ITTF Opens Bidding Process for the 2021 & 2022 World Table Tennis Championships Finals

The ITTF has launched the bidding process for the bigger, better and expanded World Table Tennis Championships Finals for 2021 and 2022.

The enlarged version of the biggest table tennis event on earth was approved at the 2018 ITTF Board of Directors meeting and will now include a series of continental and intercontinental stages, all leading to the World Table Tennis Championships Finals, which will include the best of the best from the previous stages.

This means that the World Table Tennis Championships Final still offers the incredible global reach of 500 million fans but is more viable for more potential cities and countries across the world to organize.

ITTF CEO Steve DAINTON stated: "The new World Table Tennis Championships Finals makes hosting the world’s biggest table tennis event more attractive to host than ever before. We are looking forward to having a record number of bidders from all across the globe bid for the event, as it is now a much more attractive proposition to host, with less players and teams and more potential media values and promotional opportunities with a more flexible format."

The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be an individual event, consisting of the following categories:

Men’s Singles – straight knockout of 128 players

Women’s Singles – straight knockout of 128 players

Mixed Doubles - straight knockout of 128 pairs

Men’s Doubles - straight knockout of 64 pairs

Women’s Doubles - straight knockout of 64 pairs

The 2022 World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be a team event, with world’s best 32 Men’s and Women’s Team playing in a first stage consisting of 8 Groups of 4 teams. The top 2 teams from each group progressing to a 16-team knockout to become World Champions.

The new World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be a table tennis festival that will promote all facets of table tennis and the city that it is held in around the world. The new format allows for all matches to be televised globally, and flexible scheduling to ensure that the key matches are being held at prime times to assist with ticket sales and television viewership.

The format of the continental stages is still being discussed by the Future Events Working Group, who will propose the format for ratification at the 2019 Board of Directors meeting in April 2019.

The bidding process is as follows:

Interest phase: July 2018 - 30 September 2018

Final Bid phase: 10 October 2018 - 31 December 2018

Evaluation of Bids: January 2019 - February 2019

Selection of the winning bid: Bidders are invited to present their bids at the ITTF AGM in April 2019, which will vote on the host for the 2021 & 2022 World Championships Finals.

To find out more information, and to register your interest, head to ITTFWorlds.com.

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only