Well, officials from Qatar demanded "transparency", "honesty", "integrity" and all that jazz. Sounds amusing, doesn't it? For those at the ITTF Elective Congress who were not allied with the hosts, however, it was not amusing at all; they found the atmosphere in Doha increasingly threatening.
I can't even tell you for sure whether there were further elections after the presidential election, for vice-presidents or for board positions. Everything was lost in a turmoil rarely seen in the scandal-ridden world of sport.
That's what happens when Qatar, which controls large parts of the Olympic sports world – a ‘cancerous tumour’ of sport, as former FIFA executive Theo Zwanziger once said – loses an election.
Then there's no stopping it.
According to my information, the supposed election winner, Petra Sörling, ITTF president since 2021, fled the hall and sought safety. She was protected by staff from the Swedish Embassy and taken to her hotel.
Sörling was by no means the only delegate who feared for her safety. Several people have told me that they fear for their lives.
My newsletter yesterday ("Due to bribery"), for example, was read by large sections of the electorate. ITTF vice president Khalil Al-Mohannadi was furious.
This is one of several messages I received from Doha today, early in the morning:
Khalil was angry and threatened a delegate from a European member association in front of many witnesses because he believed she had passed information to you. He shouted at her and appeared to be out of control. His team had to restrain him before he did anything worse. This incident was reported to the Integrity Unit by several witnesses.
As I reported exclusively last week, there was even a dubious arrest of a table tennis official and former opponent of Qatari presidential candidate Khalil Al-Mohannadi. Swiss national Georg Silberschmidt was threatened with several years in prison while in custody. After political negotiations, he was able to leave the country and is now safe.
Here you can see the appearance of Abdulla Al-Mulla. If I am quoting correctly in the heat of the moment, which I very much hope I am, Al-Mulla is head of the ITTF's Nominations Committee. Al-Mulla, who recently won a case before the ITTF Tribunal, has all the money in the world at his disposal to make good on his threat and legally challenge the election result:
