Unfortunately it was defeated although the Swedish representative gave a very good explanation and also indicated that this was the wish of the players in Sweden and that it was voted in Sweden first and then brought up to the ITTF. The comments of the Board member from Sweden convinced me. But most of the arguments against were stating that it is not necessary to change the current rule because national association do not need to follow it. This was actually the argument of several board members and it seemed to prevail. The vote was overwhelmingly against. I believe only 4 or 5 voted in favour (there were 43 members present (4 members absent).
