By Kannan Raj
National men’s table tennis player Li Hu has been sacked by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA).
On 24 October, the STTA disciplinary committee comprising of Lim Soon Hock, who was the Chairman of the disciplinary committee and management committee members Han Ngge Juan and Lee Yan Peng meted out the action after the disciplinary investigation and hearing.
Mr Lim Soon Hock, Chairman of the disciplinary committee said, “The STTA does not tolerate indiscipline. Li Hu’s repeated breaches of the Code of Conduct is a cause of serious concern to the STTA. Despite being verbally warned on several occasions, Li Hu continued to breach the dormitory and house rules. His insubordination is unacceptable and is not tolerated. It was a unanimous decision by the Disciplinary Committee to terminate Li Hu’s contract for his repeated code of conduct breaches.”
According to the STTA, Li Hu displayed “insolence, insubordination and continued to violate house rules despite verbal warnings”.
Li Hu was caught bringing a female stranger into the dormitory on previous occasions and was given more than one verbal warning for incidents flouting the dormitory and house rules.
His misconduct was also captured clearly on the STTA CCTV.
The video footages show that the female stranger will visit the dormitory late in the night regularly and leave in the mornings, and on some occasions during working hours.
The STTA’s decision to terminate Li Hu was also based on his track record with the association during his employment and he also had other disciplinary issues throughout his employment with the STTA.
On 18th January 2016, Li Hu was issued a warning letter for another indiscretion, in which he had apparently falsified claims. For this, he was issued a warning letter and he was also informed by writing that any further misconduct will warrant a termination of his employment.
Li Hu’s sacking comes just days after he was said to be assisting the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau for an alleged bribe offer which was made to an STTA official.
The matter is still being investigated.
TOC understands that the STTA is set to make changes to both its men’s and women’s national teams after a disastrous 2016 Rio Olympics showing in which Singapore returned with no medals from the table tennis competition, a first since 2008.
