Dear Members,
Hope this message does reach you all in good health.
May I ask your attention for the following:
The WPA did inform us, as the WPA member for Europe, that there is a non sanctioned World Championship 14.1 (straigh pool) scheduled in December in the United States of America. This event, which will be partly digitally organized, is being announced as the “80th edition of the World Championship 14.1.” The WPA has informed us that this event is not sanctioned and is nowhere near the conditions that an official WPA World Cup should have.
Furthermore, it has been communicated by the WPA that participation in non-sanctioned tournaments will result in the cancellation of the WPA players license of those athletes participating in such an event. See the following rule:
At the WPA Player Licence it states:
Obligations:
I accept that under the conditions of this License, I will not participate in any pool event that is not sanctioned by the WPA if the conditions of the event meet the WPA sanctioning criteria as described in the WPA Sanctioning Catalogue that is available on the WPA website, www.wpapool.com without the express written permission from the WPA. Further, I am aware that if I participate in any international pool event purporting to be a world championship or connotations of it being a world championship my License will be cancelled immediately.
We therefore ask you as a member of the EPBF to inform your athletes about this and advise them not to participate in non-sanctioned tournaments. Besides the measures, when participating in non-sanctioned tournaments, which the WPA itself takes, it is of course also obvious that the EPBF, as a European member of the WPA, will be asked to take over these imposed penalties for its own events. It goes without saying that we as EPBF can, in any case. no longer send athletes to WPA events that do not have a WPA Player License.
There is no doubt that non-sanctioned events do not contribute to a strong structure within our sport. It is therefore important that everyone within the structure is loyal to the system. We assume that the athletes themselves realize that it is better to join forces against non-sanctioned events.
Thanks again for your co-operation.
With kind regards,
Gre Leenders
EPBF PRESIDENT
e-mail: gre.leenders@planet.nl
website: www.epbf.com