The WPA's list of banned players, released on Thursday, includes nearly all of Vietnam's top talents, such as Duong Quoc Hoang, Dang Thanh Kien, Do The Kien, Luong Duc Thien, Pham Phuong Nam and Nguyen Anh Tuan.
Several world-class players have also been banned, including Carlo Biado, Ko Pin-yi, Shane van Boening, Fedor Gorst, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, David Alcaide and Eklent Kaci.
Of the top 14 players in the World Nineball Tour (WNT) ranking, 12 have been banned, with Joshua Filler and Albin Ouschan being the exceptions, as they withdrew from the Hanoi Open at the last minute.
“Unfortunately, the event organizers did not seek sanctioning despite being invited to do so and despite being warned of the consequences for the athletes,” WPA wrote in a statement.
WPA, founded in 1987 under the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), oversees pool tournaments worldwide. WCBS is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Vietnamese players penalized by WPA are members of the Asian Confederation of Billiards Sports (ACBS), which is also under WPA’s management.
The WNT, established by British company Matchroom in 2023, runs a separate ranking and tournament system for 9-ball pool. Previously, WPA had authorized Matchroom to organize 9-ball events in 2019, but a rift between the two organizations led to the creation of WNT as a direct competitor to WPA. WNT tournaments often boast significantly bigger prize pools than WPA events.
The WPA had repeatedly warned that the Hanoi Open was not officially authorized by them. Despite this, most of the world’s top players, from both WPA and WNT categories, chose to compete in Hanoi, accepting the potential penalties. Prominent players such as Boening, Gorst, Sanchez and Alcaide have publicly criticized the WPA for banning Asian players from competing at the Hanoi Open and have now found themselves among those suspended.
The 245 banned players are prohibited from competing in events organized by their national and continental federations, as well as WPA. These include national championships, Asian championships, world 8-ball and 10-ball tournaments and major regional events. However, they remain eligible to participate in WNT and unofficial tournaments.
To lift the suspension after six months, players must pay a US$500 fine to their national federations. Failure to do so would prevent Vietnam’s top pool players from competing in major regional events like the SEA Games or Asian Games.
The Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation (VBSF), a member of ACBS, oversees the participation of Vietnamese players. The Hanoi Billiards & Snooker Federation (HBSF), which organized the 2024 Hanoi Open, is not affiliated with the ACBS. Prior to the WPA’s ban, Vietnamese players had already faced penalties from the ACBS for participating in the 2023 Hanoi Open, although HBSF deemed the punishment “unjustified”.
The 2024 Hanoi Open took place from Oct. 8 to 13, offering a prize fund of $200,000, with $30,000 awarded to champion Johann Chua of the Philippines.
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