by Olalekan Okusan, ITTF Africa Press Officer

Recently, Omar Assar joined Borussia Düsseldorf after spending one season with Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga; furthermore, he has started the season on the high with the German champions.

Having not competed in the recent ITTF African Championships, the Egyptian will be hoping to prove a point against Quadri Aruna, when potentially they could go head-to-head in the lucrative Champions League.

Notably Borussia Düsseldorf includes recently crowned European champion in Alicante, Timo Boll in their squad alongside India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta plus the Swedish duo of Kristian Karlsson and Anton Kälberg. Moreover, Borussia Düsseldorf currently leads the German Bundesliga.

Meanwhile, for Sporting who made their debut in the Champions League last year and excelled expectations to reach the semi-finals, Bode Abiodun, like Quadri Aruna from Nigeria alongside Portuguese internationals João Monteiro and Diogo Carvalho complete the squad.

Sporting and Borussia Düsseldorf appear in Group A, a group in which the French champions Pontoise Cergy as well as TTC Ostrava from the Czech Republic are also named

Pontoise Cergy select from Can Akkuzu, Patrick Baum, Tristan Flore, Mattias Karlsson and Dany Lo; for TTC Ostrava, the squad comprises Ondrej Bajger, Petr Korbel, Tomas Koldas, Felipe Olivares and Tomas Tregler.

The two top teams in each group progress to the quarter-final stage of the competition, the third placed teams in each group compete in the ETTU Cup.