Championship League is a non-ranking snooker tournament, devised by Matchroom Sport. All tournaments have been held at the Crondon Park Golf Club since its debut in 2008.
The event was introduced in 2008 by Barry Hearn to provide additional competition and a qualifier to the Premier League Snooker. 25 professionals take part, there is no audience and every match is broadcast via internet only. Players earn money for every frame won and there are also prizes for being a semi-finalist, runner-up and winner of each group, with more money involved in the winners group.
In the first two years all matches in the group stages were the best of four, meaning that the matches could ended in a draw as all the four frames were played, and the semi-finals and final was best of five. From 2010 all matches are best of five.
The competition runs over eight group, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a play-off, the winner of which qualifies for the winners group. The bottom two players of each league are eliminated and the remaining four moves to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. The winners play in the final group with the overall winner taking a place in that years Premier League Snooker.
Manuel Almunia Rivero (born 19 May 1977) is a professional footballer. He played most recently as a goalkeeper for Arsenal. He was Arsenal's first choice golkeeper following the departure of Jens Lehmann. Since Arsenal's 3-2 defeat to West Bromwich Albion in 2011, Wojciech Szczęsny and Łukasz Fabiański have been preferred between the sticks, leaving Almunia as Arsenal's third-choice goalkeeper. On 22 May 2012, the club announced that Almunia and six other players would be released from their contracts as of 30 June 2012 and would be free to seek other clubs from 1 July.
Born in Pamplona, Navarre, Almunia started his senior career with Osasuna's reserve team in 1997, playing two seasons with the team in Segunda División B. He went on to spend two more seasons in the category, with Cartagonova and Sabadell, joining the top flight in 2001–02, with Real Club Celta de Vigo.
However, shortly after joining Celta, Almunia was loaned out to Segunda División side Eibar, where he spent 2001–02 as first-choice goalkeeper. During the 2002–03 season, Celta loaned him out to first-division club Recreativo de Huelva, where he played understudy to José Antonio Luque and César, only making two league appearances. Almunia's début in the first division came on 17 November 2002, following a red card to the latter, in a 3-0 defeat at Deportivo Alavés.