Like many international federations the ITTF was predominantly established as a body through which affiliate nations might be lead:

In inviting representatives from Austria, England, Germany, Hungary and Sweden to attend a tournament, which was to include a meeting of the above representatives, to Berlin it may be suggested that the drive towards the formation of the ITTF in 1926 had been increased. It appears that many actions were undertaken as a result of this meeting which was called by Dr. Georg Lehmann (a German table tennis enthusiast), most notably the establishment of a committee whose members were delegated the task of standardising the rules of table tennis and forming a constitution in order to effectively govern the sport, thus addressing the issue of rationalisation to which the editor of Table Tennis (an early table tennis related publication) had expressed concern. Hence, it would seem that increased attempts at the rationalisation of table tennis' rules and codes were occurring at this time. It may be suggested that the increased push towards standardisation contributed to the diffusion of the game.

In January 1926, following a meeting between representatives from the respective English, Hungarian, German and Austrian table tennis organisations, an international federation for table tennis was established. In December of the same year, the first World Table Tennis Championships were held in London attracting participants from India, Denmark, Hungary, Wales, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and Sweden. Whilst the sporting and cultural significance of table tennis should not be underestimated it might be implied that the formation of an international federation the arrival of table tennis as a global sport was signalled.