THE International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) yesterday issued a statement on three Chinese players forfeiting their matches at the China Open, saying “all potential sanctions are on the table.”

The world governing body of table tennis said in the statement that it is “taking this matter extremely seriously.”

“Right now, all potential sanctions are on the table, and the ITTF will continue its investigation before any decisions are made,” it said in the statement.

The top three players in the world — Ma Long, Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin — didn’t turn up for their matches at China Open on Friday. Two coaches also failed to show up.

The ITTF said it had “received a preliminary statement from the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) and a public apology from the CTTA” and waited for “a detailed report from the CTTA and also from the ITTF officials on site outlining in more detail as to why the three players failed to turn up for their round of 16 matches.”

The Chinese table tennis national team issued an apology Saturday, saying the players forfeited their matches “on impulse without fully understanding the details of the modifications that will be made to the management of the team.”

“We have deeply realized the seriousness of this fault” and “we sincerely accept the criticism from all sectors of society, and apologize to all fans and spectators,” the apology said.

A few minutes later, Ma, Fan and Xu posted the same apology on their Weibo accounts.

Their no-show prompted China’s top sports authority to order an investigation and reprimand the players, saying they had “ignored national honor and interests” and “disrespected the public.”

The trio’s elimination from the tournament came after they posted online protests over the removal of Liu Guoliang, who had been the Chinese team’s head coach for more than a decade.

“At this moment we don’t like to play anymore because we miss you, Liu Guoliang,” the players said in identical posts on China’s Weibo. The two absent coaches posted the same message.

Liu, a former Grand Slam champion, lost his coaching job in a restructuring announced by the CTTA last week.

The shake-up has been a hot topic in table tennis-mad China, where the sport has a huge following.

Last month Kong Linghui was replaced as head coach of the women’s table tennis team following a gambling debt scandal, sparking a social media frenzy.

The CTTA released a statement defending the changes, saying they aimed to “strengthen the team structure, reduce the level of management hierarchy, and improve the efficiency of the preparation for the Olympic Games.”(SD-Xinhua)