Al-Turki reveals tour plans

Ziad Al-Turki, the Saudi Vice-President of the ATCO Group and sponsor of the Saudi International, has revealed further plans to streamline the men's tour.

On the back of the recent seven-year, $675,000 agreement between the ATCO Group and the internationalSPORTgroup that will see a large rise in the prize money available for a number of high-profile events, Al-Turki has suggested that the PSA tour should concentrate in specific regional areas before moving on to others.

This seems sensible given the relatively small amounts of funding and prize money that squash players receive set against the high cost of air travel. Formula One does something similar, moving from continent to continent.

Speaking to Squashsite, Al-Turki said:

"The Tour show flow from Europe, to the US, to Asia and then back to the Middle East. Instead of which players are going backwards and forwards all over the place, which is wrong".

This seems reasonable, and will surely be received favourably by the players. Any money coming into the game will be welcomed, and Al-Turki seems a genuine squash enthusiast.

As I have noted before, though these plans suggest streamlining a tour that moves all over the world, the controlling "hub" of world squash seems to be moving from Europe to the Middle East.