A BRAND new Champion of Champions competition is to take place next season, World Snooker has today announced.

The new six-day event, which will run from Tuesday, November 19 to Sunday, November 24, will be held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Winners of this season’s major competitions will take part in the event which carries a top prize of £100,000. It will be broadcast on a free-to-air television channel.  

In total 16 players will contest for the winning prize who will be split into four group of four. The winners of each group will then go through to the semi-finals of the event.

At a press conference at the Crucible today, World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said the new event will go back to a longer format.

You will have four groups of four, so every day the public when they buy a ticket will see a winner who will go through to the semi-finals,” he said. “So it will be two semi-finals in the afternoon, a group final in the evening, winner goes through to the Saturday.

“It’s going to start on the Tuesday, finish on the Sunday and it will shock a lot of purists that I am going back to a slightly longer format rather than a shorter format. It’s not going to be a one frame shoot out, the final I think is going to be over 23 frames, going to go back to the old school because the Champion of Champions is the crème de la crème.”

More details about the event and the names of the players competing will be announced in due course.