Champions League and the cup competition, in the Bundesliga there are three young Russians in particular player to use.
Because Moregardh and Lin were still playing for different clubs abroad in January, the TTBL sentenced them to a fine and a long-term ban that will not apply until the coming season. (epp/dpa)
