Just depends if WPA expects Matchroom to adhere to unjust political bans, botched WADA administration, IOC country of representation policies, and unwarranted referee protocols.
WPA will no longer ban players who join Matchroom
- Thread starter Roy Steffensen
- Start date
He's been pounding the WPA on social media for a while due to their initial stance on banning. I'm not sure why he's saying it is fake news, though. Maybe just having fun, me thinks.
The past 6 months, or however long it was, turned out to be a big jerk-off. Pardon the language.
wealmostlostdetroit
New member
Both sides suck and both sides are at fault for the current state of the game.
WPA fell asleep and didn't do enough for the sport for many decades. Pool did not grow as a sport, holy grail which is getting pool into the Olympics has never been further away, prize money wasn't getting better and pool players weren't taken care of. Plenty more minor issues too.
Matchroom is a private company that's looking to cash in on WPA's incompetence and basically privatise the sport. Generally some disruption is good for the growth but let's not kid ourselves: Matchroom Pool will cease to exist the moment they will feel they can't make money from it. For me, by default, this can't be the crown/governing organisation for our sport.
My grievances with Matchroom:
1) Pro pool is just a tiny part of the pool ecosystem and Matchroom have done very little for anyone outside the top50-ish players. They have completely ignored disabled players, women and largely juniors too. There has been zero investment into supporting the local coaches, organisations, even pool rooms. Spoke to someone who ran a WNT event last year in the USA and Matchroom's contribution is basically 0. WPA (or their subsidiary EPBF) has done wonderful things in Europe in terms of coaching, youth tournaments, etc. Just take a look at Germany or Poland's current and next generation.
2) Matchroom are far stronger on social media compared to WPA. Their videos/streams/shorts/interviews/whatever generate millions of clicks but not even one player has been paid a cent from his image rights. Must be the only professional sport where top pros don't get paid for image rights. It's a huge revenue stream for them and they're not sharing it even now (have seen WNT contract of top15 player).
3) Matchroom are ignoring all anti doping regulations on purpose. Probably because the standard of play is better if you allow players to dope but I think clean players deserve the playing field to be level. I know first hand that at least 5 players from Matchroom's top25 are using betablockers from WR3 onwards.
4) Their prize money has been shockingly low so far for what they're selling. How many players per WNT tournament are in the green after flights, hotels, food, etc? Maybe half a dozen. WPA has done even less on this front so maybe more of a general concern. Basically if you're a pro pool player neither side is really your friend. There's not gonna be a major pool tournament this year in any global cities, mostly it's just outskirts and less than ideal surroundings. Both sides happy to take the blood money and partner up with Qatar/Saudi Arabia if it means someone else paying the players and not them.
WPA fell asleep and didn't do enough for the sport for many decades. Pool did not grow as a sport, holy grail which is getting pool into the Olympics has never been further away, prize money wasn't getting better and pool players weren't taken care of. Plenty more minor issues too.
Matchroom is a private company that's looking to cash in on WPA's incompetence and basically privatise the sport. Generally some disruption is good for the growth but let's not kid ourselves: Matchroom Pool will cease to exist the moment they will feel they can't make money from it. For me, by default, this can't be the crown/governing organisation for our sport.
My grievances with Matchroom:
1) Pro pool is just a tiny part of the pool ecosystem and Matchroom have done very little for anyone outside the top50-ish players. They have completely ignored disabled players, women and largely juniors too. There has been zero investment into supporting the local coaches, organisations, even pool rooms. Spoke to someone who ran a WNT event last year in the USA and Matchroom's contribution is basically 0. WPA (or their subsidiary EPBF) has done wonderful things in Europe in terms of coaching, youth tournaments, etc. Just take a look at Germany or Poland's current and next generation.
2) Matchroom are far stronger on social media compared to WPA. Their videos/streams/shorts/interviews/whatever generate millions of clicks but not even one player has been paid a cent from his image rights. Must be the only professional sport where top pros don't get paid for image rights. It's a huge revenue stream for them and they're not sharing it even now (have seen WNT contract of top15 player).
3) Matchroom are ignoring all anti doping regulations on purpose. Probably because the standard of play is better if you allow players to dope but I think clean players deserve the playing field to be level. I know first hand that at least 5 players from Matchroom's top25 are using betablockers from WR3 onwards.
4) Their prize money has been shockingly low so far for what they're selling. How many players per WNT tournament are in the green after flights, hotels, food, etc? Maybe half a dozen. WPA has done even less on this front so maybe more of a general concern. Basically if you're a pro pool player neither side is really your friend. There's not gonna be a major pool tournament this year in any global cities, mostly it's just outskirts and less than ideal surroundings. Both sides happy to take the blood money and partner up with Qatar/Saudi Arabia if it means someone else paying the players and not them.
Definitely NOT fake (unless someone hacked the WPA website, and all they did was add this press release):
wpapool.com
PRESS RELEASE: World Pool Association Moves to Protect Players
February 28, 2024, the WPA is excited to announce that it will treat the following tournaments as WPA sanctioned events: Premier League Pool World Pool Masters U.K. Open Pool Championship World Cup of Pool European Open Pool Championship U.S. Open Pool Championship Mosconi Cup What this...
wpapool.com
Both organizations found a way to compromise. That's good news. This means that Matchroom is acknowledging the WPA as the world governing body. That wasn't the case before when they were in conflict. Matchroom, a TV production company, was trying to control pool on a global scale. I'm sure the WPA probably made some compromises as well to allow Matchroom more leverage to do their thing. Remember, the WPA consists of the continental federations of all the continents. It's not just an organization made up of just a few people.
The press release seems to be real but might not be what you think.
