1979–80 snooker world rankings
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The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the governing body for professional snooker, first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Before this, for each tournament the defending champion was seeded first, and the previous year's runner-up second.
For the 1979/1980 ranking list, players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships (1977, 1978 and 1979) contributed to their points total. For each of the three years, the World Champion gained five points, the runner-up received four, losing semi-finalists got three, losing quarter-finalists got two, and losers in the last-16 round received a single point. Ray Reardon retained top place in the rankings from the 1978/1979 listing, with 12 points.
The day following the 1979 World Championship, on 29 April, the WPBSA voted that only two players would receive direct entry into the last 16 of the 1980 World Championship: the 1979 champion Terry Griffiths and runner-up Dennis Taylor. This resolution was poorly received by the BBC, who televised the championship, and by tournament sponsors Embassy; both organisations were concerned that star players could be eliminated before the televised stage. The Professional Snooker Association (PSA), formed soon after the meeting, challenged the decision. The PSA included many leading players, and had Reardon, John Spencer and snooker agent Del Simmonds as directors. According to Griffiths, both he and Taylor joined the PSA in "solidarity".
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