BLANKENBERGE - There's emotion on his face and in his voice. The reactions are intense, sensitive and a combination of disappointment and anger. Eddy Leppens was the main actor in an incident last night during his match against Patrick Niessen in which he had a fight with the referee.
The Belgian player has no control over his tears, when he speaks about the incident on the day after. ,,I 'm completely empty, I have no energy,'' he sighs after having played against Frédéric Caudron in the first session.
He's telling about the message he received last night, around one o'clock, sent by the organizing committee of the Multi championships, which had decided to suspend him conditionally for 15 months. And that the sentence will be converted directly into an unconditional punishment in case of recidivism.
,,What have I done, have I turned the room upside down? Did I beat someone, knocking on his head? I can still say now, one day later, that I have no regrets at all about the incident. I have my emotions... I am a professional sportsman and I want to win. That temperament, may be, is unusual in billiards, I know, but is it that wrong in sports?'', says the player who sometimes is compared with former tennis pro John McEnroe.
Then, suddenly, the frustration wells up. ,,Don't you think there are more players, drubbing with their cue, throwing the chalk, not always too friendly towards referees. We all know whom I speak about, but they never talk about that.''
The incident passes again in his mind. ,,I was told that the balls were touching and ask: do you want to take another look? Then again and after two times I asked him: maybe you can take a white paper, then it's more easy to see if they touch. But the referee refused, he didn't want to look anymore.''
,,I cannot handle that, such a referee who only wants to show that he's the boss'', says Leppens still convinced that he did nothing wrong. ,,I felt entirely justified to do this, but I was completely powerless. That's why I felt frustrated and angry.''
The behavior afterwards, when he had missed, he describes as: ,,What happened actually, I threw my chalk and I went into a discussion. That's all. Do they punish me so heavily for that?''
He was filled with rage, he said afterwards. Even now, after a restless night and a gnawing sense of injustice. ,,I've played without feeling and without any ambition against Frédéric Caudron, this morning. I didn't care anymore.''
And if he still is able to find his motivation? For the next match, I really don't know, but as I feel right now, it will be very difficult. This championship has a very bad taste already.''
He's upset about Patrick Niessen's reactions after the match,. ,,His response was ridiculous, that I misbehaved, that it's always against him that it's happening, that he's sick of it.''
,,I 'm sure they have suspended me because Niessen has asked for that'', Leppens continues. ,,But Niessen has forgotten to say what he has done to me it the past two years. He stole two titles, including last year, when he was he made a flagrantly push shot against me and continued playing. Everyone could see it on Kozoom, but no-one speaks about that.''
Eddy Leppens will almost certainly appeal when the suspension will be officially announced. ,,I know that I'm right for a thousand percent.''
He further says: ,,The people who pronounced the sentence, were not in the room and haven't seen the incident at all.''
And finally: ,,They had all the time for a night meeting to punish me now. But last year, when they forgot to inscribe me for the Europeans, it took five months before they answered me.''