The world's top billiards players protest the ban on Vietnamese athletes, WPA "gives in"

The World Pool Billiards Federation (WPA) said it wanted to invite players to dialogue after the world's top athletes unanimously protested the federation's ban on Vietnamese players.

"In response to recent concerns raised by players on social media, the WPA is proposing to hold virtual meetings with players. This is an opportunity for us to share more details about unsanctioned tournaments," the WPA wrote.

"I'm glad the players are speaking out. We look forward to further discussions with them," added WPA President Ishaun Singh.

This information opens up hope to ease the recent tensions between the world's top athletes and the WPA. These players include Shane Van Boening (USA), Fedor Gorst (USA), Francesco Sanchez Ruiz (Spain), Albin Ouschan (Austria), Jason Shaw (UK), the Ko brothers (Taiwan, China), athletes from the Marboys academy (Philippines)...

In addition, top Vietnamese players such as Duong Quoc Hoang and Nguyen Anh Tuan also spoke out about the incident.

A group of top players simultaneously posted articles on their personal pages with the same content. They protested the ban imposed by the WPA and the Asian Billiards Federation (ACBS) on Vietnamese athletes. In addition, international players affirmed that they will not participate in WPA and ACBS tournaments until the ban is lifted.

Previously, the Asian Billiards Federation (ACBS) imposed a penalty on the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation (VBSF). The reason was that Vietnam organized the Hanoi Open Pool Championship 2023 in October 2023. This tournament was licensed by the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports but was not approved by ACBS.

ACBS's sanctions are currently applicable to pool, snooker and regional and continental sports events (under ACBS's management scope). The sanctions may be extended to carom players if international tournaments such as the Hanoi Open Pool Championship or PBA Hanoi Open take place as scheduled later this year.

The WPA manages pool worldwide. It sells the rights to the world 9-ball tournament to private company Matchroom.

Initially, Matchroom organized and paid a fee to the WPA. After a conflict between the two sides, Matchroom took it upon themselves to organize and host a series of 9-ball tournaments called the World Nine Tour (WNT). The WNT tournaments were professionally organized, had high prize money, and attracted the best players in the world.

In 2023, the Hanoi Open of the WNT will be scheduled to coincide with a WPA tournament. The WPA does not recognize the Hanoi Open and has banned Vietnamese and Asian athletes from participating in the tournament.