André Gagnaux (died February 1996), who was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

, was the first President of the

World Confederation of Billiard Sports The World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) is the international umbrella organization encompassing the major cue sports (billiards-type games), including carom billiards, pool games of several varieties, and snooker.Union Mondiale de Billard The Union Mondiale de Billard ( French for World Union of Billiards) is the world governing body for carom (carambole) billiard games. History The organization was founded in Madrid, Spain on 1 June 1959, and is dedicated to promoting the mo ...

(UMB). He was credited for the foundation of WCBS in 1992, when he first tried to contact various governing body of billiards sports since 1985 in order to fulfill the recognition criteria of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC), that a recognized sport must be governed by only one international sport federation. After various discussion with the

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotion ...

(WPBSA). At last, he called for a meeting on August 30, 1990, in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, UK, with the presence of all the three major cue sports representatives, namely, carom, pool and snooker. As a result, it was decided to form the World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS), an umbrella organization encompassing all billiards sports, and a three-man committee consisting of Gagnaux himself for Carom, Jorgen Sandman for Pool and

Mark Wildman Markham Wildman (born 25 January 1936) is an English retired professional snooker and English billiards player and cue sports commentator. He won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1984, and was runner up in 1980 and 1982. He made ...

for Snooker was appointed in order to work out the first constitution, to serve as a guideline for this new body. The following 18 months were spent on this work, which was somewhat complicated since the idea was to enable the various disciplines to work closely together, while maintaining their independence. The inaugural General Assembly of the WCBS was held in

Yverdon-les-Bains Yverdon-les-Bains () (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Roman era) is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district. The population of Yverdon-les-Bains, , was ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, on January 25, 1992. Gagnaux was elected as the first President of the confederation, an office he carried until 1996. He took ill during the second half of 1995, at which time he passed on his immediate tasks to Jorgen Sandman who took over as President in January 1996, just one month before he died.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gagnaux, Andre Swiss sports executives and administrators 1996 deaths Cue sports executives Year of birth missing