Breaking the Silence: Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng Take a Stand Against WTT

[@VeganDefinition]

People don't even understand that Quadri Aruna was going through this exact situation and is currently in a lawsuit with WTT over the same exact thing. They tried to fine him over non participation with 0 contract saying that he would participate.

[@blueskyinwa]

I also read that Aruna is currently in lawsuit with WTT for prize money that has been long overdue. Would like to hear WTT’s explanation on this matter.

[@kerrin6633]

Here for this comment. I wished this video mentioned Quadri Aruna (or will post a video on Quadri Aruna's similar situation along with all current follow-ups). I did take initiative to look it up and as far as I know he did get the fine reversed for him, if I didn't read wrong.

[@amandaolieve565]

thanks for your voice,table tennis fans all over the world will support our Gold Medalists Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng

[@yvonstyle8246]

@@amandaolieve565 well I did not see any support for Cheng Meng from chinese fans during last olympics, even LGL was dissapointed by the result

[@dongiovanni8899]

@@yvonstyle8246 ITTF officers like Petra Sörling was also not enthusiastic😏

[@patriceboccara]

people all around the world are with them

[@zoltanzoltan303]

Nobody care , i think Why they would change ? Most of the players like this WTT system and they can play a lot gwt better, china getting weaker

[@April0712]

Most players have to use money out of their pocket to support these competitions. With more competitions planned for 2025, I don't think they can all survive until the end of the year.

[@びすけっと-c1j]

陳夢、樊振東本当にありがとう。wttやittfによる卓球選手の休みのない過酷なスケジュールにファンとして腹立たしい気持ちです。陳夢や樊振東の声を尊重し全力で応援します！陳夢や樊振東がまた見れますように。

[@FahRuji-jx6ks]

Sangat di sayangkan pemain berbakat ini mengundurkan diri

[@ChopChopTT]

WTT should be athlete-centered rather than relying on athletes to make money!

[@psytap5719]

The athletes are the quintessence of the sport, so this should 100% be it!

[@April0712]

This is a heated topic in Chinese internet now. People are trying to understand what is happening and the reason behind. One conclusion is wtt is having big trouble in its cash flow. They should have made enough money at least to cover the traveling cost of those athletes instead of putting on harsh penalties. But obviously, wtt is so short with cash, it is doing everything absurd to save money. Where is the money? No one knows. People are digging on publicly available information trying to figure it out. Wtt has not give a public financial report for 2023. A rumor is Liu Guoliang has used the money behind everyone’s back in some big loss realty investments. Liu Guoliang has been blamed for almost everything wrong in top Chinese table tennis circles for a while. Most table tennis fans, no matter who they support, believe that he is so dirty that he deserves to go to prison for at least twenty years. They talk about it publicly, only use a nickname for him to avoid their comments being deleted. It is hard to imagine he could be hated so much even several years ago.

[@April0712]

Fan Zhendong himself didn’t say anything other than what he posted. But people saw him doing his training as usual. Fans are hoping his professional career won’t be terminated by the greedy of a private company.

[@krissalkond]

Is Liu Guoliang a vilain in this story?

[@April0712]

​@krissalkond Yes. Chinese netizens absolutely believe so. They believe that he framed Kong Linghui, his best friend. Kong did not even want to be a coach working under him after retirement. He asked Kong to stay. Only later he framed Kong to get rid of their coach, Cai, to get Cai's power. There are also rumors that he framed Zhang Jike too. Only failed in attempt to setup Fzd. Too many things to explain as coincidences.

[@krissalkond]

@@April0712 But doesn´t all great men want power? Napoelon said it was very arosing.

[@KryptonPlanet]

​@@krissalkondI don't know these rumours are true or not. Not only great men what power, even small men or untalented men want power too. But doesn't mean, in this case if rumours are true, Guoliang is innocent.

[@JasonRai-c7q]

Wtt has become too commercial, rather than focusing on players the priority is the market.

[@THEOMD57]

I would like to ask a simple question. The high ranked officials of WTT , have they ever been professional athletes , in order to understand their mental and biological exhaustion of multiple championships and tournaments ? My simple and personal advice to all fans , BOYCOTT WTT tournaments !!

[@teddybearasaurus]

Please link other leagues we can watch. If you want to unsubscribe from wtt.

[@Koshiman]

ITTF preseisent, Petra Sorling is a former pro player

[@THEOMD57]

@@Koshiman Only one among the whole board of officials is really NOT enough....

[@vinadamsllc]

If they continue to treat players this way, it may hurt the sport internationally. Something sinister appears to be afoot?

[@Anonn268]

yes, money

[@Jaime-xt4jk]

Is there no player association to defend their intererests? Why do not join all together to defend themselves?

