On the evening of October 3, at the Asian Table Tennis Union Congress held in Doha, Qatar, Khalil Al Mohannadi, president of the Qatar Table Tennis Association, took over as Cai Zhenhua and was elected as the president of the Asian Table Tennis Federation, and Chinese athlete Xu Xin and South Korean coach Kim Zee-so were elected as the vice presidents of the Asian Table Tennis Federation. For Chinese fans, such news is really surprising. After all, at the just-concluded National Games, Xu Xin, who won the mixed doubles championship with Liu Shiwen, also said that he would not retire, who could have imagined that a few days later he would become the vice chairman of the Asian Table Tennis Federation. Such a big contrast not only makes the outside world wonder, but also triggers heated discussion in public opinion, so what is the reason why the Asian Table Tennis Federation selected Xu Xin?
From the perspective of sports diplomacy, the Asian Table Tennis Federation has a history of nearly 50 years since its establishment on May 7, 1972, but in the past 20 years, the voice of the Asian Table Tennis Federation has been firmly in the hands of Chinese, and during the time when Li Furong (2001-2009) and Cai Zhenhua (2009-2021) were at the helm of the Asian Table Tennis Federation, Mohannadi was the vice president.
Today, the Asian Table Tennis Federation has changed, Muhannadi "corrected" has no suspense, in addition to because under his leadership, Qatar has also become a popular place to host international table tennis events, more importantly, as the first vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation, In May last year, Muhannadi and the executive vice president of the International Table Tennis Federation Finance Sorin launched a campaign against the current chairman, the German Victor. Now, Victor has decided not to participate in the ITTF presidency election on November 24, and as the only candidate to announce his candidacy for the president of the ITTF, Swede Sorin, before officially becoming the first female president in the history of the ITTF, her "close comrade-in-arms" Muhannadi joined the Asian Table Tennis Federation.
It is worth noting that in the International Table Tennis Federation election in November, 17 people, including Liu Guoliang, president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, will compete for the position of executive vice president of the 8 ITTF, while primoracc, president of the Croatian Table Tennis Association, and Yoo Seung-min, president of the Korean Table Tennis Association, will continue to stay on the executive committee as the chairman of the ITTF Athletes' Committee and a member of the International Olympic Committee. From the perspective of maintaining the current Power Structure of Asian Table Tennis, at the level of the Asian Table Tennis Federation, everything will be led by Mohannadi, and the influence of Liu Guoliang and Liu Chengmin is mainly reflected in the level of the International Table Tennis Federation, so neither of them participated in the change of the Asian Table Tennis Federation.
In addition, Xu Xin and Kim Hee-so were elected as athletes and coaches respectively, rather than as sports officials, as vice presidents of the Asian Table Tennis Federation, which undoubtedly reflects their representativeness. After all, compared with the International Table Tennis Federation under more than ten special committees, the organization of the Asian Table Tennis Federation is not so clear and detailed, so Xu Xin and Kim Cho-so are very representative of the election, Xu Xin is a representative of China, he is standing on the stand of athletes, Kim Seo-so represents South Korea, he is standing on the position of coaches.