World Cup mexicaine annulée!!!

MISE A JOUR le 15 avril à 18h : ANNULATION CONFIRMEE…

La rumeur circulait intensément ces derniers jours. Le communiqué officiel de l'UMB vient de tomber: la World Cup de Riviera Nayarit (Mexique) est annulée!

"The World Cup of Mexico (Riviera Nayarit) 2011 has been cancelled at this moment by the organizer for extraordinary reasons. An official declaration will follow in the coming hours." (source: www.umb.org)

Si certaines sources parlent néanmoins d'un changement de dates plutôt que d'une annulation, il faut rester prudent en attendant davantage d'informations, notamment émanant de l'organisateur.

Il semblerait que ce ne soit en aucun cas en raison de difficultés financières comme on avait pu le déplorer il y a peu pour la World Cup de Las Vegas, mais plutôt de problèmes de sécurité… Là encore, nous devrions en savoir plus dans les jours voire les heures à venir.

D'un point de vue pratique, bon nombre de joueurs ( dont je fais partie…) avaient déjà réservé leurs billets d'avion… Selon les cas, certains pourront obtenir un remboursement auprès de leur assurance… Et pour les autres???

Les prochaines Wolrd Cup seront donc celles de Porto (juillet), Suwon (septembre), Vienne (octobre) et Hurghada (décembre)…

Wait and see…

MISE A JOUR le 15 avril à 18h : ANNULATION CONFIRMEE…

L'UMB vient de préciser par communiqué les raisons ayant conduit à l'annulation de la World Cup.
Une escalade de violence sévissant depuis plusieurs semaines dans la région de Riviera Nayarit, les organisateurs ne sont aujourd'hui pas en mesure d'assurer la sécurité des joueurs, officiels et spectateurs lors du tournoi.
Des grenades auraient d'ailleurs été lancées ces derniers jours dans la foule lors d'un événement… 

Dans ces conditions, mieux vaut rester à la maison!!!

Souhaitons beaucoup de courage à Roberto Rojas et à son équipe afin de surmonter cette épreuve et pourquoi pas trouver l'énergie d'organiser cette coupe du monde à une date ultérieure.

L'UMB annonce qu'elle fera le nécessaire afin que les joueurs ayant réservé leurs billets ne soient pas financièrement pénalisés. Un complément de ce qui sera pris en charge par l'assurance pourra être versé.

Voici le communiqué en anglais:

"In recent weeks an escalation of violent acts have occurred in the area of Nuevo Vallarta, headquarters of the World Cup Three Cushions. The severity of the violent acts has reached a peak, two weeks ago when two grenades were thrown into the crowd by criminal organizations, during the course of an event. This situation led to the government of the state Nayarit to cancel all permissions issued for events with massive participation of public.


The billiards in Mexico draws large numbers of fans and especially in this World Cup that would be organized with parallel events as parties, concerts, etc. .. for which were being expected a massive influx of people.

In this situation the venue and sponsors requested for additional guarantees to be granted by the authorities for all these cases.


At the same time pressures of violent groups in the opposite direction were received by the organizer. After analyzing the complex situation, the organizer was in an impossible situation and participants, in case that they attend, became a bargaining subject to any illegal pressure. Given the aforementioned circumstances and after checking the inability of the security forces to guarantee the normal development of the event, the organizer informed the UMB about the inability to protect the integrity of the participants in the event, announcing that it was impossible in this circumstances to hold the World Cup Three Cushion

Consequently the UMB not having the necessary guarantees for the complete safety of participants, proceeded to cancel the said competition.

UMB as an International Sports federation cannot be involved in any way into political affairs or direct or indirect behavior consequent to such issues.


Above all it is the first and most important duty of UMB to let organize any international competition with the certainty of complete security for all persons participating into or attending such event. Due to the actual and sudden regional situation it was not possible for UMB to guarantee the safety of all her players and therefore has been decided to withdrawal the World Cup from the Sports calendar.

The mentioned situation was completely unforeseeable and occurred during the last 48 hours. UMB emphasizes that we where all this time in very close contact with the organizer Mr. Roberto Rojas who had to negotiate in very difficult circumstances in order to safeguard the organization by all means for the sake of the whole billiard movement. Mr. Roberto Rojas is well known for many years of his endeavor towards billiards and already from the near past of his talent as an irreproachable organizer and also this time all measures were taken


and everything was been put in place to experience a memorable World Cup. The exceptional exterior situation has not permitted to come to an acceptable and secure solution.

We are conscious of the financial consequences that such withdrawing means for all participating players and therefore UMB will put in place in the coming days a procedure by which it will be possible for each player to introduce a request of reimbursement for the travel expenses engaged.


It is our intention to search for the best possible solutions for this problem in collaboration with the Confederation (CPB) the Federation (FMB) and the organizer and therefore UMB will assist in an administrative way the players in order to recuperate total or part of the expenses from the responsible organizer.

All players and officials estimating having the right to reimbursement of such coasts are requested to introduce a file towards UMB to the following address: umb-office@pandora.be

The request should contain a minimum on information as following:

– Copy from the reservation of the flight mentioning the exact amount paid by the player or official with date of reservation and date of payment;

– All players or officials are supposed to have preliminary tried to recuperate part or total of the amount by request towards Insurance Companies, Travel Agencies other commercial companies or official instances that are eventually taking care of reimbursing engaged coasts by sportsmen for unforeseen circumstances.

– In order to support such request towards these commercial companies or official instances UMB will put at the disposal and on request of the player/official a letter by which UMB declares the circumstances of the withdrawing of the tournament.

– The players/officials are asked to send with their request the prove of this approach with mentioning of the refusal or partly reimbursed amount.

– Transmission of bank account info (IBAN and SWIFT/BIC) .

UMB regrets very much the situation by which all of the involved parties have been put in. A similar exterior environment occurred 15 years ago and we have than also searched for the best possible solutions. No other sportive international organization is protected from such circumstances and it only demonstrates that sports should influence in a positive way the regional, national and international community but cannot defend enough itself from hostile conduct towards our own sports community.


In the coming period we will together search for acceptable solutions for all parties in this misadventure."

The UMB Board