The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken g ...

for all national

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

associations. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the sport of table tennis. The ITTF is responsible for the organization of numerous international competitions, including the

World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include me ...

that has continued since 1926.

Founding history

The ITTF was founded in 1926 by William Henry Lawes from

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, the nine founding members being

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Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

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, Sweden, and

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. The first international tournament was held in January 1926 in Berlin, while the first

was held in December 1926 in London. Toward the end of 2000, the ITTF instituted several rules changes aimed at making table tennis more viable as a televised spectator sport. The older 38 mm balls were officially replaced by 40 mm balls. This increased the ball's air resistance, and effectively slowed down the game. In 2003, the ITTF moved its headquarters from

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west a ...

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and set the ITTF Museum there. In 2007, the governance for

para table tennis Para table tennis is a parasports which follows the rules set by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The usual table tennis rules are in effect with slight modifications for wheelchair athletes. Athletes from disability groups can ...

was transferred from the International Paralympic Committee to the ITTF. In February 2008, the ITTF announced several rules changes after an ITTF Executive Meeting in

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Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

, China with regards to a player's eligibility to play for a new association. The new ruling was to encourage associations to develop their own players. In 2019, the ITTF created its subsidiary World Table Tennis (WTT) to manage all its commercial and events business. The ITTF's current headquarters are located in

while their Asia-Pacific office is based in Singapore and search for a new site for headquarters is in the process. The current president is Petra Sörling from Sweden. Sörling became the eighth person to hold the office in 2021.

Membership

The ITTF recognises five continental federations. There are currently 227 member associations within the ITTF.

Organisational structure

All member associations of the ITTF attend annual general meeting (AGM). Agendas on changes of the constitution, laws of table tennis, applications for membership etc. are discussed and finalised through votes. Also, the president of ITTF, 8 executive vice-presidents, and 32 or less continental representatives are elected at an AGM, serving for a four-year term. The president, executive vice-presidents, and the chairman of the athletes' commission compose executive committee. The executive committee, continental representatives and presidents of the five continental federations or their appointees compose the board of directors (Board). The Board manages the work of the ITTF between AGMs. Several committees, commissions, working groups or panels work under the constitution of ITTF or under the Board.

Role in diplomacy

Unlike the organisations for more popular sports, the ITTF tends to recognise teams from generally unrecognised governing bodies for disputed territory. For example, it recognised the Table Tennis Federation of Kosovo in 2003 even though

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...

was excluded from most other sports. It recognised the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

in 1953 and allowed some basic diplomacy which lead to an opening for U.S. President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

, called " Ping Pong Diplomacy", in the early 1970s. The ITTF also approved unified Korean team to compete at the

in 1991 and 2018. In reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ITTF banned Russian and Belarusian players and officials from its competitions.

Rules

Player eligibility

For ITTF world title events, a player is eligible to play for his association by registering with the ITTF. If the player chooses to play for a new association, he shall register with the ITTF, through the new association. The player will be eligible to play for the new association after three, five, seven years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 15, 18, 21 respectively. The player will be eligible to play for the new association after nine years if the player is at least 21 years old.

Service and point system

The table tennis point system was reduced from a 21 to an 11-point scoring system in 2001. A game shall be won by the player or pair first scoring 11 points unless both players or pairs score 10 points, when the game shall be won by the first player or pair subsequently gaining a lead of 2 points. This was intended to make games more fast-paced and exciting. The ITTF also changed the rules on service to prevent a player from hiding the ball during service, in order to increase the average length of rallies and to reduce the server's advantage. Today, the game changes from time to time mainly to improve on the excitement for television viewers.

Speed glue ban

In 2007, ITTF's board of directors in Zagreb decided to implement the VOC-free glue rule at Junior events, starting from 1 January 2008, as a transitional period before the full implementation of the VOC ban on 1 September 2008. As of 1 January 2009, all speed glue was to have been banned.

Contests and rankings

The ITTF and its subsidiary WTT hold international tournaments and the ITTF maintains official world ranking lists based on players' results in tournaments throughout the year. Conventions: MT/WT: men's/women's team; MS/WS: men's/women's singles; MD/WD: men's/women's doubles; XD: mixed doubles ;Major international events ;Junior events ;Para events

ITTF Museum

The ITTF Museum was previously in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the ITTF is based. The ITTF decided in 2014 to move the museum to Shanghai, China, which was planning the China Table Tennis Museum around the same time. The new museum was designated in the same building with the China Table Tennis Museum on different floors, managed and operated by Shanghai University of Sport, and officially opened in 2018.

References

External links

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ITTF Para Table Tennis

Official ITTF World Ranking Table
{{Authority control Organisations based in Lausanne Table tennis organizations Sports world rankings Organizations established in 1926