ITTF/WTT problems reported from players

[zeio]

Aruna
WTT F Men Doha 2023
QF 17,500 USD
WTT SCT Doha 2024
R32 1250 USD
WTT SCT Goa 2024
QF 2500 USD

https://wttwebcmsprod.blob.core.windows.net/technicaldocuments/WTT Series & Feeder Handbook 2024.pdf
5. PRIZE MONEY

A. GENERAL
• WTT shall pay the prize money to players net of local withholding tax.
• The minimum prize money level and applicable prize money break downs for each event is
determined and set by WTT each year.
• Prize money shall be paid in USD at the conclusion of the event unless otherwise approved by WTT.
• Equal prize money shall be awarded for both genders at all WTT Events.
• The LOC of any event may elect to offer increased event prize money subject to WTT approval.
• Prize money shall be paid for Main Draw and Qualifying results at all WTT Series events except for
WTT Contender Qualifying sub-events and WTT Star Contender Qualifying sub-events for Doubles.
• Prize money shall be paid for Main Draw results at WTT Feeder Series events for Singles, Doubles,
and Mixed Doubles.
• LOC, if requested, shall nominate a prize money coordinator to assist WTT with the prize money
workbook and issuing prize money receipts onsite if needed.
• WTT will pay players by Electronic Funds Transfer direct to a Player’s Bank Account or any other
payment platform as determined by WTT. Players shall be responsible for ensuring they provide
their bank account details or any other payment platform as required to WTT at the beginning of
each year before the first WTT Series event takes place via email to: [email protected]
or via their ITTF Player ID profile.

B. PAYMENT PROCEDURE
• Prize money for WTT Series events shall be paid to players when their net prize money balance
(WTT Series Prize money minus WTT fines) is greater than USD $700.
• Prize money for WTT Feeder Series events shall be paid to players when their net prize money
balance (WTT Feeder Series prize money minus WTT fines) is greater than USD $350 or can be paid
together with a WTT Series event, or after participation in four (4) WTT Feeder Series events.

The net prize money balance amount will be transferred to the players’ bank account or payment platform
by the end of the following week when the above payment conditions are met. Each party shall be
responsible for their own bank charges, and/or any other statutory withholdings and deductions which may
be applicable.

 

[zeio]

https://wttwebcmsprod.blob.core.windows.net/technicaldocuments/WTT Series & Feeder Handbook 2024.pdf
2. CONSTITUTION
• This handbook incorporates and formulates a framework of essential standards, and guidelines
which governs the intention to participate or participation in WTT Events.
• This handbook may be amended or revised by WTT in its sole discretion and shall be updated online
on the official WTT website at: https://www.worldtabletennis.com
• All matters relating to the regulations described in this handbook are subject to the determination
by, and approval of, WTT in its sole discretion.
• All WTT decisions related to WTT Events (including the regulations in this handbook) are final and
binding to all participants.
• By entering and/or participating in WTT Events all participants acknowledge and agree that they
shall comply with the WTT rules, regulations, and any additional requirements and procedures as
described in this handbook and any other official WTT Events document or correspondence
including but not limited to the Event Prospectus and WTT Events emails and shall remain primarily
liable to WTT for any non-compliance therewithin.
• In accordance with the regulations set in this handbook, WTT selects and schedules the WTT events
being responsible for the resolution of any matter of dispute pertaining to WTT, including imposition
of penalties on players, and any other entity related to WTT Events.
• The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rules of table tennis shall apply to all WTT Events
except as amended otherwise by this handbook. The current ITTF rules and regulations can be found
in the ITTF Statutes at the official ITTF website at: https://www.ittf.com
• The rules, regulations, definitions, and terms included in this handbook are to be interpreted and
applied in conjunction with relevant parts of the ITTF Statutes.
• WTT may impose appropriate sanctions, including monetary fines, upon any person or entity,
subject to the rules and regulations described in this handbook, who participates in or helps and
violates any part of them. Such rule violations which do not specify a process for imposition of a
penalty shall be decided by the WTT Board.
• The rules and regulations on this handbook shall be governed by and construed in accordance with
the laws of Singapore.

