Table tennis lawyer
Table tennis runs on rulebooks, from the club hall to the ITTF
In Flanders the Vlaamse Tafeltennisliga organises the competition. In Wallonia and Brussels the Aile Francophone de Tennis de Table does the same. Each league has its own competition rules, its own transfer rules and its own disciplinary bodies. Whoever builds a team, signs a player or challenges a result works inside the rulebook of that league. We assist players, parents, coaches, clubs and club boards.
Above the leagues sit the European Table Tennis Union and the International Table Tennis Federation. They set the international calendar, the admission to European club competitions and the rules on equipment, licences and conduct. Anti-doping testing runs through NADO Vlaanderen or the ONAD and follows the World Anti-Doping Code. A sports case often ends before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
What we do in table tennis
These are the files that reach our desk most often.
Club and player agreements
We put the arrangements between a club and a player on paper: the fee, the expenses, the number of matches, the training duty and the term. Every party then knows in advance what applies, and a later discussion does not have to rest on memory.
Transfers between clubs
A move to another club follows the transfer rules of your league and the set transfer period. We check whether the membership was terminated correctly, whether a refusal by the old club holds, and what a transfer means for your ranking and for your team.
Competition rules and contested matches
A forfeit, an ineligible player, an error on the match sheet or a contested result affects the standings of a whole division. We run the complaint or the defence before the competent committee of the league.
Discipline and sanctions
A suspension, a fine or an exclusion after an incident in the hall opens a disciplinary procedure. We defend players, coaches and clubs, and we watch the right of defence, the reasons given for the decision and the access to the file.
Anti-doping
A test in or out of competition runs under the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation, the World Anti-Doping Code and the Belgian anti-doping organisation. We assist you from the notification onwards, we guard every deadline and we present the defence.
Selection and international play
A non-selection for a national team or a refused licence for a European competition is a decision you can challenge. We test the criteria, the reasons and the procedure, and we file the appeal with the competent body.
How a table tennis lawyer runs your file
Who decides
A competition dispute starts before the committee of the Vlaamse Tafeltennisliga or of the Aile Francophone de Tennis de Table. An appeal within the league or the national federation follows, in Belgium often before the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport. Internationally the ETTU, the ITTF or the CAS decides.
The deadlines
A complaint about a match usually has to arrive within a few days after the match, sometimes with a fee. A disciplinary appeal runs just as short. An appeal to the CAS normally runs for twenty-one days. A late complaint is inadmissible.
What you do first
Keep the match sheet, the decision, the rulebook and every e-mail, with the date you received it. Have the referee or the official record the facts while they are fresh. Call or write to us with the date of the decision, and we set the deadline together.
Volunteers, allowances and status
In a table tennis club most people are paid nothing, or very little, and the label on that payment matters.
The volunteer and the cost allowance
A volunteer may receive a cost allowance without becoming an employee, but only inside the limits and the conditions that the volunteer rules set. Paying above them, or paying for work that in practice looks like an ordinary job, can turn the relationship into employment with contributions owed on top. We check what a club actually pays and how it records that.
Coaches and trainers
A coach can work as a volunteer, as a self-employed person or as an employee. The correct label follows from the way the work is really organised, not from the word written in the contract. We review the arrangement, we set out the risk that it is requalified afterwards, and we put the agreement on a footing that holds.
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