Romania will host a professional snooker tournament for the first time this year, but the event will take place in Cluj-Napoca and not Bucharest, as it was initially announced, according to Romanian promoter Adrian Thiess, who has managed to bring the event to Romania.

“We have already put things on paper. We have booked the hall and talked to mayor Emil Boc. It’s all settled. We don’t have an appropriate location in Bucharest. The Polyvalent Hall in Cluj-Napoca is perfect,” said Adrian Thiess, according to local Mediafax.

Last year's exhibition snooker match between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stuart Bingham, also organised by Adrian Thiess, took place at the Bucharest Globus Circus, but the location is not appropriate for a big competition.

The European Championship is scheduled to take place on October 3-9. It is an international snooker competition that will draw 128 of the world’s best snooker players. Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, who has just won the Welsh Open, has already confirmed he would play in this competition.

Some 18 TV channels will broadcast the competition, which will be viewed by 100 million people around the world.

This is the second major sports event that Bucharest loses to Cluj-Napoca. Romania’s capital was also supposed to host the European Gymnastics Championships in 2017 but lost the right to organize the competition because it failed to build a new polyvalent hall as promised. The competition was thus moved to Cluj-Napoca.

Cluj-Napoca also hosted Romania’s Fed Cup match against the Czech Republic and will host the next match against Germany, in April, as well.

The women’s handball match between Romania and world champions Norway will also take place in Cluj-Napoca, on March 9.

editor@romania-insider.com