3.7 Determination of Violation and Penalty
3.7.1 The WTT Event Supervisor and/or WTT Event Manager shall investigate all facts concerning any
alleged Event major offence and shall provide written notice of such investigation to the Event LOC involved.
The Event LOC shall be given up to fourteen (14) days (excluding weekends) to provide to the WTT Event
Manager, directly or through counsel, such evidence as the Event LOC deems to be relevant to the
investigation. The WTT Event Manager shall conduct the investigation in consultation with the WTT Event
Supervisor and the head of the WTT Events Department.
3.7.2 Upon the completion of the investigation, WTT Event Manager shall determine the innocence or guilt
of the Event LOC involved and, in the latter case, shall state in writing the facts as found, the conclusions
and the penalty to be imposed on the Event LOC. A copy of the decision from the WTT Event Manager shall
be promptly delivered to the Event LOC with copies sent to the WTT Board and WTT Council.
3.7.3 If the penalty imposed on the Event LOC includes a recommendation other than a fine, including a
recommendation for loss or change in Event status, that recommendation shall be reviewed by the WTT
Board, which may implement, modify, or reject the recommendation of the WTT Event Manager and the
WTT Head of Events.

4. PLAYER CODE OF CONDUCT
4.1 Entry/Withdrawal Offences
4.1.1 Withdrawal - Singles:
a) For all Main Draw automatic entries, awarded Host Wildcards, awarded WTT Nominations and/or
Youth Nominations, a withdrawal fine, specified in clause 4.1.1 (d) will be applied unless the player
is on maternity providing the necessary documentation or the player provides signed certificate that
he/she is retired from any International competition or a medical certificate is submitted and
approved by WTT, and the player does not compete in other non WTT events during the period of
the entered event.
b) A player who is entered into Qualifying Singles at the time of the singles entry deadline has two
(2) weeks to withdraw from the event. If the player withdraws after the two-weeks cancellation
period, a withdrawal fine, specified in clause 4.1.1.(d), will be applied unless a medical certificate is
submitted and approved by WTT, and the player does not compete in other events during the period
of the entered event.
c) Players are entitled to two (2) free withdrawals from Main Draw and Qualifying per year at WTT
Star Contender, WTT Contender and WTT Feeder Series, and from Qualifying in Grand Smash
without financial penalty and only when requested by the Player or Member Association through the
Online Entries System at the time of the cancellation or by email to [email protected]
and the assigned Event Supervisor before the Event ends. For the third and any subsequent
withdrawal the below penalties shall be applied and payable to WTT.

...

4.1.8 Playing Another Event
a) A player is not allowed to compete in any table tennis event, club match or exhibition in the same
event week from which they have withdrawn, cancelled or forfeit via walk-over. In the event a player
fails to adhere to this rule, the player will be fined USD $2,500.
b) A player is not allowed to compete in any non WTT table tennis event, club match or exhibition in
the following event week from which they have withdrawn, cancelled or forfeit via walk-over. In the
event a player fails to adhere to this rule, that player will be fined USD $1,500.
c) For WTT Feeder Events the fines in clauses (a) & (b) are applied at 50%.

...

4.1.13 Top 100 Player Half Year Playing Schedule
a) All top 100 singles players on the ITTF TTWR must, if requested by WTT, register their half-year
playing schedule, defined as any Table Tennis event, (i.e. WTT Events and non-WTT Events) with
WTT by 31st December and 30th June respectively. Failure to do so will result in a fine of USD $500.

4.1.14 Review of Penalties for Entry and Commitment Offences
a) Any player found to have committed an entry or withdrawal offence under this Rule 4.1 may
petition the head of the WTT Events Department for discretionary review. This written petition shall
detail the basis for the review.

