Khalil Al Mohannadi, President of the Arab Table Tennis Federation and Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) and ITTF First Vice-President.
Doha: The United States, Turkey, Italy and the United Arab Emirates has announced their withdrawal from the race to host the 2025 World Table Tennis Championship, leaving only Qatar, Spain and Germany to compete for the hosting bid.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) inspection committee will continue to visit the bidding countries in order to determine the readiness of venues, facilities, hotels and infrastructure.
ITTF will announce the winning country to organize the world championship on the sidelines of ITTFs next General Assembly meeting, to be held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on December 10 and 11.
The Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) officially submitted a bid to host the 2025 Table Tennis World Cup competition last July, making it the second time for Qatar to host this championship after it organized the 2004 edition, which was very successful from the technical and organizational point of view.
Throughout the history of world championships, no Arab country has hosted the tournament except Egypt, which hosted it in 83 years ago (1939), and Qatar being the second.
Competing for the hosting rights of the championship is expected to be fierce since it will be an exceptional edition. It is the last tournament before the huge celebration of the 100th anniversary of founding the ITTF in London in 2026.
Khalil Al Mohannadi, President of the Arab Table Tennis Federation and Qatar Table Tennis Association (QTTA) and ITTF First Vice-President, said that all the hosting candidate countries have a long history on the international table tennis scene as well as sports in general, acknowledging the difficulty of competing for hosting.
Al Mohannadi said in a press statement that Qatar has great confidence in itself, stemming from its contributions to the game. Furthermore, he promised the world that Qatar's application dossier will be distinct, as it includes a unique representation of modern Qatar including its: airport, metro, sports halls and venues, hotels, and infrastructure of the highest level.
Al Mohannadi added that the inspection committee will evaluate all such details, expressing his hopes that Qatar wins the hosting bid, although the task will not be easy at all, since all other bids are competitive.
"Qatar will compete vigorously to organize this event, and has already started putting together a preparatory committee in order to ensure it meets all the international federation's requirements, as well as those of the inspection committee before their visit to the country," Al Mohannadi said.
Qatar has already hosted five major international table tennis events over the course of last March, which is clear proof of the confidence that ITTF has in QTTA: given the accumulated experience and competence of the State of Qatar in administration and organization: characterized by professionalism and the ability to organize successful major international events.
