The Malta Independent can confirm that the Malta Cup tournament is not being held this season.

It had not been included in the calendar by the World Snooker Association although at the time, there was still hope that the necessary funds to stage the tournament would be found. However, not enough sponsorship has been forthcoming and the event is now definitely out of the WSA’s calendar for 2007-08.

The local organisers, Snooker Promotions Ltd, are very disappointed at not being able to organise the event which they had staged so successfully in Malta during the past years.

But not all seems lost. In fact, it is known, though this still has to be confirmed, that instead of the Malta Cup, an Invitational tournament is being planned to be staged with participation open to the top players in the world of snooker.

The major difference is that while the Malta Cup was a fully-fledged ranking tournament, the Invitational tournament will carry no points towards ranking purposes and therefore might not attract the top cueists.

However, the fact that it is planned to be staged at the Portomaso Hilton gives the organisers a lot of hope that all the top players will be here for the one-week event.