4.1.15 Deadline for Petition
The deadline for filing a petition to the head of the WTT Events Department for discretionary review is as
follows:
a) All Events – Fourteen (14) days from the Monday of the event week.
b) If WTT requests additional information, the player will have 48 hours from receipt of this
notice to submit the requested information.

4.1.16 Determination
The WTT Event Manager and the head of WTT Events Department shall review the petition and decide
within twenty-one (21) days from the Monday of the event week.

4.1.17 Scope of determination
The head of the WTT Events Department decision on each case is limited to the terms stipulated in this
Handbook.

4.1.18 Fine payments
If player/pair fine(s) cannot be deducted from prize money, they must be paid within 30 days from the
day the fine notification is received.

 

[Trevize84]

So the thing is that WTT apparently forces players to play events, even if they did not sign up to the event. And it forbids them to play their own event at the time of a WTT event.

How accurate this is I don't know. So to find out, I went through the rulebook with a magnifying glass to see what is in there. I didn't need to look far to find some pretty damning stuff. The quotes are straight from the current (December 3rd 2023) rulebook as active today (April 3rd 2024). Emphasis in these quotes is mine.


Yep, WTT decided who gets entered. It's not just the top 50 players. Added to these 50 are 8 from qualifiers, and those qualifiers also have 58 mandatory spots. So that's already 108 players who have to mandatorily show up to an event they did not sign up for.

Exactly the same logic and language is used for the other formats (WTT Finals, WTT Star Contender, WTT Feeder Series), just with a different total number of players. Just to be clear that it is mandatory:



But surely you can just decline, no? NO.



This is the big one. I read it again and again. It really says that even when you are on maternity leave, or sick, it is you, the player, who has to provide documentation, in time, or get fined. If you are seeded for 10 events during that time, you must do this 10 times, or get fined 10 times. The fines are between $5000 and $250, depending on your rank. For certain lower-tier events, players can get two free withdrawals a year, but that's it.

Also, you, the player, are not allowed to compete in your own matches. Aruna is not overreacting. Players are taken hostage by WTT.

The condition of entry is that players have signed a ITTF Participation Form. So there's no Opt-out from WTT without completely opting out from the ITTF.

So let's say you do in fact cancel for medical reasons, what then? Well:


So if you withdraw from an event, but play something completely unrelated next week (like your local grandpa/grandma baking table tennis match), you will still be fined $1500.

And don't think the fine is the end of it:


You could be dying, but even then WTT holds the rights for you to participate in a PR stunt. The way it is written, your doctors medical statement stands below the demands of the WTT of you.

I'm sure there's more in the rules but this is enough for me.

Thanks for the clarification, all this is just insane and in my country this would violate national laws. Players associations should report his situation to national authorities.

 

[Trevize84]

I didn't address the others, since it has been talked about already.

however, did you know when Aruna signed for 2024 season, WTT calendar has been pretty empty?
There was no WTT Champion Incheon.
Sounds like victim blaming.

Its not Aruna only hey.... so should pros only sign 1 contract and not domestic and international together? that itself is another problem and encouraging it is actually crazy.

In fact, what Aruna is doing is good.
you need super stars to fight what is not good. If more super stars voiced they unhappiness (of which many have already shown support to Aruna). CNT players are the super super stars here, and they will never bad mouth WTT. So lets see how Aruna effect can travel.

Empty calendar isn't a valid argument. You signed 2 contracts here. The WTT and the one with your team. Considering WTT rules, your lawyer should put proper clauses with your team and sponsor contracts so that you won't find yourself into troubles. I mean, you know WTT is what it is, put yourself into a safe spot so that it must be eventually team or sponsor to complain or sue WTT. This is true for all players. I'm sure soccer players have clauses in contracts to make sure they can participate into national teams without fines or losses.

 

[RGo]

Yeah and that makes it even worse imo.

So DYN is the shortterm solution because you give an abo-company the "rights" ti broadcast your sport and name.

In the longterm they damaged the viewerbase tremendously. I just checked tt gave dyn 2,5k abos which is less what a single spontent channel for TT had and way less what they had as follower. I dont even wanna know the viewercount.

