Overview
- Eastside manager Andreas Hain announced on Friday that the club will travel to the Final Four but keep top players such as Nina Mittelham and Xiaona Shan at home as a protest against ETTU policy.
- The club’s stated objections focus on the single-site Poland venue removing key home matches, prize money the club calls ‘very low,’ and a reworked Champions League format that Eastside says reduces exposure for women's table tennis.
- In place of its stars Eastside has sent a youth trio—Yuka Kaneyoshi, Josi Neumann and Mia Griesel—to Tarnobrzeg to gain experience while making the protest visible on the competition stage.
- Eastside still faces its national league final the following week with first leg at TSV Dachau 65 on May 29 and the return leg at home on May 31, creating overlapping sporting and commercial pressures for the club.
- As defending Champions League winner with six continental titles since 2012, Eastside’s public stand highlights growing tensions between top clubs and the European Table Tennis Union over money, match rights and the platform for women’s sport.