ON AND OFF-TABLE DRAMA MAKES RONNIE'S FUTURE UNCERTAIN
This has never been a news website, however, an eventful week might have been the last time we have seen Ronnie O'Sullivan play in a World Snooker Tour event. And here are the facts that COULD lead to that:
On Thursday, after 4 defeats in 5 games, Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the Invitational Championship League even before playing his final group match against Ali Carter. Later on, news broke out that he had shattered his cue to pieces and threw it in the bin before leaving the venue - this was confirmed by Robert Milkins on Twitter/X (before he unactivated his account) and Dave Hendon.
It all came after Ronnie had showed clear frustration during his loss to Robert Milkins smacking his cue on the table, and even during his win against Jak Jones.
Then on Friday, the day I write this, WST announced that Neil Robertson would replace Ronnie O'Sullivan at the Masters. The Rocket was due to begin the defence of his eighth title won last year on Sunday evening against John Higgins - it was informed that he did withdraw "on medical grounds".
I would never dismiss mental health issues, and Ronnie's struggles have been well documented in the past. But we also know he's used this "pass" quite a few times in the last couple years, pulling out of events he was not interested in and playing elsewhere.
Things took a turn though, when later on this Friday Jason Francis (manager of Snooker Legends, Seniors Snooker and of Ronnie O'Sullivan) announced on Twitter/X that his company, NST Worldwide Ltd, "launched legal proceedings in the Competition Appeal Tribunal [...] against World Snooker Ltd (WST) [...] and the WPBSA for abuse of their dominant position [...]"
Summarizing it, the claim is that WST's players contract is abusive as it doesn't allow their players to play in non-WST-sanctioned events without their formal approval. They're claiming WST, which is 51% owned by the Hearn family through Matchroom, "£10.2m in damage plus interest and declarations from the Court to invalidate terms used by World Snooker Ltd to abuse its dominant position by controlling the players and erecting barriers to entry for competitors [...]"
And what does that have to do with Ronnie O'Sullivan? Well, the 7-times World Champion is an equal shareholder of that company.
The "war" begun in 2023 when we had the "Macau 5" gate. At the time, five players - Brecel, Higgins and Selby amongst them - were denied permission to play a tournament in Macau (China) because it would clash dates with a WST event.
Later on that year it was announced the Macau event would be postponed. But apparently the war didn't end there.
Now, according to the website Eastern Eye, they've had access to NST's legal claim and it features a recording of Barry Hearn "abusing dominance to detriment of consumer". According to them, the recording has Hearn saying he owns the players as long as they have a contract with him and has quotes such as: “F***ing hell mate, I spent 45 years of my life making sure I don’t have competition, I’m not gonna start now, am I?”; “And if you wanna challenge it, you better have deep pockets and a long patience because I will fight you every inch of the way.”
With all that said, I personally feel like Ronnie O'Sullivan will not be playing WST events for the foreseeable future, and I would expect a WST / WPBSA statement very soon (possibly this Saturday if they don't want to make it during the Masters).
It's all unclear at the moment, and I'm sure if he takes a break the promoters would do anything to get him back come Sheffield time, but it is a situation and it wouldn't surprise me if we have seen Ronnie playing a WST event for the last time.
The Masters starts on Sunday!
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