World Cup in Veghel with many nationalities

VEGHEL - The field with 149 players for the World Cup in Veghel (7-13 November) is fully booked. The remaining and reserved positions have been filled up by the UMB tournament management. The reserve list now counts 40 players, Turkish Gülsen Degener is the next to come in. The complete players list has a total of 18 nationalities: the home country of the Netherlands with the most participants (25), followed by Germany with 21, Turkey with 17, Belgium and Korea with 15. Only the Vietnamese are missing due to the pandemic situation in their country.

The other nationalities and the number of participants are:
France 10
Austria 8
Czech Republic 7
Spain 5
Denmark 4
Portugal 4
Greece 4
Italy 3
Sweden 3
Egypt 3
Colombia 3
USA 1
Jordan 1

The reserve list includes 11 Turks, 8 Belgians, 7 Germans and 4 Spaniards.

The ticket sales for the World Cup in De Noordkade in Veghel are going extremely well. Harry Mathijssen, organizer with BEN, expects a sold-out house for at least the three final days, just like in the previous World Cup. ''Billiard fans from the Netherlands and abroad who want to visit the three days in the main tournament have to hurry to make a reservation via our website. We do not want to disappoint anyone.'' The capacity in the arena is 520 seats.

Harry Mathijssen is pleased with the large number of nationalities. He expects a lot of media attention as well. ''We already have lots of contact with newspapers and other media, because it's a new start for international billiards. There is a lot of interest for this first World Cup on the international calendar.

Therese Klompenhouwer, the Dutch world champion with a wildcard for Veghel World Cup

Jose Juan Garcia, Colombian top gun for the World Cup in Veghel

Tom Löwe, the young German player is in the list of German players