Jef Philipoom doesn't pay for World championship in Lima

ANTWERP - The Belgian player Jef Philipoom will not belong to the participants of the World championship three-cushion in Lima (Peru), that will be held from 12 to 16 July. The policy of his federation, that the players have to pay themselves for the travel and the stay, is the cause for the cancellation. Jef Philipoom was the thirteenth player on the ranking for the tournament. The World Cup will be played with 48 players.

The deadline was tonight (Monday) at 24.00, until then there was no sponsor to help Philipoom. ,,I have tried to find someone who will sponsor me, or pay a part of the money that I need for playing there. Travel and accommodation cost me 3000 euros, that's a ridiculously high amount for a sportsman who's gonna play a world championship.''

Jef Philipoom sais that Belgium is the federation where players must pay themselves, in all the other countries the players are paid by there federation for a World championship. ,,The only player who gets his ticket is Eddy Merckx, the Belgian champion, but Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Leppens, me and possibly Peter de Backer must pay themselves.'' Peter de Backer writes on facebook tonight: ,,I know no other sport where players must pay for participating in a World championship.''

Whoever occupies the place of Philipoom is not yet known. The UMB has put 21 players on the list so far, fifteen of them had confirmed in the hour before the deadline. Daniel Sánchez is the defending champion in Lima. Raimond Burgman has got the wildcard of the UMB.

The players list so far according to the ranking:
Dani Sánchez (Spain), Dick Jaspers (Netherlands), Eddy Merckx (Belgium), Kyung-Roul Kim (Korea), Frédéric Caudron (Belgium), Filipos Kasidokostas (Greece), Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden), Sung-Won Choi (Korea ) Martin Horn (Germany), Jérémy Bury (France), Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey), Marco Zanetti (Italy), Jef Philipoom (Belgium), Javier Palazón (Spain), Eddy Leppens (Belgium), Lütfi Cenet (Turkey) Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece), Heo Jung Han (Korea), Ryuuji Umeda (Japan), Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey), Javier Teran (Ecuador).