Union Bank Sports Club, Police Machine and seven others clubs are set for the for the official serve off of the national league Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) fixed for October 9.
According to the Secretary of NTTF, Ezealah-Ogundare, the league became necessary following the success of the pilot league staged early this year, while 30 teams across the country are expected to take part in the tournament holding at the National Stadium in Lagos.
Four players are expected to make up a team and the Olympics system of play would be used in order to acquaint the players with the new format of play.
Also, the new International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) approved plastic balls will be during the competition in order to acquaint the players with the new balls.
According to the national coach, Nosiru Bello, the new ITTF approved balls would be deployed during the competition as this ball would be used in most ITTF major competitions including the forthcoming African Championships holding in November in Sudan.
According to the referee of the competition, John Peters, the tournament would also help the federation to select players for the forthcoming African Championship while individual performance would be considered in the final selection of the players.
In the prospectus, the league would involve 20 male and 10 female teams made up of four players per team and they are expected to garner points to qualify for the top eight and top four, which is the grand finale holding on October 17 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The deadline of team’s registration has been fixed for October 3 while teams are expected to arrive Lagos for the competition on October 8 to finalise their registration for the championship scheduled to hold at the knock-up hall of the National Stadium.
“We want to ensure that our players are in top shape for major competitions and this is one of the ways we want to achieve this. Also, we are going to use it to select the remaining two slots in the male national team for the African Championship holding in Sudan.
Already three players have been penciled down based on their performance in recent times and we also want to give the local players the opportunity to be part of the team and that is why we are going to use the competition to pick the remaining two players.
In the female category, we are hoping that we can pick the best to represent the country in Sudan. We want to be selecting players based on their recent form and with this tournament we will do this,” the NTTF scribe said.
Other teams lined up for the league are Springfresh, Union Maritime, G20, Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, Sunshine of Akure, Calabar Rovers, Rivers Angel and a host of others.