3-Cushion
LUXOR - The World Cup cycle for this season will at best have six tournaments. The World Cup in Athens, which was cancelled with a vague reason, was replaced by the new World Cup in Luxor. The (new) World Cup in Antwerp was taken off the calendar before it had even been played once. Its replacement will most likely be a World Cup organized by Jorge Alipio, in the Porto stadium.
Jean Claude Dupont (64), from Sint Martens Latem near Ghent (Belgium), president of the UMB, the world federation, has mixed feelings about the future, but also sees a perspective. There have been setbacks, but there is also a lot of good news.
JC Dupont: ,,The contract for the WC for National Teams ran out after 25 years, we managed to extend that for five more years, with better conditions for the players. We started the negotiations with the intention of getting long-term stability. Had that been impossible in Viersen, we would have looked elsewhere. But after 25 years of magnificent cooperation, Viersen of course was first choice. And luckily, we came to an agreement for five more years.''
,,The financial setup until now was: a small amount of money and hotel cost for the first eight teams in the final table. That came up to about 15.000 euro. That amount will go up to 30.000 in the first period, later to 50.000. We will work out the distribution details later.''
,,We have a grand plan: to organize a Masters - type tournament at the end of every World Cup cycle. It could be a wonderful new addition to the calendar, for example with the best 16 players in the world.''
JC Dupont: ,,Kozoom's Xavier Carrer has already brought a number of people together during the WC in Antwerp, and they could form a core group. That group could initiate a number of big tournaments based on invitation. I can refer to the Agipi events and Ludo Dielis' Supercup as examples. The Masters could be the final event, with sixteen players. The UMB would fully support that, but with the official World Ranking as its guideline.''
,,I have made a deal with Ludo Dielis, the organizer of the WC in Antwerp, for the PR and marketing within our organization. His task will be diverse: to spark interest for our tournaments in the corporate world, and to act as consultant for World Cup organizations, working out new formulas (among those the Masters) and later possibly a meeting between Europe and Asia. We already know where to look. It is out of the question that such an organization would present itself this year, next year (2015) would be difficult but not out of the question.''
JC Dupont: ,,We feel it is an important task to improve the communication between the UMB and the federations, and bring our calendars in sync. To this day, we have not been informed about the calendars in The Netherlands, France and Germany. This information should be centralized. The idea is, to bring these calendars together so we can at least negotiate if a conflicting situation arises.''
,,In the near future, we will expand the World Championship from 48 to 64 players. This will start in 2015: we now play for five days on 4 tables. With 64 players, there are two options: five days on six tables or six days on four tables. We have two major reasons to make this adjustment: we want to integrate the Africans without harming the CEB, and we want to correct the misbalance between the confederations, reserving more places for Asia which currently gets less than it deserves.''
JC Dupont: ,,Another change will be effective this year, and it is the composition of the field. Less players from the ranking, more from the confederations. In doing so, we meet the requirements of the IOC and the National Olympic committees. The more represented countries, the better. This works in many other sports, where WC are held based on spread international representation. The Americans for example, have 20 world class sprinters in athletics, but in their Nationals they compete for three places in the WC field.
The news that is not so good:
JC Dupont: ,,The cancellation of the World Cup in Antwerp is now final. That is such a shame, especially after the successful WC in Belgium. The organization has not succeeded in getting the budget in the black. We have briefly looked into the possibility of a different organization, but that did not materialize either, unfortunately.''
,,We have made good progress with Jorge Alipio though, to schedule a World Cup in Porto in the last week of August. I am pretty confident that we will reach an agreement there.''
JC Dupont: ,,The situation in Greece, where the sponsor of IBT Hellas has pulled out, is worrysome. We had seen the problems coming, when the Greeks cancelled their scheduled World Cup. The excuse was, that the World Cup of Luxor, which had been put on the calendar later, would be in the way. It became clear later that their internal situation was the real reason.''
,,The WC in Viersen, where Kasidokostas and Polychronopoulos withdrew, became the next problem. Thanos Athanasiou, the sponsor, tried to put two other players on the list. Based on the rules, we have had to say no to that. Countries that have not inscribed reserve players are not allowed to send a substitute team.''
,,The Greek situation was complicated already, because we had allowed sponsor IBT Hellas to act as a federation for three years, stipulating they would not have a vote in CEB meetings. We created this exception for them, hoping it could save Greece as a billiard nation.''
JC Dupont: ,,The current situation is very worrisome, for the players as well, although there's a group of players now trying to find a consensus. You could say: solve it as simply as you can, in such a way that Greek players can participate in tournaments, but it's not that simple. To participate, you must represent an existing federation, and I don't see one materializing in the near future.''
,,We can hardly put sanctions on top players like Kasidokostas and Polychronopoulos, because they were not at fault. But if they have no nation (federation) to represent, it will not be possible to enter them in tournaments. This will depend on the decision of the CEB, I expect to hear about that. The cancellation of the World Cup and the withdrawal of the players for Viersen are no grounds for sanctions, but that is not my call. The CEB will have to decide about that.''
JC Dupont: ,,The World Championship for ladies will almost certainly not be played, as a result of the Greek situation. We will of course lobby to find another organization, but that will not be easy. Maybe Japan is an option: there are few countries in Europe with an interest in a ladies championship and the financial capability to organize it. To be honest, I can't see it happening''
,,In closing, a little explanation of the complicated situation involving the Mexican federation, who were again sanctioned before the WC in Viersen. We have been struggling, for years now, to retrieve the money from the (cancelled) World Cup in Mexico, with Roberto Rojas as organizer. Initially, it was about a sum of 15.000 euro, which we intended to reimburse the players with. We have made a file, offered the option of payback in terms, but they did not comply.''
,,In the end, it resulted in a suspension. Later, to show our good will, we were again willing to renegotiate and forget the past. Under the new terms, Mexico was again welcome in Viersen. But the money for that tournament also was never paid, which brings us back to the situation before the WC, and we have decided on a new sanction.''