Mike Panozzo's take on the announcement:
Mike Panozzo's take on the announcement:
With the World Pool Association (WPA) World 10-Ball Championship in full swing and the WPA’s March 1 ban just two days from being enforced, the world governing body released a short, albeit confusing, statement today essentially removing the ban from World Nineball Tour and Matchroom Pool events through 2024.
As is common with WPA releases, the association’s position on sanctioned events raised more questions than it answered. As had been reported over the past two weeks, the WPA had reached out to Matchroom to find a solution to the association’s threat of banning players who participate in unsanctioned events (read: the entire Matchroom schedule, with the exception of the World Pool Championship). Matchroom reportedly had been in discussions with the WPA to find common ground and had sent the WPA a list of stipulations that would allow the two organizations to coexist, but no agreement has been formally executed.
Wednesday’s WPA release stated that all Matchroom-produced events — Premier League Pool, World Pool Masters, UK Open, World Cup of Pool, European Open, US Open and Mosconi Cup — would be “treated” as WPA sanctioned events. Additionally, the release stated that the World Pool Championship (Matchroom owned and WPA sanctioned) would not be affected.
The release stated: “What this means for all athletes regarding the WPA’s decision to take effect on March 1; no athlete will face any penalty from the WPA or its members for participating in these sanctioned tournaments.”
Conspicuous by its absence from the WPA release was any acknowledgement from Matchroom regarding the new position. Without such acknowledgement, it is unlikely Matchroom has agreed to any sanction fee for this new privilege bestowed upon its 2024 events. Whether Matchroom wants of will accept the WPA’s imprimatur on its events is unanswered, although acknowledgement would certainly show support for additional tournament opportunities for WNT players. Also unanswered were any questions about the WNT’s ranking events worldwide, many of which would appear to fall under WPA sanctioning guidelines.
Kinda reinforces the language in the WPA release that those events are “treated as sanctioned” not “are sanctioned”.
yeah nah, not gonna forget how all this started with yapp and other singapore players getting unfairly banned by ACBS/WPA just because some completely different guys played a completely different cue sport (english billiards) in singapore.
now WPA is backtracking because every single pro player actively choose to sign with the MR tour, and they were left with rank amateurs and juniors.
Yeah, nah. Sounds like you think this is all the WPA's fault. Do you really want a TV production company to control global pool and all the players too? They've been at it for decades. Ask Matchroom how much they made and how much of that went to the players over all those years compared to what they took for themselves.
Atorontopoolplayer
Active member
This is kinda funny, and mostly makes the WPA look bad again.
The WPA is discriminating. Do players that compete in specific events have a distribution of ethnicity with a disproportionate amount of groups?
Player representation and player rights are needed more than ever. Why do continental federations control a billiard player's entire life from youth development to retirement? However a player can't control their financial destiny? They can only make money when the WPA says its ok.
That describes some type of life long work program.
Player representation and player rights are needed more than ever. Why do continental federations control a billiard player's entire life from youth development to retirement? However a player can't control their financial destiny? They can only make money when the WPA says its ok.
That describes some type of life long work program.
I do...
Other than making non-signed players earn a spot in the majors, and not personally getting a player's batch while at the Open. I can't think of a single negative since MR started flexing.
Interesting stuff...sounds like you have some inside info...
As a huge boxing fan, I have said from the beginning that pool is Barry Hearns pet.project. You could take all the money pool has made them the last two years and I bet it wouldn't come close to one Canelo Alvarez ppv...or Anthony Joshua.
From what I have heard/read EF had better get pool into the black and fast (it is currently being subsidized by their more lucrative sports), because Eddie isn't as likely to continue funneling money into pool like his daddy does.
This is what I was told by a dude who writes a weekly boxing column for various media outlets. TIFWIW, which might not be much at all....
Scrunge19
Registered
Matchroom is doing some good things with the sport, that’s for certain. But you also need someone who is committed to the sport itself (like the WPA should be). Cause if we go all in with Matchroom and the financials don’t work out in a couple years, they will walk away and pool will really be in a bad spot. At the end of the day, Matchroom is a business and their primary motivation is growing their bottom line. They can say all the right things, but don’t let that distract you.
So yeah, the WPA hasn’t served as good stewards of the professional game, but we should be pushing for them to reform just as much as we should be pushing Matchroom to take the game to the next level.
So yeah, the WPA hasn’t served as good stewards of the professional game, but we should be pushing for them to reform just as much as we should be pushing Matchroom to take the game to the next level.
Bro, are you colour blind?
Looks like it was "fake news" after all as Karl said.
WPA made it seem like they and MR have reached agreements and WPA is now sanctioning all MR majors. MR comes back and says that's not true.
WPA made it seem like they and MR have reached agreements and WPA is now sanctioning all MR majors. MR comes back and says that's not true.
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I am curious to know what determine the WPA to publish the press release yesterday.
It seems there is no deal between Matchroom and WPA, but still the headline in this thread (which is a summary of the press release) is very valuable information for players like me, who are part of the EPBF-umbrella.
This means I can now join qualifiers for UK Open, European Open and US Open, without risking a ban from the Norwegian Pool Federation or the EPBF if I also want to play Norwegian tournaments or play on the Eurotour.
WPA/EPBF have now chosen to fold their cards for the major Matchroom-events, and won't ban players who play those.
For the minor Matchroom-events there are still discussion ongoings.
This means I can now join qualifiers for UK Open, European Open and US Open, without risking a ban from the Norwegian Pool Federation or the EPBF if I also want to play Norwegian tournaments or play on the Eurotour.
WPA/EPBF have now chosen to fold their cards for the major Matchroom-events, and won't ban players who play those.
For the minor Matchroom-events there are still discussion ongoings.