World Billiards Statement: COVID-19
The global situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic remains unpredictable, with some countries that had early success now unfortunately experiencing second waves, and with case numbers in the UK still unstable.
For many, global travel is either impractical or not permitted due to cost and quarantine factors. Some vaccines in development are promising, but timelines are uncertain and nothing is guaranteed.
World Billiards has a duty of care to all players, referees and officials.
The Board have carefully, and at length, discussed how we could hold an event before the end of the year. We have spoken to some venues to assess the likelihood and feasibility of such. We have looked at the permitted systems (“bubbles”) used in Snooker. Unfortunately we have assessed our situation as untenable. As much as we would have liked to hold an event before Christmas, we just cannot mitigate the very real risks associated.
Therefore we have taken the difficult decision that we will not be running any events for the remainder of 2020. We will review the situation later this year with the hope of publishing a calendar of events for 2021. If international travel remains impractical into 2021, we will consider holding some level 1 and 2 events in different countries until we can be confident of international participation in larger events.
We extend our best wishes to the global Billiards fraternity and look forward to seeing everyone again as soon as possible.
WBL Board
