THE Nigerian Table Tennis scene is set to explode.

After many years of sweeping victories in the continent and producing Africa's best Ping Pongers, the Nigerian Table Tennis Federation has finally endorsed the 1st Professional Table Tennis League Season to be called Champions' League Table Tennis Circuit, CHALTTEC.

What that means is that the Nigerian players can now earn a living on the sport at home without necessarily going through the harrowing experience of going abroad to pursue their career. With the coming of the Champions League Circuit, players can now earn respectable prize money weekly based on their performance. And the Promoters of the Champions League, Alfred Succi Nigeria Limited, have vowed to take the game beyond the continent.

"We have been monitoring with keen interest Nigeria's exploits in the continent. Their records place them above any other African country and they have produced exciting players who equally have proved their worth in different leagues in the World. Expectations are high that in no distant time, Nigeria will take over the world scene. And this is where we enter.

We have come to smoothen the environment and revive the sagging confidence in the players who are beginning to see the sport as not as lucrative as other sports including almighty football", Dike Dimiri, the Marketing Director of Succi said. With a sound knowledge of the game and the players, Dimiri said that they would turn around the fortunes of the players and the game to make it competitive for other companies to scramble to sponsor.

"Not so many companies are willing to spin with the game, now. It is an interesting game that holds the spectators spell-bound. I assure you that once we revive the game, the companies will fall over themselves to be part of it". He noted that it was in recognition of these opportunities that the Champions' League Table Tennis Circuit was being organised by his company. Sports Vanguard gathered that the Champions' League would be played as a Mens' Singles Event tournament and would last eight weeks.

The first seven weeks make up the Circuit and serve as pre-qualification tournaments for the Champion's League Table Tennis Competition. During these seven weeks, players would compete for points once a week and also win prize money based on their performance each week. At the close of the 7th week, the top 16 players on the points table qualify for the Champions' League tournament to be held in the 8th week.

The Champions League Competition involves the top 16 players from the 7 week circuit tournaments and is organised in four stages.