Snooker On the Rise Again in Canada

Jul 21, 2012

Great news!! The professional snooker tour will soon have a Canadian player competing for the first time in almost 20 years. On July 21, 2012, Floyd Ziegler from Ontario will play in England against Fergal O'Brien in a professional tournament thanks to a 2 year tour card that was granted to him recently by the WPBSA. Floyd Ziegler
This proves to be yet another recent milestone for snooker in Canada and will hopefully give the game even more momentum in its recent surge in popularity.
The organization responsible for this new spot on the professional tour is Snooker Canada, along with it's President, Patrick Guigui. Ever since Guigui returned from America to live in Canada in 2005, he kept asking people, including himself, "Why doesn't Canada have a spot on the pro tour?".
Well, Guigui got tired of asking this question and decided to pursue the answer himself. He called the WPBSA in England and booked an appointment with commercial director Miles Pearce. Guigui then flew over to to have lunch with Miles and the deal was done. This was finalized with countless conversations with WPBSA Chairman, Jason Ferguson.
While the spot had no choice but to be granted to the governing body of snooker in Canada, the CBSA, Guigui is not bothered by this. "The bottom line is that this will help give the game a boost, that has always been our main focus at here at Snooker Canada"
This is the main reason why Snooker Canada brought the IBSF World Junior Snooker Championships to Canada last year. An event that has never been previously hosted here.
This does not stop there. There are talks of bringing over a professional event here in Canada as well. This would be something that has not been done in over 25 years. No doubt, this would be an event that snooker fans from all over Canada would come to watch.
Finally, for a country starving for more of this beautiful game, Guigui is currently working on a deal which would put snooker back on the television airwaves, again, for the first time in many years. If and when this is accomplished, the game of snooker is sure to increase in popularity even more and surely, the grassroots of snooker will begin to get back on track.
If anyone has any good ideas to help increase the game's popularity here in Canada (in any way), please contact Patrick Guigui at 514-833-2822 or at info@snookercanada.com. As you all know, this would take the efforts of snooker players and fans from all over the country.