Miscellaneous

The second-division champion will not be exercising its right to promotion to Germany’s top division; TSV Windsbach has decided not to join the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL). The club initially announced this on Easter Saturday via Instagram. “Over the past six to eight weeks, we have been unable to secure the structural and financial conditions necessary to ensure a sustainable and successful establishment in the TTBL.”

Windsbach had applied for a TTBL spot by the deadline, but had consistently emphasized that it intended to pursue a dual-track approach and carefully evaluate a TTBL commitment. The TSV had set a deadline of the end of March for this decision. The team currently at the bottom of the TTBL standings, ASC Grünwettersbach (coached by Kilian Ort), is effectively the beneficiary of Windsbach’s withdrawal, as it can now plan for the upcoming first-division season despite its last-place standing.

“Sad and disappointed, but we’ll fight back.”

"We’re all sad and disappointed, but I think it’s a wise decision. The club’s well-being comes first. The risk is simply too great, and if we’re not fully convinced, then that’s not the path we want to take. We wanted to enter the TTBL in a sustainable and competitive way. That just wasn’t feasible for us in such a short time. We must not let emotions override reason,“ explains manager Andreas Staudacher. ”It’s not our goal to move up just once and then perhaps get relegated again and cause a lot of damage. We’ve built up too much here in Windsbach for that—with up to 300 spectators recently and, overall, tremendous support from the town," Staudacher continues.

The last eight weeks have been among the most exhausting of his life, he says; they tried everything, gathered plenty of information, and attempted to put together a team capable of competing in the TTBL. “We owed it to the championship team—and especially to our top players Jakob and Tom—to try everything. But the two of them also understand that it doesn’t make sense this way,” says Staudacher.

It’s virtually impossible to find a European player suitable for the TTBL at this point

The manager attributes the main reason to the late stage of TTBL planning. “We simply had far too little time; the title came as a surprise to us. Most teams are already set by January. It’s almost impossible to sign European players at the end of March or beginning of April who are both affordable and can help us improve on the court.” Andreas Staudacher did hold talks with one or two candidates, “but we simply wouldn’t have been fully convinced.”

Safety concept, storage—structural reasons also spoke against it

In addition to the sporting challenges, there were also structural ones. These include a safety concept that must be approved by an architect and submitted to the TTBL. “We probably wouldn’t have been able to meet that deadline,” says Staudacher. In addition, the city would have faced a significant amount of organizational work, which would also have been difficult to accomplish in such a short time. “We play in a school gym and would now need significantly more space for storage, for example for the red flooring,” Staudacher cites as an example.

No rush job, but an offensive strategy for the coming season

The Windsbach sponsors fully understood the decision, “especially since they, too, want us to make positive headlines. If we’re not competitive, that’s going to be difficult,” says Staudacher. In any case, it’s clear that many companies aren’t exactly rolling in money, because many are struggling themselves.

“Ultimately, it would have turned into a last-ditch effort on our part. We didn’t want that.” But Andreas Staudacher remains determined. “Then we’ll just try again and go for it next season. Our team is strong and will stay together. We now have much more knowledge and a year to take care of the organizational matters, and we’re already initiating structural changes.”

Helpful contacts with TTBL clubs

Staudacher would like to express his sincere thanks to the representatives of the TTBL clubs: "That was truly remarkable. Both Bad Königshofen with Andy Albert and the managers from Mühlhausen and Saarbrücken—they helped us a lot in our efforts, and Andy in particular would have loved to have the derby. But they were also very open and already knew that it would be difficult for us at such a late stage."

By the way, Staudacher received almost daily updates from Grünwettersbach, who, sitting at the bottom of the TTBL standings, were worried about staying in the league. "After I had informed the team via Zoom and the sponsors about our decision to withdraw, I called Martin Werner from Grünwettersbach directly. We could have strung them along for another week, but I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. And their players want some certainty in their planning, too.”

Source: BBTV
Featured image above (from left to right): Jakub Folwarski, Tom Schweiger (Photo: Martin Rügner)