The enlarged version of the biggest table tennis event on earth was approved at the 2018 ITTF Board of Directors meeting and will now include a series of continental and intercontinental stages, all leading to the World Championship Finals, which will include the best of the best from the previous stages.

It is claimed this means that the World Championship Final still offers the incredible global reach of 500 million fans, but is more viable for more potential cities and countries across the world to organise.

The interest phase of the bidding process is due to run until September 30 and will be followed by the final bid phase from October 10 to December 31.

The evaluation of the bids is scheduled to take place in January and February of next year.

Bidders will then be invited to present at the ITTF Annual General Meeting in April, when a vote will be held on the host for the Finals.

"The new World Table Tennis Championship Finals makes hosting the world’s biggest table tennis event more attractive to host than ever before," ITTF chief executive Steve Dainton said.

"We are looking forward to having a record number of bidders from all across the globe bid for the event, as it is now a much more attractive proposition to host, with less players and teams and more potential media values and promotional opportunities with a more flexible format."

The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be an individual event consisting of five categories; men’s singles, women’s singles, mixed doubles, men’s doubles and women’s doubles.

The men’s and women’s singles will be a straight knock-out of 128 players, while the mixed doubles will be a straight knock-out of 128 pairs, and the men’s and women’s doubles a straight knock-out of 64 pairs.

The 2022 World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be a team event, with the best 32 men’s and women’s sides playing in a first stage consisting of eight groups of four teams.

The top two teams from each group will progress to a 16-team knock-out stage that will determine the winner.

The ITTF claims the new World Championship Finals will be a table tennis festival that will promote all facets of the sport and the city that it is held in around the world.

The new format allows for all matches to be televised globally and for flexible scheduling to ensure that the key contests are being held at prime times to assist with ticket sales and television viewership.

The format of the continental stages is still being discussed by the ITTF Future Events Working Group, which will propose the format for ratification at the Board of Directors meeting in April. 

The most recent edition of the World Table Tennis Championships was held in German city Düsseldorf in 2017, while Halmstad in Sweden played host to this year's World Team Table Tennis Championships.