Bahrain Championship was the first ranking tournament to be staged in the Middle East, which cost the organisation around £500,000 in prize money and organisational costs. One session at the event did not attract any audience, and the largest attendance for any of the sessions was 150. In 2019, World Snooker announced that there would be a ranking event in Saudi Arabia in 2020, the first in a ten-year series. Amnesty International criticised the announcement due to concerns about human rights in the country. The WPBSA supports coaching in cue sports through an accredited programme, and in 2013 initiated the "Cue Zone into Schools" programme, which took scaled-down tables into schools and was intended to interest school children in taking up the game. In 2019, the WPBSA announced the creation of an all-party parliamentary group for snooker, chaired by Conor Burns, a Member of Parliament (MP). In 2015, the Association submitted an unsuccessful bid for snooker to be played at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Another bid has been put forward for Paris 2024 through a branch of the association formed in 2017, the World Snooker Federation. See also References External links World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) Official website World Snooker Official website World Billiards Official website World Disability Billiards & Snooker Official website World Women's Snooker Official website Snooker governing bodies Organisations based in Bristol Sports organizations established in 1968 Snooker in the United Kingdom