Dyn is new and wont grow like this and im quite sure that ttbl and ger tt in general is on a dead plattform again.

As ive said that is shortterm solution and nothing a sport needs. What it needs are longterm solutions to a problems that let our sport die the way it is. At least that is the situation in germany.

I mean, you are looking at utterly irrelevant metrics for dyn. The only one they care about is the number of subscribers on their platform, which we don't know, as it isn't public to my knowledge.

Here is the thing: I don't even disagree with the sentiments you are expressing but the ttbl is running a business and businesses are there to turn a profit. There is no long term if you can't sustain yourself or grow in the short term. The issues you are pointing to fall much more under the purview of the dttb, not the ttbl.

 

[Metaxa]

National championships were organised on 23 March, as in very many European countries. Most champions became players after their country's 3 because the top 3 had to be on the feeder from Beirut.

 

[NextLevel]

I think Aruna probably should not have included races and regions into the comments. wtt messes with every player regardless of races

People have differing opinions, I have friends who said he shouldn't have brought up money. But the truth is that WTT wants to "professionalize" the sport, and some of the things he is mentioning, it begs the question of whether accommodations would not have been made for more influential continents/countries.

 

[NextLevel]

Empty calendar isn't a valid argument. You signed 2 contracts here. The WTT and the one with your team. Considering WTT rules, your lawyer should put proper clauses with your team and sponsor contracts so that you won't find yourself into troubles. I mean, you know WTT is what it is, put yourself into a safe spot so that it must be eventually team or sponsor to complain or sue WTT. This is true for all players. I'm sure soccer players have clauses in contracts to make sure they can participate into national teams without fines or losses.

It took a long time for players (from smaller countries internationally, especially if they were stars in big leagues) to get the rights to be able to play national/international events for country without the club retaliating in some manner, and it might have required some mediation between FIFA, the national associations and clubs - FIFA ultimately just made it illegal across the board to deny players from going home. FIFA of course is making enough and sharing enough both over and under the board to make some things work.

For someone like Quadri, it is a balancing act - do realize that table tennis doesn't pay much and isn't a forever career so Quadri has to maximize his earnings during his window of activity. Soccer is not quite right the comp you think it is, but I can understand why it comes to mind.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Seems Aruna's meeting with WTT paid off. Literally. Lot of players got paid out by WTT today.

 

[NextLevel]

Seems Aruna's meeting with WTT paid off. Literally. Lot of players got paid out by WTT today.

I am not sure whether to laugh, be suprised, be approving or cry.

 

[latej]

I am not sure whether to laugh, be suprised, be approving or cry.

All of them at once, I s....

 

[Attitude]

I mean, you are looking at utterly irrelevant metrics for dyn. The only one they care about is the number of subscribers on their platform, which we don't know, as it isn't public to my knowledge.

Here is the thing: I don't even disagree with the sentiments you are expressing but the ttbl is running a business and businesses are there to turn a profit. There is no long term if you can't sustain yourself or grow in the short term. The issues you are pointing to fall much more under the purview of the dttb, not the ttbl.

Well first i just told you the number of the subs. Simple google search gave out the amount of people are paying.
The only surprise is that TT is at least not that small on dyn.

Well there wont be an issue if there would be any growth at all. But sorry there is literally no growth in TT at all.
We are losing players left and right, we lack every infrastructure you need for almost everything, we have moneyproblems in every aspect of the sport, for starters because the communes lack the money to support the clubs... I see literally no good initiative in my country to bring this sport forward. The only thing we finally made possible is that we subsidize the amateur area for older people because studies from an eternity ago made clear that the sport helps against alzheimer and parkinson...

