International Billiards and Snooker Federation

The World Billiards and Snooker Council (WB&SC) was established in 1971, following a meeting of a number of national associations at a hotel in Malta during the World Amateur Billiards Championship. The associations were dissatisfied that the Billiards and Snooker Control Council was controlling both the UK and international games. Player and journalist Clive Everton served as the first secretary, and his office served as the first office of the WB&SC. In 1973, the WB&SC renamed itself as the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) and began to control non-professional billiards and snooker championships.[2][3][4]

The aims and objectives of the IBSF are to "co-ordinate, promote and develop the sports of billiards and snooker on a non-professional level" and to manage the following competitions:[2]

• IBSF World Snooker Championship
• IBSF World Six-red snooker Championships
• IBSF World Team Snooker Championship
• IBSF World Under-18 Snooker Championship
• IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship
• IBSF World Women Snooker Championship
• IBSF World Masters Snooker Championships
• IBSF World Billiards Championship

By the end of 1984, the IBSF had thirty countries as members.[5] As of January 2020, the IBSF has seventy-three affiliated countries categorised into one of the five Olympic regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The IBSF board of directors has four executive officers (president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer) plus two representatives from each Olympic region. The executive officers are responsible for the day-to-day running of the Federation and are answerable to IBSF members at the annual general meeting, which is normally held during the period of the IBSF World Snooker Championships.[2]

The IBSF was (alongside the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, WPBSA) one of the two snooker-focused organisational member of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS).[6] The WCBS is an organisation that promotes cue sports in the form of carom, pool and snooker; its primary aim is to gain the acceptance of these three cue sports disciplines into the Olympic Games.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) terminated its relationship with the IBSF on 31 July 2017, over conflicts involving the two organisations' relative leadership positions within WCBS, making allegations of IBSF misconduct.[7] As a result of the split, the WPBSA has revoked the Professional Main Tour cards that were once afforded to the IBSF World Men's and World Under-21 Champions. On 5 October 2017, WPBSA announced the formation of the World Snooker Federation (WSF), with stated goals similar to those of WCBS, but focused on amateur and professional snooker, and is inviting regional and national amateur snooker federations to join WSF.[8]

As the IBSF and WPBSA were unable to come to a formal agreement as required by the WCBS, both had their WCBS membership terminated in December 2018.[9] In March 2019, the IBSF was reinstated to the WCBS to represent snooker.[10]

• List of international sport federations

• IBSF official website