Luca Brecel
A local snooker exhibition event under Melco Style at Studio City Event Center between Oct. 27 and 29 is at the center of an international-scale imbroglio that has led the World Snooker Tour (WST) to threaten the participants with severe sanctions.
The threat has arisen because to participate in the exhibition event in Macau, the players would have to miss the Northern Ireland Open, a world tour event.
Several big names of the sport will participate in the Macau event, including the reigning world champion Luca Brecel, former Crucible kings Mark Selby and John Higgins, as well as Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Ali Carter.
In a long statement issued yesterday by the WST, the players were warned that participation in the local non-sanctioned event during a professional tournament, instead of the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast from Oct. 22-29, would constitute a breach of their contracts with WST.
“If these players decide to participate in the exhibition in Macau, the WST will have no alternative but to refer them to the WPBSA (World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association) Disciplinary Committee for breach of their player contract, and this has been clearly communicated to the players,” the WST statement reads.
Selby, Higgins, Un-Nooh and Carter have all been in China this week playing in the Wuhan Open, although only Carter remained in the competition at the time of writing.
In the same statement the WST explained that it is not the fact that they might not play at the Belfast event, but, instead, that they are playing in a non-sanctioned WST event.
“It is important to stress that WST players do not have to enter all WST events, they have the freedom to choose, which has always been the case. This level of freedom is unlike any other sport where players have voluntarily opted to enter contracts with their club/organization.”
“However, with this level of freedom, we do make clear in our player contracts that a player must not do anything detrimental to the WST or a WST event.”
“It is without doubt that playing in a non-sanctioned event instead of playing in a WST event is detrimental to that WST event,” the WST statement continued, commenting on the players’ already expressed intentions to join the Macau event.
“Unfortunately, despite engaging in email correspondence and phone calls intended to best explain our position and enable the players to make informed decisions, five players (four of whom are ranked within the top 16) have decided not to compete in the Northern Ireland Open and have withdrawn their entry to play in Macau.”
“These players are Mark Selby, John Higgins, Luca Brecel, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Ali Carter, none of whom will therefore appear in Belfast.”
According to information cited by specialized media, the appearance fees involved in the Macau exhibition are likely to rival the prize money on offer for reaching the latter stages of the Northern Ireland Open.
The same sources note that this will not be the only event of this kind in Asia in the upcoming weeks. Another exhibition event featuring Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Jack Lisowski, and Ding Junhui is also due to take place in Shanghai this month.
The Shanghai exhibition takes place during the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers, and despite the top 16 ranked players having their qualifying round matches held at the venue in Belfast, the WST, which is also unhappy over the participation of some of the sport’s star names in this event, is unlikely to take any disciplinary action.
O’Sullivan, who withdrew from the British Open due to illness, flew to Macau for an exhibition alongside Jimmy White before returning on the day of his First-Round match at the English Open last week., LiveSnooker.com noted, adding that the world’s number one has been outspoken in his criticism of the current tour structure which is called a “car boot sale,” criticizing the UK venues as well as the treatment of players in comparison to the events taking place in Asia.
O’Sullivan is also set to feature in the Macau Masters at the Wynn Palace which will take place from Dec. 25-29. O’Sullivan will play alongside Trump, Ding, Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Jack Lisowski, Marco Fu, and Si Jiahui in the Masters event that was announced earlier this year.
No Comments