I really dont want to attack you in any way, but i dont see how i can validate your argument because i dont see any growth long or shortterm with these decisions.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Empty calendar isn't a valid argument. You signed 2 contracts here. The WTT and the one with your team. Considering WTT rules, your lawyer should put proper clauses with your team and sponsor contracts so that you won't find yourself into troubles. I mean, you know WTT is what it is, put yourself into a safe spot so that it must be eventually team or sponsor to complain or sue WTT. This is true for all players. I'm sure soccer players have clauses in contracts to make sure they can participate into national teams without fines or losses.

I'm not sure how much you know about the subject, I will give you the doubt and assume know everything rather than know nothing.

Players at clubs get paid per match played.
No match = no income.

Players can leave club to play international - hence why European players still pitch in WTT. But they are sacrificing real income.

So, you are still focusing on the victim blaming. While i'm hoping that WTT stops with its getting fully calendar and forced/penalty manner to something that is more fair.
Victim blaming is really low, since WTT should have improvements.
Remember, they are still short of 1 smash this year. and there was no world cups prior to WTT coming to be and now there are 3 world cups (2 per gender)

so 4 smash, 4 champion, 1 world champ, 1 finals (per gender) 2 world cup, then there is continental games and continental cups. That is over 1 major event per month

Now, back to the victim
schedule clash is one thing and many players sacrifice club income to take part in WTT.
and then world champ - no schedule clash, but WTT/ITTF refuse his medical certificate.
Just like Granny Ni was refused her plea of unfit/ill to play.

then a collectivie big problem is, no payout from WTT between late Dec 2023 to basically today.
The players should of had a players non payment strike and refuse to play at Incheon.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Seems Aruna's meeting with WTT paid off. Literally. Lot of players got paid out by WTT today.

It will take time and struggle for changes to come
it needs to start some where, and we all should thank Aruna (the first superstar to voice out).

Now the topic of that World champ penalty, when he was unfit to travel despite having a medical certificate being rejected is a main issue.
Problem was, Nigeria couldn't remove Aruna as "injured" as the team won't be allowed to play with only 2 players. That is probably where the topic of the federation/national gov came to play in his post.
So what happened was, Aruna got penalized for not pitching and that will hurt his world ranking a lot.

On the Champion part for not pitching, WTT (unfair) contract does have power. So it will either be WTT withdraws the penalty or Aruna fights it.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I think Aruna probably should not have included races and regions into the comments. wtt messes with every player regardless of races

The African Games/ Singapore smash clash started it

I won't use race or region, but the clash is really sour.
No respect for the very few African players and Africa supposed to be the next big push for ITTF

 

[the-don]

So the thing is that WTT apparently forces players to play events, even if they did not sign up to the event. And it forbids them to play their own event at the time of a WTT event.

How accurate this is I don't know. So to find out, I went through the rulebook with a magnifying glass to see what is in there. I didn't need to look far to find some pretty damning stuff. The quotes are straight from the current (December 3rd 2023) rulebook as active today (April 3rd 2024). Emphasis in these quotes is mine.


Yep, WTT decided who gets entered. It's not just the top 50 players. Added to these 50 are 8 from qualifiers, and those qualifiers also have 58 mandatory spots. So that's already 108 players who have to mandatorily show up to an event they did not sign up for.

Exactly the same logic and language is used for the other formats (WTT Finals, WTT Star Contender, WTT Feeder Series), just with a different total number of players. Just to be clear that it is mandatory:



But surely you can just decline, no? NO.



This is the big one. I read it again and again. It really says that even when you are on maternity leave, or sick, it is you, the player, who has to provide documentation, in time, or get fined. If you are seeded for 10 events during that time, you must do this 10 times, or get fined 10 times. The fines are between $5000 and $250, depending on your rank. For certain lower-tier events, players can get two free withdrawals a year, but that's it.

Also, you, the player, are not allowed to compete in your own matches. Aruna is not overreacting. Players are taken hostage by WTT.

The condition of entry is that players have signed a ITTF Participation Form. So there's no Opt-out from WTT without completely opting out from the ITTF.

So let's say you do in fact cancel for medical reasons, what then? Well:


So if you withdraw from an event, but play something completely unrelated next week (like your local grandpa/grandma baking table tennis match), you will still be fined $1500.

