RONNIE GETS A ROCKET
SNOOKER O’Sullivan ‘numpty’ slur angers Hearn
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has been branded disrespectful by snooker boss Barry Hearn for calling his fellow pros ‘numpties’.
World Snooker chairman Hearn also suspects the insult will fire up opponents at the Rocket’s increasingly rare tournament appearances.
But he admits five-time world champion O’Sullivan, 41, is unlikely to be disciplined for his latest outburst.
O’Sullivan justified his absence from this week’s European Masters by saying he: “Couldn’t cope with playing a numpty at Barnsley to qualify. See how many numpties you can spot in Belgium.”
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However, the Rocket has confirmed he will play in this month’s English Open in Barnsley, where he will face a lower-ranked opponent.
Hearn said: “It’s disrespectful to fellow professionals and I wouldn’t want to encourage it, but I’m not sure it’s actionable.
“If he doesn’t rate his fellow professionals’ ability then he has to deal with that when he goes out to play them.
“I can ask players to be respectful, but that’s just common sense. And it is part of the bigger conversation about reducing the size of the tour.
“Will it motivate more these players Ronnie has called numpties? They ® should all want to beat top players anyway. But the great news for them is that it doesn’t matter what Ronnie or anyone else thinks, it’s about what they do on the table.
“In football that would be a comment that the manager would put straight on the dressing room wall, and the players would be lightning and thunder coming out on to the pitch.
“Snooker is not quite that type of game, you have to be in control of your emotions a bit more, but it might motivate a few.
“There is though a bigger picture about where is snooker going and our plans for it. To be fair to Ronnie, it isn’t just him who thinks the tour should be smaller.
“There are a few other big names who think that it should be cut from 128 to 64.
“I have always thought that was a backwards step. I don’t think the bottom half are a waste of time, because it’s an avenue to changing your life and living the dream.
“If you are a ‘numpty’, as Ronnie so eloquently puts it, you will get beaten. And after a year or two maybe you’ll look in the mirror and get another job. But you had the chance.
“In Ronnie’s ideal world, and this is a slight exaggeration, a tournament would be him and one other person for all the money.” 7