The new number one in the world, 47-year old Belgian Frédéric Caudron, tops the field of players prepairing for the fourth World Cup this year. The organization of the tournament, from 18 to July 24, is in the trusted hands of the FC Porto team. The playing arena is in the Pavillon Dragon Calxa opposite the famous FC Porto football stadium. T he usual suspects are all there, the last winner was Torbjörn Blomdahl.
The town of Porto, with its population of 1.4 million people and its wonderful city center, is one of the oldest cities in Europe. The second Portuguese city is located along the Douro River, the western part extends to the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. The best known export article is the Port wine.
The matches for the World Cup are not only broadcast live by Kozoom, that will have complete live coverage, full reports and exclusive intervies, but also by MBC Sports +, the largest television sports channel in Korea. In addition, seven matches will be broadcast live on Porto Canal.
Frédéric Caudron climbed to the top of the world ranking after his victory in the last World Cup in Ho Chi Minh and thus dethroned Torbjörn Blomdahl, the world champion. Two other Europeans, Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx, were victorious in the first World Cups of this year in Bursa and Luxor. ,,We players are very happy with people like Mr. Alipio and FC Porto, which allow us to play the World Cup'', says Caudron, who just returned from a ten-day promotional tour in Korea and is ready to defend his leading position. ,,I have lots of good memories of Porto, where I won the European Cup two times with Crystal Kelly and Gaziantepspor and one time the invididual World Cup.''
Torbjörn Blomdahl, last year's winner ahead of Hung Bum Hwang, Dani Sánchez and Dick Jaspers: ,,The FC Porto team does many things for billiards and young people as the organizer of national and international events. Mr. Alipio is also commentator on tv during the tournaments. We always get the feeling that billiards and players are welcome in Porto.''
The Portuguese champion and cup holder Rui Costa (56) plays for FC Porto since 1985 with a short break. His son João is one of the referees during the World Cup. Rui Costa: ,,The organization consists of fifty people. Mr. Alipio is our leader, but don't forget that Manuela does a fantastic job. The FC Porto-culture is: we all work very hard to ensure the success of the tournament.''
Rui Costa expects that the conditions are even better than last year. ,,Many players were not so satisfied with the quality of the tables. We will now play on the Seoul Carrinho model. That will certainly raise the level.''
In the global billiards circuit, FC Porto with seven World Cups has become one of the best known organizations since 1995. Alipio Jorge and his team with many young billiard players and referees have gained a firm place on the international calendar with the organization of a World championship (2012, Eddy Merckx), the European championships (1999 and 2011), World Cups (1995, 1996, 1997, 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2015) and European Cup finals. FC Porto, with its billiard section as a part of the whole organization, is hosting one of the best teams in the world with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sanchez, Dick Jaspers, Semih Saygıner, Rui Costa and Joao Ferreira.
The participants at the 2016 World Cup (150 in total) is divided into 116 Europeans, 25 Asians (Korea, 16, Vietnam, 8, Japan, 2), 6 Africans (all Egypt) and three Americans.
The top twelve ranked players are: Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir, Roland Forthomme, Sameh Sidhom, Dong Koong Kang, Jae Ho Cho and Nikos Polychronopoulos. The wild cards are distributed to Victor Tenorio (Peru), Ma Xuan Cuong (Vietnam), Ragay Henry (Egypt), Rui Costa and Joao Ferreira (Portugal). Caudron leads the world ranking with 354 points, followed by Blomdahl (340), Merckx (321) Jaspers (315) and Sánchez (263).
The tournament starts on Monday, July 18 at 11.00 pm with the first heats. The opening ceremony of the main event is on Friday, July 22 at 11.00. The final is played on Sunday at 17.00.
The world top is ready to fire up the opening salvoes of a new World Cup. The UMB and FC Porto sports director Dr. Joao Manuel Barros invite you to visit the tournament or follow the matches live on Kozoom.com
