TRUMP DOMINANT AMIDST POLITICAL DRAMA

The headline could easily be related to the US economy, but ironically it's been written in a snooker blog.

Last week the withdrawal of five players including the World Champion Luca Brecel, plus Selby and Higgins from the upcoming Northern Ireland Open in order to play the exhibitional "Macau Masters" in China, brought a current political crisis in snooker to the front pages.

I think it's natural that money will attract players to events. Even professional tournaments sometimes struggle to attract the top players around the World. 

But whether you agree or not with them not entering tour events in order to participate in parallel exhibitions, Barry Hearn's statement that they were "selling their soul for a few extra quid" following WST threats to sanction the professionals involved, while the chiarmant Steve Dawson refuses speak publicly, is a total mess.

I recently wrote a full piece here about the conflict of interest in having Matchroom owning 51% of WST.

Having a private company running the sport, although Barry was fantastic to snooker for 10 years, can be dangerous in the long term. Snooker is not even Matchroom's focus anymore - they're currently investing on 9-ball and snooker is serving more as a solid profit source.

Although they just threatened sanctioning the players taking part in the Macau Masters, they invite them to take part in their pool events and, as a huge coincidence it must be, there are now gaps in the WST calendar that conveniently match most of the 9-ball events.
Didn't the tournaments used to be better spread throughout the snooker season?

I think, as it's the case in some major sports, that the organization should be owned by the players and run by a board of members. Matchroom current service and decision making gets me very scared for the future of the game. 

What about the current uncertainty on renewing the Crucible deal for the World Championship? Sheffield is the snooker capital of the world and we have there what very few sporting events have - a city getting mobilized by the event when it's on. That's something earned through 50 years of history, and due to the fact that the city also grew around snooker after the World Championship arrived there in 1977 and the sport became the most popular in the UK throughout the 80s.

Wherever else you take the championship to, it might be more profitable in the short-term, but the event would lose that extra factor and over the long-term the impact would likely be negative. But again, a private business will always be more interested in immediate profit and that's where there's conflict of interest between Matchroom and Snooker.

Meanwhile on the table, despite the political drama and schedulling issues, Judd Trump has just beaten Ali Carter to win the Wuhan Open in China. His second ranking title in a row, just 7 days after he beat Zhang Anda in the English Open final in Brentwood.

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