DaveR
08-22-2008, 01:42 PM
Asian Table Tennis Union (http://www.attu.org/)(ATTU) and European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) today during the Olympic Games came into a five-year agreement to jointly sanction the "Asia-Europe All Stars Series" a new yearly series consisting of two tournaments, one to be held in the People’s Republic of China and the other in a European country to be selected. The agreement was signed in Beijing by ATTU President LI Furong and ETTU President Stefano BOSI. Also attending the signature’s ceremony were ATTU Secretary General Tony YUE and ETTU Vice President Jean-Francois KAHN.
"As president of the ATTU, I felt very happy that a cooperative agreement with ETTU was reached today", ATTU President LI Furong stated. "With the joint effort of our two parties, the table tennis fans worldwide will be able to enjoy an extremely high-level contest between Asian and European all-stars. The players from Asia and Europe are the world leading force of our sport, so the challenge between the two continental teams formed by the best players of the world will be undoubtedly exciting and thrilling".
"The common project we shared with the ATTU is something going beyond a new and glamorous event that will effectively promote table tennis sport worldwide", ETTU President Stefano BOSI said. "Our aim is also to develop and facilitate technical exchanges between Asian and European Table Tennis by encouraging member associations to organize technical meetings among coaches both in Europe and in Asia. This cooperation is totally fitting with the European coaching project we’ve just launched a couple of months ago in Istanbul".
Each "Asia-Europe All Stars Series" event shall be a two-day team competition between the Asian and the European all star team. Each team competition shall consist of five single’s matches plus one doubles match. Each match shall be best of four out of seven games.
The winner of the Series shall be determined by combining the result of both Events. If the score of the Series is tied at six to six, then an additional single’s match shall be played by the one selected player from each team. Each event’s prize money will be 152.000€ and gradually increase up to 180.000€ in 2013.
The date of the events in each calendar year (starting from 2009) shall be jointly determined by end of the previous year. In principle, the Asian event will take place in June, the European event in November, before or after an ITTF Pro-Tour event.
"We’re aware of Asia’s leading position in the sport nowadays. Our goal is to create more and more competition that help closing the gap between Europe and Asia year after year. Both continents need it, and that’s the reason why we decided to join efforts in such an ambitious project", Stefano BOSI said.
"We all agreed that table tennis needs more exposure on TV. Besides the technical exchanges, this newly initiated project is a great marketing effort, which we hope would help to attract more youth into our sport", ATTU President Li Furong said.
ETTA
"As president of the ATTU, I felt very happy that a cooperative agreement with ETTU was reached today", ATTU President LI Furong stated. "With the joint effort of our two parties, the table tennis fans worldwide will be able to enjoy an extremely high-level contest between Asian and European all-stars. The players from Asia and Europe are the world leading force of our sport, so the challenge between the two continental teams formed by the best players of the world will be undoubtedly exciting and thrilling".
"The common project we shared with the ATTU is something going beyond a new and glamorous event that will effectively promote table tennis sport worldwide", ETTU President Stefano BOSI said. "Our aim is also to develop and facilitate technical exchanges between Asian and European Table Tennis by encouraging member associations to organize technical meetings among coaches both in Europe and in Asia. This cooperation is totally fitting with the European coaching project we’ve just launched a couple of months ago in Istanbul".
Each "Asia-Europe All Stars Series" event shall be a two-day team competition between the Asian and the European all star team. Each team competition shall consist of five single’s matches plus one doubles match. Each match shall be best of four out of seven games.
The winner of the Series shall be determined by combining the result of both Events. If the score of the Series is tied at six to six, then an additional single’s match shall be played by the one selected player from each team. Each event’s prize money will be 152.000€ and gradually increase up to 180.000€ in 2013.
The date of the events in each calendar year (starting from 2009) shall be jointly determined by end of the previous year. In principle, the Asian event will take place in June, the European event in November, before or after an ITTF Pro-Tour event.
"We’re aware of Asia’s leading position in the sport nowadays. Our goal is to create more and more competition that help closing the gap between Europe and Asia year after year. Both continents need it, and that’s the reason why we decided to join efforts in such an ambitious project", Stefano BOSI said.
"We all agreed that table tennis needs more exposure on TV. Besides the technical exchanges, this newly initiated project is a great marketing effort, which we hope would help to attract more youth into our sport", ATTU President Li Furong said.
ETTA