(LĐXH) - Within just a few months, from Vietnamese players to the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation (VBSF) have continuously received bans from international organizations.
This greatly affects the development of the Vietnamese Billiards & Snooker movement.
VBSF suspended membership for 1 year
In a document sent to VBSF on October 16, President of the World Billiards Federation (WCBS) Farouk El Barki announced: "Vietnamese athletes are invited and participate in all international billiards events, including all multi- sport Games."
With this announcement from WCBS, Vietnamese players will be able to participate in regional, continental or world sporting events such as SEA Games, Indoor Games...
WCBS does not ban Vietnamese athletes because "Vietnam is an important country for the sport of Billiards. WCBS and its member federations and associations including Pool, Carom, Snooker have the right to organize international tournaments in Vietnam without the approval of VBSF".
However, WCBS decided to impose a one-year ban on VBSF. Accordingly, VBSF is not allowed to organize any international billiards events (including carom, snooker, pool). In addition, officials and managers of VBSF are not allowed to participate in any billiards events. This is the first time VBSF has received such a ban from WCBS.
With VBSF banned for 1 year (until October 16, 2025), it is likely that the 3-cushion carom billiards World Cup in Ho Chi Minh City (scheduled to be held in May 2025) will also be affected, as this tournament is organized by the World Carom Billiards Federation (UMB) in coordination with VBSF.
According to research, the latest ban from WCBS is due to VBSF violating Article 2, Section 5 of the Olympic Charter, when it failed to uniformly manage and develop billiards.
Notably, Vietnam has organized the Hanoi Open 9-Cushion Pool tournament under the World Nineball Tour (WNT) system of Matchroom Pool - a unit opposing the World Pool Billiards Federation (WPA), held in October 2023 and October 2024. Another tournament is the Hanoi Open 3-Cushion Carom 2024 under the Professional Billiards Association (PBA) - a unit opposing the UMB, held in August 2024.
For the same reason, VBSF has been banned from participating in tournaments for 6 months by the Asian Billiards Federation (ACBS), the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (ISBF) and the WPA, from July 13, 2024 to January 12, 2025. Vietnamese players on the WPA banned list will also not be able to participate in the 2024 VBSF National Pool - Snooker Cup Championship held from October 21 to 25. This is a tournament organized by the VBSF.
Conflict of interest
In recent times, VBSF has received notices from a number of billiards federations and sports organizations banning many players from competing. After the 6-month ban from competing from July to September, UMB banned 27 Vietnamese players from competing for 1 year. Next, WPA banned 87 other Vietnamese players from pool.
There are many organizations in the world, Asia and Vietnam billiards village, but they are mainly divided into two factions. Previously, the carom genres, including the World Cup and World Championship 3-cushion system, were under the management of UMB (founded in 1959), the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF, since 1971) controlled snooker and the World Pool Association (WPA, since 1987) controlled pool.
But five years ago, the billiards scene was shaken up by the arrival of the Professional Billiards Association (PBA). This organization was founded in Korea and is run by FMG. The prize money for winning a PBA Tour stage is about $72,000, three times higher than a UMB World Cup stage.
It is also because of the conflict of interests of international organizations that recently the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation (VBSF) and Vietnamese players have continuously received bans. The penalties overlap each other, also because many athletes compete for different competition systems at the same time.
Vietnam has become the source of conflict between world federations, because organizations all consider this a potential market for billiards to develop. According to billiards expert Frits Bakker, Vietnam is "a new paradise for organizers".
The number of viewers watching billiards tournaments in Vietnam, whether live or online, from 9-ball pool to 3-cushion carom, is many times higher than international.
At the 2024 Scottish Open of the WNT, when Vietnam's number one pool player Duong Quoc Hoang won, there was a time when it attracted more than 100,000 simultaneous views on a domestic channel, many times higher than the international audience on Matchroom's channel.
It is known that after receiving the document suspending international activities from WCBS, VBSF will make a report to the Vietnam Olympic Committee, the Department of Physical Education and Sports, together find a way to remove or present to WCBS, consider reducing the suspension order with VBSF.
The Department of Physical Education and Sports has worked with VBSF representatives to find a solution. Currently, there are no legal documents from state management agencies to handle specific issues that VBSF is facing. So it can be said that we are completely passive and confused in handling the situation, and for now, we are forced to comply with the prohibitions from higher-level organizations.
On the athletes' side, Vietnam's number 1 billiard player Duong Quoc Hoang hopes that organizations will become truly professional and work properly on the basis of a common goal, with the mission of developing billiards.
Mai Huong
Labor and Social Affairs Newspaper No. 129
Source: https://dansinh.dantri.com.vn/nhan-luc/cuoc-xung-dot-billiards-snooker-20241024222947476.htm
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