The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Executive Committee led by ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT, met at the Dubai offices of Falcon and Associates – a strategic advisory company working on behalf of the Dubai leadership – on 11 March 2017.
ITTF President Thomas WEIKERT stated after the meeting: “Thank you to our hosts Falcon and Associates for their warm hospitality in Dubai. Dubai is a beautiful city, and will be a perfect location to hold TTX events, the new anywhere, anytime form of table tennis. Today we had fruitful meetings, discussing the future strategy of the ITTF to grow the sport in all aspects.”
President of the UAE Table Tennis and Badminton Association, His Excellency Eng. Dawood AL HAJRI delivered a welcome note to the visiting delegation.
In addition to the Executive Committee meeting, Thomas WEIKERT, ITTF Vice-President SHI Zhihao and ITTF CEO Judit FARAGO visited the offices of Dubai Sports Council on 12 March. Dubai Sport Council Secretary General His Excellency Saeed HAREB welcomed officials to discuss the growth of the game in Dubai and the possibility of the emirate hosting major table tennis events in the future.
The ITTF Executive Committee decided to endorse the four applications received (Bahamas, Cape Verde, Eritrea and Guinea-Bissau) for consideration to be accepted as members of the ITTF at the Annual General Meeting to be held in Dusseldorf on 31 May 2017.
Mr. WEIKERT will visit Guinea-Bissau, the last applicant in April. Once the ITTF AGM accepts these four associations, ITTF will be present in all countries in the world, a total of 226, being the first international federation to do so.
The ITTF Executive Committee revised the propositions and resolutions to be presented to the Annual General Meeting, as well as confirming the adoption of the ITTF Ethics Code also for approval at the AGM
The Marketing Department updated the ITTF Executive Committee on the deal recently signed with Seamaster as the Title Sponsor of the ITTF World Tour, and also of the ITTF Challenge Chile Open and Brazil Open.
The ITTF Executive Committee was also updated on the ITTF competition calendar and event allocations.The next meeting will take place prior to the AGM on 28 May 2017 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
