Raya shrugs off BMPAP boycott threat

Raya Sports, organizer of top-level billiards tournaments in the country, yesterday said it would be the players’ loss if those under the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) pursue their plans to boycott Raya-organized tournaments.

In a statement, Raya managing director JP Fenix said that those who declared a boycott were only a fraction of the local pool community and the great majority of Filipino players do not support the BMPAP’s boycott threat.

“They (rest of the players) have expressed their full support for Raya and the BSCP and will play in our events,” Fenix said. “Pool honors are not won by saying you will not play. They are won by competing in tournaments that are fair, well organized, and recognized by international sports bodies.”

In a separate statement, the BMPAP said that its members will indeed boycott the Raya Sports-organized events other than the World Pool Championship, which it said is an event by the UK-based Matchroom Sport.

Fenix pointed out that whenever Raya organizes a tournament, it announces who are the players eligible and can apply for entry.

“We do not issue invitations,” he said. “We do not force anyone to join. But our experience is that our tournaments – the national championships and the world pool championships – have usually overflowed with participants. If there are some players who don’t want to join these events, that will therefore be their loss, not ours.”

Fenix said the tactic of boycotting events to enforce a demand is a familiar one of billiards patron Aristeo Puyat, who used it against the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) in many campaigns at the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games the last 20 years.

“(Puyat) is trying to use it now against Raya Sports, with the collusion of a couple of other managers,” Fenix said. “Obviously, he is envious of our success in staging major international events, whereas his tournaments, like the Negros Open immediately after the 2007 WPC, have been small, poorly organized and criticized by foreign players.”

Raya Sports is an official member of the World Pool-Billiard Association. It has official international status equal to internationally recognized sports promoters like Matchroom Sport, the UK-based company that stages the World Pool Championships among others.

Raya Sports president Yen Makabenta is a promoter licensed by the Games and Amusement Board of the Philippines, a respected member of the international pool fraternity and known to players and pool officials worldwide.

But the BMPAP has questioned Makabenta’s dual position as chair of the BSCP and head of Raya, a conflict of interest that the new pool group is up against.

Makabenta was named Man of the Year last year by Billiards Digest, the biggest pool magazine in the world. He is currently a regular columnist for AZBilliards, the top international website of pool.