News on February 2, on the evening of February 1, the International Table Tennis Federation announced the selection method for the 2025 Macau World Cup, and only players who participate in the Continental Cup or the top players in the world are eligible to be selected, which also means that Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Chen Meng and others will not be able to participate in the 2025 World Cup!
At noon on December 27, Fan Zhendong announced on social media that he would withdraw from the world rankings, but he would not retire! Fan Zhendong said that after he successfully completed the task in the Paris Olympics, due to the huge psychological consumption of this cycle, he has not yet started his future career planning. However, recently the WTT issued a new rule on fines if you don't participate, and individuals can't afford it but still respect international organizations, so they can only choose to withdraw from the world rankings at present.
Since then, Chen Meng has made a similar statement and withdrawn from the world rankings.
As the conflict between WTT World Table Tennis Federation and Fan Zhendong and other athletes became public, Liu Guoliang, who is the chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, the chairman of the WTT World Table Tennis Federation, and the vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation, had to stand up and respond to the matter, saying that top athletes such as Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng can participate in international competitions with wild cards.
Soon, the head coaches of the national table tennis men's and women's teams Wang Hao and Ma Lin also confirmed that Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Chen Meng and others could get the opportunity to participate in the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships as Paris Olympic champions.
However, on February 1, according to Table Tennis.com, the International Table Tennis Federation announced the selection method for the 2025 Macau World Cup. Each Continental Cup will see four players qualify for the World Cup through the semi-finals, for a total of 20 players to qualify for the World Cup. The remaining 28 places will be determined by place in the world rankings. This means that players who have not competed in the Continental Cup and do not have a world ranking will not be eligible for the World Cup.
Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng have previously missed the Asian Cup squad, and they have withdrawn from the world rankings, which also means that they basically miss the 2025 Macau World Cup.
It is worth mentioning that this selection method of the International Table Tennis Federation directly eliminated the previous World Cup invitation to the World Table Tennis Championships champion, which had lasted for so many years.
As for Fan Zhendong, the winner of the national table tennis Grand Slam, the current situation is that he did not enter the list of Asian Cup (which is the Asian qualifier) in Shenzhen this month, and withdrew from the world rankings. How should the reigning Olympic men's singles champion qualify for the World Cup?
In this regard, netizens have said, "The World Cup has always invited world champions. Why do you have to change this time, first stealing Fan Zhendong's Asian Cup quota, and then stealing the World Cup quota? Whose way is he in the way when he plays?? ”
"WTT is no longer reasonable, and you yourself said that you want to investigate, even if you go through the process, you will ban the athletes who fight against WTT rules before the results of the investigation are out, talk to yourself, and be complicit!"
": Fan Zhendong moved whose cake don't make small moves, really"
": It turns out that the list of candidates for the World Table Tennis Championships was announced in advance, waiting here! With this idea, I managed to get Fan Zhendong's quota for the World Cup, and the reformulation of the rules is too targeted."
"Isn't the World Arms Tournament in Doha more valuable than the World Cup? Tung Ge has already been invited. ”