The first three-cushion World Cup tournament in billiards history took place in Paris in 1986. Twelve professionals from the BWA and four participants from the organizing association started. The first four of the twelve professionals were seeded. Since there was still no three-cushion world ranking, a ranking was created by the BWA. The four seeded players were Raymond Ceulemans , Nobuaki Kobayashi , Junichi Komori and Ludo Dielis . With Ludo Dielis, one of the seeded players failed in the round of 16. For Raymond Ceulemans, the round of 16 was also his greatest challenge. The Frenchman Roland Dufetelle led 14: 6 in the fifth set and had match point several times, but couldn't convert any and lost at 14:15 in the end. In the course of the tournament, the two favorites Ceulemans and Kobayashi finally prevailed. In an exciting finale Ceulemans prevailed in the fifth set with 15:13 in eight shots. The World Cup tournament in Paris was very well attended with 8,000 spectators and was broadcast live on French television.
The World Cup had also made some innovations in the sport of billiards. The billiards were covered with blue cloth. Until now, the pool towels were always green. The game was played with a white, a yellow and a red ball. Before that there were two white balls (one with a marker) and one red ball. Up until now, billiards championships were usually played with black pants and sweaters. Billiard vests were compulsory in World Cup tournaments. A three-cushion world ranking list was introduced, which was updated after each international three-cushion tournament. In addition to the World Cup tournaments, other tournaments were also introduced. These were grand prix, inter-midgets and head-to-head tournaments organized by the BWA.
In addition to the prize money, the Soussa Cup was played. This trophy was designed by the first three- cushion world champion Edmond Soussa from Egypt and donated as a challenge trophy by Werner Bayer , the creator of the three-cushion world cup. Edmond Soussa, who died in 1989 at the age of 91, attended several three-cushion World Cup tournaments from 1986 to 1988.
The tournament was played with 16 participants. The whole tournament was played in the knockout system with three sets of 15 points each.
If a set was completed by player one at 15 points, player two had no follow-up kick.
Final round
The tournament tree for the final round is listed below. Legend: SP / Pkte / Aufn / ED / HS
The three-cushion World Cup was organized by the founding association, the " Billiards Worldcup Association " (BWA) until 1998 . Disputes between the BWA and the world association Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB) led to parallel tournaments between 1994 and 1997. The UMB / BWA organized the tournament together until the beginning of 1999. Since the dissolution of the BWA in 1999, the UMB has been the sole organizer. From 1988-1991 the UMB did not host any world championships. During this time, the annual overall winner of the World Cup was crowned world champion.