Europaliga (table tennis)

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The Europa League in table tennis was a competition for national teams that are members of the European Table Tennis Association ETTU are.

Foundation and first seasons

The European League was decided at a meeting of the ETTU in October 1966 in Vienna, and the driving forces behind it are Jupp Schlaf (President of the ETTU), Vaclav Vebr (Deputy President of the ETTU) and Nancy Evans (General Secretary of the ETTU). The European table tennis league was established as the official name .

A team consisted of two men, a player and a "non-playing captain". Seven games were carried out in a team fight, namely four men's singles, one women's singles, one men's doubles and one mixed.

In the same year, 1967, one began with two divisions (1st division, regional group), whereby a team could get through promotion to a higher division and by relegation to a lower division. A year later, the structure was expanded: Under the 1st division played a single-track second division, including a Western Europe group and a Mediterranean group in parallel. In 1973/74 the 2nd division was split into the parallel groups 2A and 2B.

Super division

In the 1975/76 season, the super division with 8 teams was preceded as the highest class of the 1st division (also 8 teams). Among them there was now the single-track Division 2 consisting of 5 teams and the double-track Division 3 ("regional leagues").

Ladies

In 1990/91 the women were also taken into account: the super division for women was introduced. As before, the “men's team” was supplemented by a woman who played an individual and a mixed game. At the same time, the individual divisions were divided into two parallel groups A and B, each with four teams. In all groups everyone played against everyone in a simple round. The first two in each group then fought for places 1 to 4, the third and fourth places for places 5 to 8.

One year later, the competitions were named JOOLA European League (named after the table tennis company Joola ), namely JOOLA European Men's League , European Women's League and the new European Mixed Teams League . Now an all-male team played (without a queen). The three players of a team had to be placed according to their order in the European rankings. In 1994/95 the "best of three" mode was introduced for the finals. If it was 1: 1 after the return match, then a play-off was required in which the team with the better game, set or ball ratio started at home.

The Mixed Teams League was played for the last time in 1995/96, in the meantime two-pronged, and then abolished.

Qualification for European Championship

In April 2000 the ETTU Congress decided to extend one season of the Europa League to two years. In addition, the placement was the basis for qualification and placement at the European Championships . The thus reformed competition was called the New European Mens League or New European Womens League . In the Superdivision, 12 (instead of 8 previously) teams started in three groups of four in the "everyone against everyone" mode. Then the group first played for places 1 to 3, the second group for places 4 to 6, the group third for places 7 to 9 and the fourth group for places 10 to 12, with places 11 and 12 being relegated from the Superdivision and meant a European Championship starting place in the fight for places 9 to 16. This mode was used from autumn 2000 to autumn 2001 for the European Championships in Zagreb 2002 and from autumn 2002 to spring 2003 for the European Championships in Courmayeur 2003.

In 2003 the ETTU Congress decided to reduce the number of teams at the next European Championship from 40 to 16. The qualification for the EM should take place entirely through the Europa League. In addition, the 16 top teams of the EM 2003 competed against each other in four groups of four in the 1st Division ( Premier Division ) of the Europa League, in the mode "everyone against everyone" with a return game. The remaining ETTU members could register a team in the 2nd division ( Challenge Division ). The last of the four groups in the 1st division were relegated to the 2nd division, and the three best teams were promoted from the 2nd division. Then there was the host's team, which was placed in the top 16. This then resulted in the 16 participants in the EM. This mode was also used for the European Championships in Belgrade 2007. This was previously played in the 2005/06 season. From 2007 the EM took place annually. As a result, the qualification cycle was omitted.

Follow-up events

As a follow-up event , the European Nations League (ENL for short) for women and men was introduced in 2009 - initially for a period of four years . The ENL was held as an independent competition with its own title holder - without any consequences for qualification or placement at the following European Championship. However, since it was decided in 2010 to only hold the European Championship team competition every two years from 2011 onwards, there was now space in the calendar to integrate a new qualification cycle. The ENL was thus replaced in 2012 by a qualification tournament - the so-called European Championships Qualifications (ECQ for short). The following game mode was planned: There are 3 divisions, each with 12 teams, each with two groups of six. In the “everyone against everyone” mode (without return leg), each group determines its own ranking. The first five teams of each of the two groups in the Championships Division will play for the title at the EM 2013 in Austria. There are also two newcomers (group first in the Challenge Division). Promotion and relegation between the Challenge Division and the Standard Division are also regulated. The last team in a group is relegated; the respective group winner rises.

Previous winners of the highest class

season Men's Ladies mixed teams Placement of German men Placement German women
1967/68 USSR - - 5. -
1968/69 USSR - - 5. -
1969/70 Sweden - - 6th -
1970/71 Hungary - - 6th -
1971/72 ČSSR - - 5. -
1972/73 USSR - - 5. -
1973/74 Hungary - - 6th -
1974/75 Sweden - - 8. Descent -
1975/76 Yugoslavia - - Ascent -
1976/77 Hungary - - 8. Descent -
1977/78 France - - Ascent -
1978/79 ČSSR - - 4th -
1979/80 Hungary - - 7th -
1980/81 Hungary - - 7th -
1981/82 Yugoslavia - - 7th -
1982/83 Yugoslavia - - 6th -
1983/84 ČSSR - - 7th -
1984/85 Sweden - - 3. -
1985/86 Poland - - 8. Descent -
1986/87 Poland - - Ascent -
1987/88 France - - 6th -
1988/89 Sweden - - 3. -
1989/90 France - - 2. -
1990/91 Germany Hungary - 1. 5
1991/92 Sweden EUN Israel
1992/93 Sweden Netherlands Wales + Cyprus
1993/94 Belgium Germany Norway + Cyprus
1994/95 Belgium Hungary Yugoslavia + Iceland
1995/96 Sweden Germany Malta + Jersey
1996/97 Sweden Germany -
1997/98 France Germany -
1998/99 Germany Germany -
1999/00 Germany Germany -
2000/02 Germany Germany -
2002/03 Sweden Romania - 7th 4th

politics

Because of the Balkan War, Yugoslavia was sanctioned by the UN in 1992. Then the ETTU followed the ITTF recommendation and excluded the teams of Yugoslavia from participating in the Superdivision. Their places were taken by the men from Hungary and the women from Italy.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Magazine DTS , 1966/22 Issue South West p.11
  2. ↑ DTS magazine , 1976/8 p. 5
  3. ↑ DTS magazine , 1990/5 p. 32
  4. ↑ DTS magazine , 1991/9 p. 24
  5. ↑ DTS magazine , 1998/9 p. 21
  6. ↑ DTS magazine , 2000/8 p. 6
  7. ^ Detailed report on this change in the DTS magazine , 2003/4 p. 21
  8. ↑ tischtennis magazine , 2009/3 p. 18
  9. ↑ DTS magazine , 1992/8 p. 54