ETTU Awards 2028 European U13 and U21 Championships: Władysławowo and Sarajevo, Two Pieces of a Long-Term Map

In 2028, as the Los Angeles Olympics dominate every sports headline, two youth table tennis tournaments in Europe will unfold almost in silence. Władysławowo, a small town on Poland's Baltic coast, will host the under-13 players. Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will stage the under-21 event. This decision was made by the Executive Board of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) in a quiet meeting, but it says a great deal about how the continent is viewing its future. The first thing that struck me when reading the announcement was the silence. No stars were named. No matches were reported. No performance statistics were cited. Just two geographical names, two age categories, and one target year. In the world of sports news, this is the kind of information people usually scroll past. But after 35 years of observing the industry, I have learned that administrative decisions like these are often the first bricks of a much larger structure. In the European table tennis competition system, youth championships are not the stage for stars. They are laboratories. U13 is where children are first taken out of local training halls to face international pressure. U21 is where young players who have passed the basic development stage must prove they can enter the professional ranks. Between those two milestones lies a span of eight years - enough for a twelve-year-old to become a twenty-year-old, enough for a basic stroke to become a tactical weapon. ETTU, as the continental governing body, does not just organize elite events. It operates a development machine, and awarding hosting rights is part of that machine. When a country is chosen as host, it does not merely receive the right to stage an event. It receives an incentive to invest in facilities, in youth training, in coaching systems. That is how European table tennis tries to close the gap with Asia, where China, Japan, and South Korea still dominate. What is notable is that both championships were awarded to locations outside Europe's traditional table tennis powers. Władysławowo is not a world-famous table tennis center, though Poland has a solid sporting tradition. Sarajevo is even less mentioned on the international table tennis map. This is not a coincidence. This is a strategy - or at least, that is what ETTU wants us to believe. When ETTU awarded U13 to Władysławowo and U21 to Sarajevo, it was doing two things at once. First, it was spreading risk and opportunity. Second, it was sending a signal about how it wants to develop the sport. Let us start with the venues. Cetniewo, the sports facility in Władysławowo, is one of Poland's oldest training centers. It is not a glamorous arena with thousands of seats. It is a training facility where athletes come to work. Choosing such a place for the U13 event is a statement of priorities. ETTU is not seeking glamour for the youngest age group. It is seeking a development environment. And in a sport where technical foundations are formed very early, choosing a training center over a large arena is a meaningful decision. Arena Hills in Sarajevo is a different story. It is a modern arena with a larger capacity, suitable for a U21 event - where young players are already close to professional level. Choosing Bosnia and Herzegovina for the U21 event is not just a technical decision. It is a political and developmental commitment. The Balkans is a region where European table tennis wants deeper penetration, and Sarajevo - with its complex history and geographical position - is an important anchor point. But the question is whether a smaller country has enough resources to host a continental event. But what really caught my attention is the timing. 2028 is an Olympic year. Los Angeles will be the center of the entire global sports industry. In such a year, youth championships are often overshadowed. No television station will devote hours to an U13 match while Olympic stars are competing. So why did ETTU place two youth championships in that exact year? There may be logic behind it. First, youth competition calendars often do not depend on the Olympic calendar. They have their own cycle. Second, and more importantly, holding youth events in an Olympic year may be a way to leverage the general wave of sports interest. When the public is paying attention to sports, introducing the next generation may be more effective than in an ordinary year. But that is a gamble, and it requires a communications strategy that ETTU has never demonstrated before. However, I do not want to paint an overly optimistic picture. There is a stark truth in European table tennis: the gap with Asia remains very large. European youth championships may be talent incubators, but the number of European players breaking into the world's top 20 at senior level remains very small. Awarding hosting rights is a step in the right direction, but it does not solve the core problem. And this is where I must address a less-noticed aspect of this story. In table tennis, as in any sport, youth development does not depend solely on hosting tournaments. It depends on the quality of the training system, on the quality of coaches, and on whether young players get to compete regularly. A U13 tournament held every two years cannot replace a strong national competition system. Here, my experience tracking talent development systems in various countries gives me a perspective. The countries that