PORTO - The World Cup has honored its winners last weekend and the FC Porto billiard arena is almost immediately heading for the next big event. The European Cup for club teams, better known as Coupe d'Europe, starts the preliminary rounds this Tuesday and moves to the finals next weekend. The FC Porto team, the title holder, has to miss Dani Sánchez due to his departure for the PBA and will make another bid for the European title after 2017 and 2022 with Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Rui Costa and Jose Miguel Soares. The matches will be broadcast live by Kozoom from Wednesday.The main competitors are the Turks of FBN Tekstil Sport Kulubu, the Danes of Varde BK, the Belgians of Mister 100, the French of Billard Club Andernos and the Spaniards of Club Billar Mostoles.
The best-known players signed up for their teams include Marco Zanetti, Roland Forthomme, Frédéric Mottet and Gwendal Maréchal (Andernos), Tayfun Tasdemir, Berkay Karakurt, Gökhan Salman and Murat Tüzül (FBN Tekstil), Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Thomas Andersen and Allan Schröder (Varde), Peter and Kurt Ceulemans (Mister 100 Lier) and Ruben, Adrian and Alfonso Legazpi (Mostoles).
Four groups of four and one group of three will battle it out for five group winners, supplemented by the title holder FC Porto and two best numbers 2 from the groups. From these, two groups of four will be formed together with FC Porto.
The compositions (best-known names):
Title holder:
FC Porto
Dick Jaspers
Torbjörn Blomdahl
Rui Manuel Costa
Joao Ferreira
Jose Miguel Soares
Group A:
Varde BK (Eddy Merckx, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Thomas Andersen, Allan Schröder)
Mister 100 (Peter Ceulemans, Kurt Ceulemans, Jerry Hermans, Bart Ceulemans)
BC Elite Wien (Andreas Efler, Manfred Müller, Marcel Back)
Billiards Café B (Giuseppe Tiranno, Miroslav Mutavdzic)
Group B:
Club Billar Mostoles (Ruben Legazpi, Arian Legazpi, Ruben Fernandez, Alfonso Legazpi)
Billiards Cafe A (Glenn Hofman, Emilio Sciacca, Francesco Orlando)
BSV Velbert 1947 (Tom Löwe, Torsten Anders)
Group C:
FBN Tekstil Soor Kulubu (Tayfun Tasdemir, Berkay Karakurt, Gökhan Salman, Murat Tüzül)
Leca FC (Alexandre Vitorino, Joao Gomes)
Billard Center Weywiesen (Christian Rudolph, Jens Eggers)
BC Vitkov-Sokol Zizkov (Martin Bohac, Adam Kozak, Adam Baca)
Group D:
Billard club Andernosien (Marco Zanetti, Roland Forthomme, Frédéric Mottet, Gwendal Maréchal)
Sporting Clube de Portugal (Edgar Rui, Jorge Theriaga)
Club Billar Castalla (Sergio Jimenez, Jorge Canto, Jesus Rico, Andres Carrion)
Op de Meir (Jef Philipoom, Barry van Beers, Roland Uijtdewillegen, Ivan Stitschinsky)
Group E:
BK Grøndal (Dan Johansen, Brian Anthony, Tommy Eberling, Rene Hendriksen)
Pottendorfer BSK (Herbert Szivacz, Dominik Nebuda)
Billard Club Zurich (Cetin Behzat, Johannes Boode)
Goztepe Spor Kulubu (Emin Gayret, Omer Karakurt, Taruk Yavuz)
This Tuesday, 10am, first round:
Mister 100-BC Elite Wien
Peter Ceulemans-Andreas Efler
Kurt Ceulemans-Manfred Müller
Jerry Hermans-Marcel Back
Bart Ceulemans-Zoran Gajs