Ibrahim Awarded World Snooker Tour Card
Newly-crowned African Snooker Champion Mohamed Ibrahim will be awarded a two-year main tour card from the start of the 2018/19 season.
The 28-year-old Egyptian player emerged victorious from a 66-player field competing in Cairo last week, defeating countryman Mostafa Dorgham 6-1 in the final to secure the title. Ibrahim will join the professional circuit for the first time, although he has previous experience of competing at the highest level at the 2012 6-Red World Championship, where he pushed eventual champion Mark Davis to a deciding frame in Thailand.
The 2018 African Snooker Championship was successfully staged by the African Billiards and Snooker Confederation (ABSC), Africa’s regional governing body which from an early stage has committed its support to the WPBSA and its International Federation structure.
The ABSC is working tirelessly to develop snooker in the region and earlier this year it was announced that the Association of African Sports Confederations has agreed in principle to include snooker at the 2019 African Games that will be held in Morocco, a significant contribution to vision for snooker to be included in the Olympic Games
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson was among those in attendance on the final day of the Championship in Egypt and enjoyed positive dialogue with ABSC President Mohammed Kammah and representatives from national federations in respect of future cooperation.
“I am greatly encouraged by the development work undertaken by Mohammed Kammah and his team at the ABSC for snooker in Africa,” said Ferguson. “This is a huge region including 54 individual countries and there is real potential for growth which we are now beginning to see become a reality. The WPBSA, its group of organisations and the ABSC are the perfect partners to ensure snooker is promoted well across Africa.
“We are therefore delighted to be able to show our support by welcoming Africa’s latest snooker champion Mohamed Ibrahim to the World Snooker Tour for the first time and we are looking forward to welcoming Egypt and more national federations to the World Snooker Federation over the coming months. I am optimistic that this will mark the start of a fruitful cooperation between ourselves and the national federations in Africa that will help us to further grow the sport in this region.”
