European Championships

The European Table Tennis Championships first took place in 1958 in Hungary.

Initially it was a biennial event, taking place in even numbered years, but now it's held every year during September or October.

The European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) is the governing body for table tennis in Europe.

Set up in 1957, they are the only authority recognised by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for governing and developing table tennis in Europe.

According to the latest information, more than 4 million people are playing competition table tennis in the territory controlled by the ETTU. And with its 57 Member Associations, the ETTU is the largest of the 6 Continental Table Tennis Federations recognised by the ITTF.

So, the European TT Championships are organised each year by one member Association from the ETTU.

In 1956, following a decision by the ITTF to hold the World Table Tennis Championships biannually after the 1957 World Championships in Stockholm, the ITTF invited the European Table Tennis Associations to consider the possibility of holding European Table Tennis Championships in the intervening alternate (even) years.

After several meetings between representatives of European Associations, it was on 13th March 1957 that the European Table Tennis Union was set up by the following Associations:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Czechoslovakia
• Finland
• France
• German Democratic Republic
• Federal Republic of Germany
• Hungary
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• Soviet Union
• Wales
• Yugoslavia

A board of seven people were elected to organise the first European Championships, and the Hungarian Association offered to hold it in Budapest in 1958.

Here's a list of where the European Championships have taken place ...

The next European Table Tennis Championships will take place in Herning (Denmark) from 17th to 21 October 2012 (individual events only)

The European Championship events are ...

• Men's Team
• Women's Team
  
  
• Men's Singles
• Women's Singles
  
  
• Men's Doubles
• Women's Doubles

Team Events ...

For the team events a division format is used.

16 teams make up the Championships Division whilst 16 teams are in the Challenge Division and the remaining teams make up a Standard Division.

Only teams in the Championships Division can win the title of European Champions.

In the Championships Division, the teams are seeded into four groups. Each team competes against the other three teams in their group and matches are the best of five sets.

The winner and runner-up of each group then advance to the quarter finals whereupon the competition is a straight knock-out, best of five sets.

Individual Events ...

Individual events are played on a knockout basis.

Matches in individual events are the best of 7 games, except doubles events up to the quarter-finals, which are the best of 5 games.

There are a maximum 128 places in the 1st round proper of the singles events and not more than 64 places in the 1st round proper of men's and women's doubles events.

Qualification rounds will be in groups of 3 to 8 players using a knock-out system.

An Association can only enter one team in each team event and they can enter up to 5 players in a men's team and up to 5 players in a women's team.

For the individual events the organising Association can enter up to 16 players, consisting of not more than 10 men and not more than 10 women.

Any other Association can enter up to 10 players, consisting of not more than 6 men and not more than 6 women.

Within these limits different players can be entered for the team events and for the singles and doubles.

Seeding for team events will be on the basis of the final positions in the previous European Championships.

Seeding for individual events will be based on the last European Ranking List published before the championships.

Seeding for doubles events will be on the basis of a seeding list prepared by the Ranking Committee.

Here are the results from previous European Championships ...

2008 - St Petersburg, Russia

2009 - Stuttgart, Germany

2010 - Ostrava, Czech Republic

2011 - Gdansk-Sopot (Poland)