By Ronnie Nathanielsz

THE World Cup of Pool comes to Manila this September in a partnership between the world renowned promotional company Matchroom Sport and Solar Sports.

Eddie Hearn, son of Matchroom Sport owner Barry Hearn, is already in Manila reportedly to participate in a poker tournemant and will attend a press conference scheduled for Wednesday noon at the Sports Plus Caf? in Eastwood City, Libis, Quezon City, where the formal contract signing is scheduled to take place.

Hearn told Standard Today, www.insidesports.ph and Viva Sports on Monday night that he had scheduled meetings with Solar Sports on Tuesday presumably to finalize details.

Hearn said both he and his father are extremely happy that the World Cup of Pool is coming to Manila later this year.

The duo of Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Django Bustamante won the inaugural staging of the event, when they whipped the US tandem of Rodney Morris and temperamental Earl Strickland, 11-5, in the finals in 2006.

The following year, the Chinese duo of Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo clinched the title with a pulsating 11-10 victory over Mika Immonen and Markus Juva of Finland.

Last year, the Americans avenged their defeat at the hands of the Filipinos when Morris teamed up with Shane Van Boening to defeat the tandem of Bustamante and Dennis Orcollo in the semifinals, and then went on to defeat the English pair of 2007 World Pool champion Darryl Peach and Mark Gray, 11-7, in the final at the Outland nightclub, in the port city of Rotterdam, Holland.

The worldwide economic crisis has affected tournaments in the US and around the world, resulting in the failure to stage the World Pool Championships last year aside from internal differences between pool factions in the Philippines, although several tournaments organized by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines have kept players active and the sport alive.