Paradox: the Olympic Games struggle to arouse desire among metropolises, particularly in Europe. But the list of candidate sports for entry into the program is growing like a bank card receipt on the first day of sales.
At SportAccord 2018, last month in Bangkok, the most noticed of the lot surprised more than one. Teqball, a Hungarian invention, created an event by installing a game table among the stands in the exhibition hall at the Centara Grand & Convention Center in the Thai capital. Its international federation, FITEQ, had invited a handful of players to perform demonstrations. The operation was a hit.
Gergely Muranyi, director of media production at FITEQ, calmly explains: “ We are a young sport, and an even younger federation. But we aim to one day reach the Olympic Games. We are patient, but we make no secret of our desire to convince the Paris 2024 team. To do this, we met Tony Estanguet (the president of the COJO Paris 2024) and Etienne Thobois (the Director General). »
In the youth rankings, teqball has few competitors. An astonishing mix of football and table tennis, played on a slightly rounded ping-pong table, it was presented to the public for the first time in June 2014. In Budapest, the land of its birth.
In April 2017, its Hungarian founders officially created FITEQ, International Teqball Federation. In french in the text. Uncommon. “ French is, historically, the language of sports diplomacy, explains Gergely Muranyi. Teqball is a young sport, certainly, but attached to a certain tradition. " Well seen.
On paper, his chances of one day entering the Games seem slim. His delay compared to applicants more established in the landscape – squash, surfing, climbing, baseball/softball, etc. – condemns him a priori to wait in the corridor. His young team knows it. But she does not refrain from shaking up the hierarchy.
To date, FITEQ has only 5 member countries: Japan, France, Malta, Portugal and Canada. But around thirty national federations are currently in the process of registering. A first World Cup was organized in June 2017 in Budapest. The second will take place next October in Reims. Robert Pirès, the former Arsenal and French team player, will be its godfather. He is among the cohort of teqball ambassadors, with Carlos Puyol, Christian Karambeu, Gianfranco Zola, William Gallas and Landon Donovan.
Fun and technical, accessible and affordable (a table costs 2.000 to 2.500 euros), teqball presents itself as “a complement to football”, free of contact and the risk of injury.
FITEQ has offices in Budapest and Los Angeles, but a head office in Lausanne. A stone's throw from the IOC. A strategic position. Last February, she claimed more than 250.000 fans on Facebook. At the start of the year, it reached nearly 8 million Internet users on social networks.
Enough to build an Olympic sport profile? The future will answer. At a time when the IOC is struggling to rejuvenate both its audience and its image, teqball certainly has some advantages. Despite its youth, the discipline does not lack resources. Its trio of founders, all of Hungarian origin, includes a certain Gyuri Gattyan. Little known outside his country, this businessman and patron made his fortune thanks to a webcam and streaming site. According to Forbes, he would today be the third richest man in Hungary.
