Snooker may make its debut at the Olympic Games in 2024 after the chair of its governing body revealed plans to put the sport forward for the flagship event.

Jason Ferguson, chair of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBAS), announced the bid during this year’s World Championships in Sheffield, adding that the body is also eyeing the Paralympic Games of the same year.

“I can confirm that we will be making a bid for the 2024 Olympic Games,” said Ferguson. “We made a late bid for Tokyo (2020) and we did very well. We learned a lot through that process and we know we have the ability to deliver a fantastic Olympic event.”

Ferguson – who is also president of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports – confirmed that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would test the sport as a potential Olympic event during the World Games in Wroclaw, Poland next year.

Last year, snooker missed out on a place at the Tokyo Games along with bridge, chess and netball. However, Ferguson revealed that he was confident that the sport would be successful on this occasion.

He said: “If you go back five years we’d have said ‘Olympics? No chance.’ But we have developed our sport and expanded our programme globally and I think we fully deserve our place on the Olympic platform.

“We hear a lot about legacy and cost at the Olympics and the multi-millions that are spent on new arenas and swimming pools. But we can present an Olympic sport on a very tight budget because we can take over any facility and make it look great.”

The 2024 Olympic Games will take place in either Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris or Rome. A winning bid will be selected in late-2017 in Lima, Peru.