In the dispute between the table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) and the top club TTC Neu-Ulm, there was a discussion between national player Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Andreas Preuss, chairman of the supervisory board of the league association.
The German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) and Borussia Düsseldorf said that Ovtcharov’s accusation against Düsseldorf’s manager Preuss turned out to be an overreaction.
“It was wrong of me to assume that Andreas, in his position as Chairman of the TTBL Supervisory Board, would achieve personal benefits. I’m sorry about that,” Ovtcharov was quoted as saying in the announcements. Preuss accepted the apology.
allegations on social media
Former world number one Ovtcharov had previously spoken out on social media and accused the league of lacking independence. After all, Preuss, as the manager of the biggest rival Borussia Düsseldorf, is also the head of the supervisory board of the league association. Preuss denied the allegations.
The conflict is part of a larger dispute between TTBL and Ovtcharov’s club. The top club Neu-Ulm had announced that it would withdraw from the table tennis Bundesliga after just four years and concentrate solely on the Champions League in the future. The background to the league withdrawal is a ten-game suspension for the Neu-Ulm players Truls Moregardh and Lin Yun-ju, who were newly signed last year and were primarily intended for the Champions League and the cup competition.
Because both players were still playing for a different club abroad in January, the Bundesliga sentenced them to a fine and a long-term ban that will not apply until the coming season. The club, on the other hand, lodged a protest before an arbitral tribunal.
