Let's start the professional table tennis league again. Hyun Jung-hwa, co-chairman, will make our juniors proud
May 29, 2025
|
The Korea Professional Table Tennis Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Professional Table Tennis Federation) held a press conference at YK Law Firm in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 29th and announced plans to operate the professional league.
KTTL was first launched in 2022 when Kim Yoo Seung Min, the current chairman of the Korea Sports Council, was the president of the Table Tennis Association and was held twice until 2023. However, this year's newly launched league is a new league with only the same title sponsor and completely different organizational and format. Unlike the previous league, which was managed by the professional committee under the Korea Business Table Tennis Federation, the new league is hosted and organized by the separately launched Pro Table Tennis Federation. Hyun Jung-hwa, general director of the Korea Racing Authority, and Kim Hyung-seok, general director of Hwaseong City Corporation, co-chaired the committee. Only 10 male and female teams registered in the Professional Federation will participate in the system independent of the unemployment federation. The men's team is composed of six teams, including the Armed Forces Sports Unit, Mirae Asset Securities, Boram Hallelujah, Seatakgudan, Korea Racing Authority, and Hwaseong City Corporation, and the women's team is composed of four teams: Korean Air, Mirae Asset Securities, Korea Racing Authority, and Hwaseong City Corporation.
Hyun Jung-hwa, co-chairman of the Pro Table Tennis Federation, said "We will create and proceed with a new corporation through various trials and errors. There were many concerns about whether to join the Korea Table Tennis Association or launch it independently. The reason for choosing to do it independently is to freely create and return the financial resources to the table tennis side. "Our table tennis juniors are playing very well. The Doha World Championships also confirmed that Korean table tennis is narrowing its distance from China," he said, expressing hope. "The players are bringing up a lot of interest in table tennis games, but there was a lot of regret that the business association didn't bring up a lot." "It doesn't seem to rot our players like this." We are launching it with the leader's heart to ensure that our players are valued, secure a fan base, provide better performance to fans, and let the players take pride and bring out more world-class players."
Kim Hyung-seok, co-chairman of the committee, said "The creation of professional leagues and federations has been necessary for 20 years, but it has always been unsuccessful in attempts. However, after successfully hosting the Busan World Championship last year, there was a sense of urgency from the leaders that they should not miss this opportunity. It didn't happen all of a sudden. During the Korea-Japan exchange match between July and August last year, we also held a meeting to participate in the local government team, and at the end of the year at the Samcheok Championship, we formed a promoter and explained the process until today, following the conclusion that we could no longer postpone it. Four unemployed teams, including the Korea Exchange, Samsung Life Insurance, Korea Water Resources Corporation, and POSCO International, will not participate in the first professional league. It was said that it was difficult to participate due to the company's situation, including public enterprises, and in this regard, Kim Hyung-seok, co-chairman of the committee, said "The biggest cause of the professional league failure was the participation of all teams as a whole. Neighboring Japan started professional with four teams. We also said let's start when we have only four teams. It started by forming a corporation. If it goes well, the teams that did not participate this time will be able to join."
Unlike in the past, when it was a team match, KTTL will be conducted as an individual match. A total of four competitions will be held, including three season competitions and one settlement competition. In the three seasons, the first and second places in each group will advance to the round of 16 tournaments after the eight-group qualifying league, and the settlement tournament is a quarter-final single-round tournament based on the series' combined performance to determine the season champion.In order to add to the fun of watching, all games will be played in a five-game system, but if a full game match is made, the last five games will be played in a six-point system.
The first round of the 2025 Pro Table Tennis League season will be held at the Sky Dome Indoor Gymnasium of Incheon International Airport Corporation from June 6-8, and the quarterfinals of the finals will be held at Gwangmyeong IVEX Studio from June 13-15. The second round is scheduled for September, the third round for October, and the final round for the settlement competition is scheduled for November. All competitions are professional events in which prize money is given to all players who have reached the finals, and in the first round, the total prize money of 100 million won, including 18 million won for the championship and 10 million won for the runner-up, is at stake. The Professional Federation believes that the Korean professional table tennis league has international demand in China, Europe, and Southeast Asia, and is even aiming for profits from overseas broadcasting rights in the long run. However, since there is no host broadcaster, the live broadcast of the Pro Table Tennis League cannot be watched on TV. It will be broadcast on ProTablegu's own platform (YouTube).
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