[@ansman5062]

@@Jaime-xt4jk have you seen the wtt’s response? They make the regulations in accordance with input from the players association

[@dongiovanni8899]

because other associations see this as a way to diminish Chinese winning rate😁

[@샤넬-r7x]

판젠동 응원합니다 😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@renaudmichel1]

Dear FZD, dear Chen Meng, I am prepared to sponsor you to immigrate to Canada and be part of the Canadian table tennis team. I am pretty sure that you will make the team here!

[@KryptonPlanet]

They aren't allowed to immigrate. At least 10 years from now

[@Jetaime-z5j]

勇敢的走出去 活成你自己要的样子

[@dongiovanni8899]

FZD is a PLA member, may be difficult to get security clearance from the Canadian authorities🤨

[@AxoZyzo]

Good analysis 👍

[@guerrerorojas5348]

It’s time to China to create its own international table tennis association, with fair rules for all players, decent camera angles and the purpose to make table tennis beautiful again.

[@Tekay37]

Guess who's chairman of the WTT and approved the new rules. It's Liu Guoliang.

[@aalokatmaa1606]

@@Tekay37Don’t try to bring your shit to innocent public. They brought Liu only after heavy criticism for name shake, which means he’s just a ceremonial chairman. All decisions are made by Europeans and some clever Indians. Try to research who the CEO is, who the main decision makers are.

[@guerrerorojas5348]

@@aalokatmaa1606 I wouldn’t have said better.

[@dongiovanni8899]

@@Tekay37 The policies are voted by members of WTT Council and ITTF Board, the majority of whom are non-Chinese.

[@lancewood1410]

@@Tekay37 and you think he has the power to override everything and do as he wish? that would be opening a chance for the west to say he is 'authoritarian' no? LOL.

[@joll1e]

The reasons of these two top Table Tennis athletes Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng retire from WTT is not just about the money but because more of the phsychological reason, because they would feels like they are the victims of the bullying from this unfair treatments from WTT with such penalties to them, their eagerness and enthusiasm to compete in the WTT competition has gone. They are still at the very top level and had just achieve Olympic Gold Medals which is the highest honour lately, imagine if they still compete in the WTT tournaments and also get these penalties, how could they play with their fullest strengths and confidence? WTT actually should reward them, this instead punishes them with penalties, really can't believe it

[@timlarsson3634]

Disgusting… WTT more like L’TT. WE-WANT-THEM-BACK!

[@davidbenson94]

They make a good point about sports organizations using athletes for their benefit with little regard to their personal challenges. On the other hand, top Chinese players used to skip lots of tournaments and only show up to a few high-profile ones because it didn't hurt their rankings to do that.

[@rohanrai7320]

Even though I am from India and follow Indian table tennis but still I love table tennis as a sport and both Chen Meng and FZD are icons of the game this kind of rules should be scrapped they are adding new tournments every year like they added America and Europe smash from 2025 as we already have Singapore, china and saudi before.

[@riemikes]

Once you speak out, you are history, that's how C.T.T.A. doing business 😢

[@YuenmanWong-f8v]

帅❤小❤胖❤东❤哥❤可😂爱🎉哇塞😍😘梗系永远支持东哥大萝喇当😅😮😊然

[@fortitude1208]

Lets all unsubscribe from wtt to show support to ones we realy love - the players - they are table tennis not WTT Spread the message. Lets try to help our players

[@kerrin6633]

Or as in some comments empower the players by them having their own association to fight against injustice. Hopefully videos like this will help already raise awareness. If you look at preexisting comments, you'll see that WTT dealings are known and seem to be common knowledge. Boycotting is a political measure and a more complete empowerment can be pursued too. Yes awareness can be raised through boycotting, however if it's Chinese-run this can commonly lead to oppression internally rather than a call to action as it would lead to in Western society. ❤

[@LetItBe-222]

The real table tennis fans will support Fan Zhendong and Cheng Meng. The entertainment-driven approach in China now is ruining the sport as it's not merit-based. Fan disagrees with this approach and therefore was sidelined and mistreated. Hope his voice would trigger changes to the current situation.

[@joll1e]

How about Players that still in recovery from injuries such as Han Ying that has been absent from WTT tournaments for almost a year now due to recovery? Would she get penalties then? What Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng did to retire from WTT is a brave decision, a big criticsm to the unfair treatments to TT athletes, without their voices there wouldn't be any changes and betterment in regulations towards athletes

[@dongiovanni8899]

Players with medical cert from WTT medical staff are exempted from penalties

[@aerotus888]

Fan said WTT camera angle SUCKS!

[@brucehlee1971]

Everybody knows LKL is to blame.

[@傻傻地-r1o]

How come no one ask Ma Long to pay fines in last 3 years? WTT 's explanation, this policy was lasted 4 year, why ML has exception?

