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A Professional Billiard Players Association (PBPA) was formed on 26 July 1946, with Joe Davis as chairman. The professional game was in decline in the 1950s and 1960s and the PBPA was also dormant until being restarted in April 1968 with eight professional members. Mike Green was designated as the Secretary. Membership of the Association was by application, with playing achievements and disciplinary records the main factors taken into account. This means of becoming professional was later replaced by a series of "pro ticket" events.[18]: 154–156 [20] Prior to the formation of the WPBSA, the world governing body of both snooker and English billiards was the Billiards Association and Control Council (BACC or BA&CC), later known as the Billiards and Snooker Control Council.[21] The BACC announced in August 1968 that the world professional snooker championship would be run on a knockout basis, rather than the challenge system that had been in place from 1964,[22] and in September 1969 that "The BA & CC and Professional Billiard Players Association have reached agreement regarding procedure for turning professional and other events governed by the BA & CC."[23] The PBPA disaffiliated from the BA&CC from 1 October 1970,[24] and was renamed the WPBSA on 12 December 1970,[17]: 45  soon taking control of the running of the professional game.[25] The WPBSA was reorganised as a limited company on 13 January 1982,[26] with the intention that it would negotiate contracts with television companies and sponsors, something that had previously been in the control of pIt was reported during the 1987 World Snooker Championship that WPBSA chairman Williams was taking beta blockers. These were banned under International Olympic Committee rules, but not prohibited in snooker.[27] Colin Moynihan, a British MP, called for Williams to resign and any players using beta blockers to withdraw from competing.[28] In 2001, in a legal case brought by Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and their management company, the WPBSA was found to have taken advantage of its dominant position in the snooker market by forcing its