Submitted by Ted Wallbutton, PSA Marketing Consultant

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) is the player body working on behalf of male Squash professionals to create and administer a year round World Tour and organise and promote World Rankings.

The History
In the early days of professional Squash there were two representative bodies. In North America the World Professional Squash Association (WPSA) was formed in 1973 from the core of the Professional Hardball Association. In the rest of the world, players of the International, or Softball, game were gathered under the aegis of the International Squash Players Association (ISPA).

In the 1980s the WPSA organised a pro tour totalling more than half a million dollars in prize money and visiting more than thirty cities in USA and Canada. The top names were Americans Mark Talbott and Ned Edwards, Canadians Michael Desaulniers and Clive Caldwell, Mario Sanchez from Mexico and a Pakistani-born Squash giant, Sharif Khan who was based in Toronto. In its later years the Association was brilliantly organised by another great player of the Hardball game, John Nimick, who is today one of the world’s top promoters of Squash.

The foundations of ISPA were laid in the early 1970s with a professional touring group including Jonah Barrington, Qamar Zaman, Hiddy Jahan, Mohibullah Kahn and Gogi Allaudin who played in exhibition matches around the world, as there were few top tournaments in place at that time. ISPA was formed by them in 1973 and started to construct a World Tour, the centrepiece of which, the World Open, was launched in 1976.

In the early 1990s the Hardball game in North America declined, as the competitive and physical attractions of the Softball version won over existing players, and the two professional bodies merged to create a truly worldwide organisation. In 1993 the Professional Squash Association was born.

Today
PSA now represents the World's top 500 squash players from 59 countries, covering the five continental regions of the world, and is responsible for the organisation and co-ordination of the Men’s World Squash Circuit and for issuing the Men’s World Rankings.

The PSA World Tour forms the backbone of men's elite squash, with events in 48 countries. In 2007 there were 371 PSA Tour events, with a total prize fund of US$ 3.2 million, a dramatic increase from the 2000 totals of 100 events and US$ 1.5 million prize money.

Superstars like Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour (Egypt), David Palmer (Australia), Thierry Lincou and Gregory Gaultier (France) and rising stars such as Adrian Grant (England), Laurens Jan Anjema (Netherlands), and Borja Golan (Spain) bring the best in squash to fans around the globe as they compete against their fellow professionals for the World Ranking Points that are vital to their careers and sponsorship incomes.

At the heart of the PSA World Tour are the Super Series tournaments – Tournament of Champions in New York, PSA Masters, British Open, Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open, Sheikha Al Saad Kuwait Open, Pakistan Open, Qatar Classic, Saudi International, US Open and the World Open. These prestigious events, which are part of the PSA TV Series, also offer PSA players an opportunity to qualify for the Atco Super Series Finals. The top 8 players in the Super Series Standing at the end of a calendar year automatically qualify for this prestigious event, held in the heart of London.

The PSA World Tour is played all year long and beneath the Super Series level, scores of PSA tournaments, from $3,000 - $60,000, attract the next generation of national and international stars. Prestigious events like the Swedish Open, Canadian Classic, Canary Wharf, the English Open and Dayton Open mingle with dozens of smaller events offering battlegrounds for aspiring players. It is through participation in the smaller events that the top players have achieved their high positions.

Great champions such as Jonah Barrington, Geoff Hunt, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan have defined the last four decades of professional squash. Each achieved the ultimate recognition and glory of a number 1 World Ranking. The PSA is proud to carry on the mission of crowning the sport's annual top players by managing and promoting the dynamic world of men's tournament squash.

Tour Organization
The PSA Tour is the official World circuit for Men's Professional Squash and is played all year round. The Tour is organised at different levels:

World Open
The World Open is the ultimate tournament on the PSA World Tour and gives PSA players the opportunity to aspire to the highest pinnacle of competitive achievement.

Super Series
PSA Super Series are a select group of high profile squash tournaments. They offer the largest prize money, attract the majority of the world's best players and provide the most demanding competition. The tournaments require a minimum 32 main draw, plus 32 qualification, hotel accommodation, one meal a day for main draw players and a suitable TV court.

Super Series Platinum (minimum prize money US$120,000)
Super Series Gold (minimum prize money US$100,000)
Super Series Silver (minimum prize money US$70,000)

Star Series Tournaments
Total compensation above US$10,000.
5 Star (minimum total compensation US$50,000)
4 Star (minimum total compensation US$40,000)
3 Star (minimum total compensation US$30,000)
2½ Star (minimum total compensation US$25,000)
2 Star (minimum total compensation US$20,000)
1½ Star (minimum total compensation US$15,000)
1 Star (minimum total compensation US$10,000)

Satellite Series
Tournaments with total compensation of less than US$10,000. These tournaments create the first opportunity for the aspiring player to enter on to the PSA World Tour.

PSA Management
PSA is a player organisation that is controlled by its member players. The majority of the PSA Board is players who are, or have been, in the World Top 10 and currently include MarkChaloner, Alex Gough, Lee Beechill, Tony Hands and Robert Graham. Additionally there are members with huge business experience to guide the way forward and these are currently Jack Herrick, a USA lawyer, and Martin MacDonnell, and Irish publishing entrepreneur. The headquarters of PSA are based in Cardiff, Wales and operate under the leadership of Chief Executive Gawain Briars, himself a former top ranked player, and Tour Director Sheila Cooksley who has been the centrepoint of PSA communication for many years.

World Rankings
The PSA World Rankings are calculated and published every month. The players earn points for performance according to a published schedule, with the winner of an event gaining 17.5% of the prize fund and a similar proportion of the total ranking points, the runner-up receiving 11.5% and a graduated percentage then applying to the total entry, down to 1.25% for first round losers. The total number of points accumulated in a 52 week period is divided by the number of event played, subject to an adjustment divisor, to give each player a place in the World Rankings.

PSA Media Coverage
The PSA has taken a strong lead in the promotion of Squash worldwide, through its Super Series Television coverage, backed up by PSALive, a web-streaming service that delivers live and archived coverage to Squash fans around the globe.

PSA works with two partners in the media field. Pro-Active Television, based in Gloucestershire, England, is now part of the emerging Apace Media Group plc, but have specialised in managing the production output and rights negotiation for a range of sports events and tours for the last 14 years. They also produce a range of weekly magazine shows aired by broadcasters around the world that in turn offer immediate guaranteed coverage for many sports. The innovative web-streaming programme is handled as a joint venture between the PSA and Horizon Software Systems Limited and provides coverage of all major PSA events in the year.

The Future 
In 2001 there were 101 events on the PSA Tour with a prize fund total of US$ 1.6 million. In 2007 this had grown to 371 events totalling $ 3.2 million. Similarly the number of PSA Member Players increased from 301 to 495 in the same period as more and more opportunities were created for Squash players with professional aspirations to gain a foothold on the rankings ladder.

It does not take too much calculation to see that PSA and the PSA World Tour are on a roll. Success breeds success and the number of enquires from potential promoters in existing and new locations is at an all time high. Similarly Prize Funds are rising to ensure that the top players are attracted and events of over $250,000 are no longer a rarity.

The PSA is committed to creating the best possible opportunities for its Member Players and provides a comprehensive marketing support programme to ensure that new and inexperienced promoters are given the chance to run successful events.

The future is definitely bright.

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