succeed in producing world-class players are not the ones that host the most youth tournaments. They are the ones with the most methodical training systems, with well-trained coaches and a competitive culture built from the ground up. Tournaments are only the tip of the iceberg. That does not mean ETTU's decision is meaningless. On the contrary, it could be a catalyst. When a country knows it will host an international tournament in a few years, it has an incentive to invest. National federations can use the event as a reason to persuade governments and sponsors to invest in infrastructure. That is an effect I have seen in many parts of the world. But that effect only works if there is a long-term plan. If the host country focuses only on staging a successful one-week event, the legacy will disappear once the flame is extinguished. If it focuses on building a system, the legacy will last for decades. The difference between these two approaches is enormous. In the history of European table tennis, there were periods when youth championships were held in major centers like Stockholm, Paris, or Moscow. Those tournaments had media presence, audiences, sponsors. But over time, attention shifted to elite events, and youth championships became more modest affairs. ETTU's choice of Władysławowo and Sarajevo may be an adaptation to that reality, or it may be an attempt to change it. Data does not lie, but it only whispers to those who listen. And in this case, the data is whispering that European table tennis is searching for a new direction. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, table tennis is not the most popular sport. The country has traditions in football and basketball, but table tennis remains a relatively small sport. Hosting a European U21 championship could be an opportunity to change that, but it also poses challenges in terms of facilities, personnel, and the ability to attract audiences. An empty summer is a summer of silent deep dives. In this case, those deep dives will take place in Sarajevo over the next two years. In Asia, youth talent development systems operate on a different logic. China has thousands of training centers across its provinces, with professional coaches and a competition system from grassroots to national level. Japan has a tightly organized school sports system. South Korea has high-quality private academies. Europe, with its structure of independent national federations, often struggles to create a unified system. That is one of the reasons why the gap between Europe and Asia remains large. In any development system, the most invisible player is often the one who controls the rhythm of the match. In table tennis, that may be a player with no standout stroke, but with the ability to control tempo and put opponents in difficult positions. In development work, that may be the grassroots coaches, working in silence to build foundations for the next generation. When we talk about the legacy of a tournament, we usually think of champions. But the real legacy lies with the invisible ones - the coaches, the organizers, the people who worked for years to turn an event into a turning point. The counterintuitive angle here is this: ETTU's choice of locations outside traditional table tennis centers may not be a bold development strategy, but a sign of limited options. Think about it. If major cities with strong table tennis traditions wanted to host, they would host. But when a federation has to turn to lesser-known regions, it may be because there were not enough attractive candidates. Or it may be because traditional centers are no longer interested in investing in youth events. In either case, that is not a good sign for the health of European table tennis. This is the blind spot of administrative analysis. We often see a decision and assume it is part of a strategic plan. But sometimes, it is simply the result of what is available. There is no information about other candidates in ETTU's announcement. No evaluation criteria were published. No transparent bidding process was described. That is a governance issue. When hosting decisions are made without transparency, it is hard to know whether it is strategy or merely compromise. I have witnessed this across many sports. Federations often present administrative decisions as part of a grand vision, but the reality is usually more complex. Sometimes, it is a right decision made for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, it is a wrong decision made for the right reasons. And sometimes, it is simply a decision made because there was no other choice. With ETTU, I do not have enough information to conclude. But I know that transparency matters. If ETTU wants to convince its members that it is pursuing a genuine development strategy, it needs to publish evaluation criteria and the bidding process. Otherwise, decisions like these will always be viewed with suspicion. What I will be watching over the next two years is not the names of the 2028 U13 or U21 champions. I will be watching whether Władysławowo and Sarajevo actually invest in infrastructure and youth training during the preparation period. Because a tournament lasts only a week, but its legacy can last for decades. And in table tennis, where the difference between leading table tennis nations and the rest of the world is decided by the smallest details, legacy is everything. The question is not who will win in Władysławowo or Sarajevo. The question is whether these tournaments can change the map of European table tennis.