A World Squash Federation (WSF) and PSA Satellite Tour has also been announced following the recent partnership agreement between the two bodies.

The changes, which have been made in order to streamline the sport and increase earning potential for professional squash players, will see the current PSA World Tour rebranded into two individual circuits - comprising of the PSA World Tour and PSA Challenger Tour.

Qualification rounds will be scrapped and a series of new tournament tiers will be introduced across both circuits.

Under the new look, the PSA World Tour will continue to be home to all current top-tier events offering total prize money from $50,000 (£35,000/€40,000) to $1 million (£706,000/€807,000) and above, including the World Championships and World Tour Finals.

New tournament tiers in the form of World Tour Platinum, featuring 48-player draws, and World Tour Gold, World Tour Silver and World Tour Bronze, all of which are set to feature 24-player draws, will be introduced.

The 2018-2019 PSA World Championships, which will be held in Chicago with a record $1 million (£706,000/€807,000) prize fund up for grabs, will be the first to be staged under the new tour structure.

Both draws will comprise of 56 PSA entrants and one wildcard, with the other seven places taken up by winners from selected tournaments on the PSA Challenger Tour in a "Road to Chicago" competition.

The PSA Challenger Tour will provide a platform for the world's most exciting up-and-coming talents to cut their teeth on the professional circuit against some of squash's most experienced players, with tournaments offering prize money between $5,500 (£3,900/€4,400) and $30,000 (£21,000/€24,000).

Tournament tiers consist of Challenger Tour 30, Challenger Tour 20, Challenger Tour 10 and Challenger Tour 5 tournaments, while a round-robin system will be trialled at selected Challenger Tour 5 tournaments throughout the 2018-2019 season.

The WSF and PSA Satellite Tour will integrate sanctioned world, regional, national and junior tournaments into the PSA world rankings to create a pathway to the professional circuit for aspiring, up-and-coming players.

It is hoped this will strengthen the link between the WSF and the professional tour.

The Satellite Tour’s formation follows on from last year’s partnership agreement between the PSA and the WSF, which saw the two bodies sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). 

It will run throughout each calendar year and comprise the WSF National Championships, Satellite Tournaments, World and Regional Junior Championships, National Junior Opens and National Junior Championships.

Players will earn PSA world ranking points based on their results at tournaments on the PSA World Tour, PSA Challenger Tour and the WSF and PSA Satellite Tour.

"We are committed to promoting a thriving and sustainable professional squash circuit and feel that simplifying the tour structure and easing the transition from junior squash to professional squash will help us to achieve those aims," PSA chief executive Alex Gough said.

"Since signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the WSF in August 2017, we have been hugely encouraged by the commitment from both sides to forge a strong working relationship and believe that partnering with the WSF in this manner will be a significant boost to the growth of the sport in the coming years."

WSF President Jacques Fontaine added: "It was an important intention for me to bring WSF and PSA closer together when I became WSF President, as a unified sport will progress even more strongly.

"Our MoU has achieved this aim.

"Now joining together to allow players competing in our member nation's national and junior championships to have the opportunity of ranking points is an example showing the benefits of this unity.

"Our priorities as a sport are to offer leadership in education, accessibility and sustainability, and competition too - and our strong bond with PSA addresses the last pillar especially.

"I am sure that the WSF and PSA Satellite Tour will go from strength to strength."

In January, the PSA and WSF appointed Weber Shandwick as a communications campaign partner to provide strategic counsel and global public relations to support the bid for squash to be included on the Olympic programme for Paris 2024. 

Weber Shandwick has more than 20 years of experience in supporting campaigns related to the Olympic Games, producing award-winning work for successful Olympic bids and Organising Committees, including those for Sochi 2014, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 and Los Angeles 2028.