European Club Cup of Champions
The European Cup or European Champions Cup ( officially ECCC - European Club Cup of Champions ) was a European table tennis competition for club teams. It was conducted by the European Table Tennis Association ETTU annually for women's and men's teams.
Implementation
Eligible to play were the current national team champion of ETTU member associations as well as the European champions the previous season. In the 1960/61 season the competition was first held for men and three years later for women. Win a team loses the first leg and the second leg, then a play is set: From 1994/95 the final of the mode " best of three " has been disputed.
2001, the European Cup was replaced by the Succession Event Champions League.
Trends
In the early years, mostly Eastern European teams dominated the competition in the men until the late 1970s, with the ladies - especially the Hungarian club Statisztika Budapest - until the end of the 1980s. This led Kenner back to the targeted promotion of table tennis in the east, the players were optimum training opportunities and good trainers. Later increasingly gained Western European teams, very often German, the Cup. The reason the increasing professionalization is called: Sponsors were obtained, requiring foreign top players.
1986 ETTU Congress that in a team more than a foreigner may be employed decided.