[@YanyuTan]

So that means wtt forced them to retire?

[@ncrean66]

Personally, it is Liu Guoliang who forced them to withdraw from international competition.

[@teddybearasaurus]

They can play in world championships and other major ittf tournaments

[@浅银D]

@@YanyuTan 樊振东的声明里有这样一句话“本周一收到文件，当天即签字上交”，发现这份退出排名的文件是WTT发给樊振东的，而不是他主动提交的，所以我认为就是wtt在逼迫他们退出排名

[@ArmaanCurrim]

This is completely unfair.

[@4r4chn4]

That whole video just support my statement from before that Ma Long threw the game with Lin Shidong to make him new little dragon. Now Fan says straight that China wants to make new young heroes/dragons while Xu Xin, Ma Long could still play on equal terms with them for a year or two for sure. It can be true that players are exhausted when we saw the trend that chinese players were losing. Wang Chuqin had his moment of weakness but after that he managed to rest a little and is playing fine now. It would rly help if the calendar was known in a January for a whole year (both for fans and sponsors/ streaming media). There are many overlapping tournaments which is now good cause we all now that people low STARS and when they dont shine cause they are absent, people simply lost intrest. I dont know if it can be resolved by contract or not. Never seen one.

[@emorkTLK]

Money rules the world ... unfortunately.

[@somaticHuman]

Can someone explain what the problem is? As I understand it, WTT only wants to see active participants in its 3 main tournaments (Grand, Smash, Finals). What is the problem with participating in these tournaments without intersecting with your national tournaments if you want to maintain your international rating?

[@kerrin6633]

I think it's not always possible as the schedules will frequently overlap. Also, participation and registration and administration for the tournaments don't seem to be clear cut or fully transparent in their fees. It's also that (if you look up Quadri Aruna's same problem), Quadri gets paid to play for his sponsor and associated tournaments, as in it's the athlete's job. For WTT it is an external tournament so to speak and athletes don't earn an income from it. So if the schedules are overlapping perhaps WTT tournament won't be chosen. Someone please correct me if I am wrong but this is my initial understanding.

[@dongiovanni8899]

There're 6 WTT Champions, 4 Smash, 1 Finals per year. Adding this to ITTF World Cup and World Championships, altogether 13 world tournaments. The duration of each tournament is 1 - 2 weeks, which means the players have only about 2 weeks break in average, where they also need to use for specialised training and keeping strict diet and fitness.

[@vinadamsllc]

Possibly we need real players administering the sport internationally?

[@Anonn268]

i think we need a different world Governing body for Table Tennis. Countries like China, France, Sweden, Japan and South Korea should Join together and discard WTT and ITTF, and form a new governing body. The matter must also be referred to the international court of sports arbitration

[@aditsakti420]

fan and chen will play in the american league

[@christmascactus40]

The WTT is trash BTW, with all the rules and formalities.

[@ansman5062]

Doesn’t make sense to me. He withdrew from the 2024 finals and thus should have been fined earlier this month (according to the existing rules, as per Wtt’s statement). And he said he was never officially informed? Did he not read the contract before signing? Additionally, the fines only apply if he withdraws - the Olympic champs don’t want to play? Honestly they haven’t played since the Olympics- they’ve been retired for 6 months already! This penalty thing is just an excuse. The real reason lies with ctta

[@4r4chn4]

We dont know if the contract is for a whole year or number of tournaments or each contract is for each tournament. If he signs for a whole year and do not come then its clear he should pay a fine if that fine is mentioned in a contract. And you are right about ctta - they know/done something for sure :)

[@dongiovanni8899]

The penalty fines are updated

[@Anonn268]

if ctta policies are not player centric promoting ticket sale and marketing over merit, then France with LeBron brothers is ready to take over No.1 position in the table Tennis world. China will ignore player merit at its own peril

[@dongiovanni8899]

that's why they let Félix win WTT Montpellier to attract more French spectators😉

[@xingli9314]

刘国梁建刘家大院狐假虎威威风不够罚款来凑，樊振东引繁星耀眼孤胆英雄雄心不悔罢赛相争！❤

[@daverbook]

What if lesser players had walked out for the same reason? Would you still be critisizing the WTT?

[@philippe8481]

Yes he do

[@dongiovanni8899]

Re: Quadri Aruna

[@kerrin6633]

Yes it happened to Quadri Aruna (Who is the top representative for Nigeria)

[@Japa_2202]

ittf ficou com raiva porque os campeoes olimpicos quiseram tirar uma folga kkkkk devem ter perdido bastante dinheiro pra tomarem essa decisao

[@krissalkond]

Maybe they are also fed up(but dont dare to say..) with the grueling training regiment that comes with reseprent China.

[@wernerandreeloerts]

@maketabletennisgreatagain