And don't think the fine is the end of it:


You could be dying, but even then WTT holds the rights for you to participate in a PR stunt. The way it is written, your doctors medical statement stands below the demands of the WTT of you.

I'm sure there's more in the rules but this is enough for me.

It's a bit like having a job and your employer is ITTF.
In a normal job if you don't go you because you are sick you must present a doctor certificate.

It makes sense that they force them to go, otherwise nobody would go to WTT except the chinese who always win lol.

FIFA is similar....if they call you to play for the national team you must go and your team must let you go and you can't play for your team during those days.

 

[RGo]

Well first i just told you the number of the subs. Simple google search gave out the amount of people are paying.
The only surprise is that TT is at least not that small on dyn.

Well, this is where I can't your arguments all that seriously since you quoted their Youtube channel subscribers from the beginning of the season to me, which just shows me that most of this argument comes from your emotional and personal bias. If you had looked into this more, you'd know that these numbers don't make any sense for their service as you don't subscribe to a sport on their platform, you only indicate a "favourite" sport but you are either subscribed to all of their bundle or not at all. So, no, you haven't told me anything at all.

You talk about growth but little to no growth will be driven by the professional leagues. First, you have to grow the viewer and player base and then enfranchise them to interest them in higher-level play because going free on these services didn't do much. WTT events are largely free to be viewed for a majority of people, yet nothing seems to have changed in player/viewer numbers. That's because you have to grow the sport at the base not at the top, and again, that's a job to be done by the national associations, where the leagues will only be a tiny piece of the puzzle.

 

[turbozed]

It's a bit like having a job and your employer is ITTF.
In a normal job if you don't go you because you are sick you must present a doctor certificate.

It makes sense that they force them to go, otherwise nobody would go to WTT except the chinese who always win lol.

FIFA is similar....if they call you to play for the national team you must go and your team must let you go and you can't play for your team during those days.

If WTT wants to be these athlete's employers, then that's great. They'd have to pay a salary, take care of their health insurance, and also pay back their travel expenses like any other employer though.

Given that they don't do any of those things, then they can fuck right off with making anything mandatory.

 

[blahness]

If WTT wants to be these athlete's employers, then that's great. They'd have to pay a salary, take care of their health insurance, and also pay back their travel expenses like any other employer though.

Given that they don't do any of those things, then they can fuck right off with making anything mandatory.

Pretty sure there's a lot of illegal terms in the contract which are unenforceable and can be challenged in court.

 

[Attitude]

Well, this is where I can't your arguments all that seriously since you quoted their Youtube channel subscribers from the beginning of the season to me, which just shows me that most of this argument comes from your emotional and personal bias. If you had looked into this more, you'd know that these numbers don't make any sense for their service as you don't subscribe to a sport on their platform, you only indicate a "favourite" sport but you are either subscribed to all of their bundle or not at all. So, no, you haven't told me anything at all.

You talk about growth but little to no growth will be driven by the professional leagues. First, you have to grow the viewer and player base and then enfranchise them to interest them in higher-level play because going free on these services didn't do much. WTT events are largely free to be viewed for a majority of people, yet nothing seems to have changed in player/viewer numbers. That's because you have to grow the sport at the base not at the top, and again, that's a job to be done by the national associations, where the leagues will only be a tiny piece of the puzzle.

Actually my bad on that professionell research of mine. I just read the lines given by google and not the whole section. Although you can get a slight hint on how high the viewerbase will be... Kinda.
We will see when dyn releases some details probably of the end of this year.

Comparing viewercounts then and now (ittf to wtt for example) there is some increase to be seen especially in the major events. Maybe more naturally (due to more people watching stuff online) than due to their advertisement but still.

But that is exactly the point i was trying to make right at the beginning. The issues for the sport run deep. And ttbl is just one part of it and a single example.
There are many many many more examples, some of those even political.
But that would probably let this thread explode.