Shortly after the attack on the Ukraine, the Russian top clubs Fakel Orenburg and UMMC Yekaterinburg are excluded from the Table Tennis Champions League. The sports court sees it differently. Timo Boll and the deposed title winner are scared.
In the debate about the Russian verdict for the Table Tennis Champions League, record European champion Timo Boll warned of uncontrollable consequences and a violent escalation from the deposed title winner Borussia Düsseldorf. "We would have to expect thousands of demonstrators and riots in the hall in Düsseldorf," said the star player in a statement from his club and the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) on the possibility of a legally enforced final against the Russian winner of the second semifinal.
Boll's superior Andreas Preuss fears that the decision of the sports court (BoA) of the European association ETTU to challenge the subsequent re-admission of the Russian top clubs Fakel Orenburg and UMMC Yekaterinburg will cause unforeseeable damage to his sport. "It's a matter of decency that we won't play against Russian clubs in the current situation. In addition, if we suddenly allowed two games against Russian teams, we would put our sport completely on the sidelines in the international sport scene." said the Borussia manager.
At the end of April, the BoA unexpectedly annulled the exclusion of the two Russian semi-finalists from the premier class by the ETTU executive. The judges also associated Düsseldorf's appointment as Champions League winner with this. The German champions had won their semifinals.
According to the BoA judges, unlike national teams, Russian clubs should not be treated as representatives of their country. Therefore, the committee ordered the second semi-final to be held and then the final between the winner of the Russian duel and Dusseldorf. At the beginning of the week, however, the ETTU leadership applied for a resumption of the proceedings in the same instance due to additional information.
For Preuss, however, Düsseldorf's clear edge in dealing with Russia since the beginning of the war is not a question of court decisions. Therefore, the Bundesliga supervisory board chairman did not rule out a boycott of the premier class by the record winner for the coming season: "If the Russian teams are not excluded, we will definitely not play in the Champions League without a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine."
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