Many world top players in European Cup

BOTTROP/RONCHIN - In five European venues, the preliminaries for the Coupe d'Europe for three cushion teams are played this weekend (22 and 23 April). The group winners and the best runner-up in five groups qualify for the final, played in Porto from 8 to 11 June. The qualifications are played in Ronchin in France, Paiporta in Spain, Porcia in Italy, Bottrop in Germany and Athens in Greece.

The Turkish Gaziantepspor is the title defender and is automatically qualified for the final.

The teams in the qualifications will perform in strong line-ups. Many world top players come in action, such as Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti, Jérémy Bury and Martin Horn.

A total of 21 teams battle it out for the final round. They are divided into four groups of four and one of five.

The groups and the names of the players:

RONCHIN (Fr):
- Retro Albertin (Fr): Peter Ceulemans - Kurt Ceulemans - Cédric Melnytschenko - Xavier Roy
- BC International Berlijn (Ger): Cengiz Karaca - Norbert Roestel - Wolfgang Wolf - Karsten Witte
- BK Gröndal (Den): Dion Nelin - Tonny Carlsen - Brian Knudsen - Lars Dunch
- Karsiyaka Spor (Tur): Emin Gayret - Sarp Kaya - Tarik Yavuz - Levent Ozcollü

PAIPORTA (Sp):
- Club Billar Paiporta (Sp): Javier Palazon - Sergio Jimenez - Antonio Montes - Jorge Canto
- De Goeie Queue (Bel) - DKM Hulpmiddelen (BE): Frédéric Caudron - Jean-Paul de Bruijn - Wesley de Jaeger - Jerry Hermans
- Biljart Club Zürich (Sw): Behzat Cetin - Kenan Canturk - Pierre-Alain Rech - Johannes Boode
- CETSI Morangis (Fr): Eddy Merckx - Eddy Leppens - Richard Bitalis - Jean Reverchon

PORCIA (Italy):
- Green Planet Gold (It) Marco Zanetti - Jérémy Bury - Andreas Efler - Fabio Gaiotti
- BC Deurne (Bel): Jef Philipoom - Davy van Havere - Ludo Dielis - Jozef Gijsels
- Billar Club Valencia (Sp): Martin Horn - Dave Christiani - Ricardo Garcia Alarcon - Enrique Penalva
- Wiener Billard Assoziation (Aus): Claus Maurer - Arnim Kahofer - Karl Makik - Herbert Thuer

BOTTROP (Ger):
- Bottroper BA (Ger): Anno de Kleine - Christian Rudolph - Dustin Jäschke - Francis Forton
- BK Varde (Den): Brian Hansen - Michael Nilsson - Thomas Andersen - Allan Schröder
- ASD Selinus (It) Emilio Sciacca - Francesco Orlando - Liberato Picciano - Giovanni Rametta
- Gunduz Spor (Tur): Murat Celik - Tolgahan Kiraz - Mehmet Aksoy - Ayhan Semiz

Athene (Gr)
- Barrage Club (Gr) Kostantinos Kokkoris - Nikolaos Chatzipavlis - George Karakatsanis - Charalambos Mettos
ALB - Lausanne (Sw): Michel Boulaz - Guy Duplomb - Fernando Couto - Joël Duvoisin
- BSK Union SU (Aus): Dick Jaspers - Gerhard Kostistansky - Andreas Kronlachner - Alexander Weiss
- FC Leca (Por): Vitor Fernandes - Mario Aranha - Pedro Pais - Pedro Martins
- Buffalo (Neth): Glenn Hofman - Jean van Erp - Jeffrey Jorissen - Herman van Daalen

Frédéric Caudron, playing with his Belgian team De Goeie Queue