The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the governing body for professional snooker, first introduced a ranking system for professional players in 1976, with the aim of seeding players for the World Snooker Championship. The reigning champion would be automatically seeded first, the losing finalist from the previous year seeded second, and the other seedings based on the ranking list. Initially, the rankings were based on performances in the preceding three world championships. The 1983–84 snooker world rankings were the first to take tournaments other than world championship into account, and several additional tournaments were designated as ranking tournaments over the following years. The list for the 1986–87 snooker season was the first to only take account of results over two seasons, and the rankings for 1989–90 were also based on results from the preceding two seasons. Barry Hearn, the manager of a number of leading players including Steve Davis and Jimmy White, made a proposal to the WPBSA to change the system so that only the best seven performances from the ten ranking tournaments were counted. It was rejected at an extraordinary meeting of the WPBSA in May 1989.
Points tariff and basis of ranking
(pictured in 2010) was ranked third. Ranking was determined as follows: • By number of ranking points. • If players had an equal number of ranking points, precedence was given to the player with the better performances in the later season. • If players were still equal, merit points were considered. If they were still tied, precedence was given to the player with the better performances in the later season. • If players were still equal, A points were considered. If they were still tied, precedence was given to the player with the better performances in the later season. • If players were still equal, frames won were considered. If they were still tied, precedence was given the player with the better performances in the later season. ==Rankings==
Rankings
Key: • "(New)" denotes a player that was a new professional for 1988–89. • "(NT)" denotes a non-tournament player, i.e. a player who was permitted to enter the world championship but no other tournaments in 1989–90. • "N" denotes that as a non-tournament player, the player was not eligible to enter. • "–" denotes that the player did not compete in the tournament. • "X" denotes that the player was banned from competing in the tournament. ==Notes==