O’SULLIVAN THREATENS SNOOKER BREAKAWAY
‘You don’t see Barcelona playing Leyton Orient...’
ROnnIe O’Sullivan threatened to start a breakaway snooker tour after keeping his bid for a record seventh uK Championship title alive yesterday.
The rocket edged past Irish veteran Ken Doherty 6-5 to reach the third round at york’s Barbican Centre. But five-time world champion O’Sullivan, 42, then urged fellow ‘Class of 1992’ member John Higgins to join him in creating a separate Champions League of snooker.
a dejected Higgins, 43, claimed that he was close to retirement and lacking form and motivation after losing to alan McManus on Saturday night.
World no 4 O’Sullivan has been fiercely critical of World Snooker in recent weeks over venues, formats and large fields — but believes he can find a solution.
‘It is very sad when you see someone like John Higgins talking about retirement,’ he said.
‘I will talk to him and find out what he is thinking. But if he wants to play and finds the tour a grind, I am waiting for four or five unhappy players because I can’t play on my own. I am ready to go if there was another platform. If there are people who are fed up and want to play a Champions League-style thing with titles, money and trophies in good venues — it is possible but I need players.
‘It is a big ask — they would have to give up a tour card and not play in the World Championship. and you have to have something to offer them to come over. But I have talked to possible backers.
‘If John is at that stage that he doesn’t want to play on this tour for whatever his own reasons are, then there is an opportunity because I think he would still like to play.
‘The unhappier players are, the more they would like to play some snooker rather than retire. John doesn’t want to retire I think, but he doesn’t want to be on the slog that there is.’
O’Sullivan outlined his plans for the new tour, saying: ‘I see an aTP style, best of the best — or people can watch the 128 players on the regular tour. I want to play in quality events, eight of the best. I just need players.
‘you don’t see Leyton Orient playing Barcelona, Messi would be demotivated doing that. So there is space for a 128-player tour,
and then a creme de la creme. I wouldn’t be doing the ryanair service. There are a lot of other players who are kind of a little bit unsettled as well. The more unhappy the players are, the more the chance we can maybe do an alternative tour.’
O’Sullivan added: ‘ you have the Chinese kids who have been banned recently, which was maybe a bit heavy, and a couple of top-ranked Chinese players are tired of the travelling.’
World Snooker supremo Barry Hearn hit back at O’Sullivan for his remark about Chinese stars yu Delu and Cao yupeng, who have been banned for a combined 16 years for match-fixing.
He tweeted: ‘Harshly! are you serious? Cheats were exposed and punished. Please keep such stupid comments to yourself. you are getting ridiculous, and I expect better from a player of your standing. enough.’
and 1997 world champion Doherty, questioned if a rival snooker tour would succeed.
‘I would be sad if such a breakaway happened, you need those players on the tour. I couldn’t see how it would work, it has been tried before in other sports and it hasn’t always worked.
‘I don’t think the public would like it, they want to see them play in all our blue- riband events, this being one of them. Why break away when you could go on and create more history?
‘and I honestly don’t think John Higgins would be up for it anyway,’ said Doherty.