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Ronnie O’Sullivan fired a parting shot at World Snooker Tour chiefs as he ready to money in on his historic eighth UK Snooker Championship title by jetting off for a profitable Christmas exhibition in China.
O’Sullivan, whose 10-7 win over Ding Junhui on Sunday made him the oldest winner of the title, maintains the view that some officers see the game as being higher off with out him, insisting “they seem to want me to hand my resignation in”.
His claims have been flatly denied by the WST, who responded in an announcement: “We want to work together to continue to grow the game which we have done so successfully to date, we would love Ronnie to carry on playing for as long as possible.”
O’Sullivan’s criticism comes amid an uneasy truce between the WST and main gamers, 5 of whom – not together with O’Sullivan – have been warned that committing to an exhibition in Macau in October that clashed with the Northern Ireland Open would have constituted a breach of contract.
The Christmas Day exhibition, additionally in Macau and involving O’Sullivan and numerous different main gamers, just isn’t affected by such a menace, however the world primary has made no secret of his disinterest in partaking on the difficulty with those that run the tour.
O’Sullivan stated: “As long as they want me to keep playing I’ll play. But they sent me a letter the other week saying they want me to consider my future on the tour. I don’t know what’s going through their heads at the moment.
“From my perspective, I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job but they don’t seem to think so, they seem to want me to hand my resignation in.”
WST contested O’Sullivan’s interpretation of the contents of the letter, one among a sequence despatched to the world’s prime 16 gamers within the wake of the Macau controversy, looking for to provoke discussions.
“We wrote to Ronnie hoping to discuss his future plans and ambitions in the sport,” the WST added.
The PA information company understands that as of this week, solely Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen, who had what he described as a “positive” four-and-a-half-hour assembly with officers on Tuesday, has taken them up on their provide.
O’Sullivan, who has skipped half of the eight rating tournaments to this point this season, and is but to commit to play within the Scottish Open later this month, has typically made plain his perception that his future – and maybe that of the game itself – lies in profitable exhibitions overseas.
From my perspective, I really feel like I’m doing a fairly good job however they (WST) don’t appear to assume so, they appear to need me to hand my resignation in
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Therein lies the difficulty for the game’s power-brokers, because the reopening of the Chinese market has introduced big-money presents, lots of which dwarf the prize funds at common rating tournaments, which gamers are successfully contractually sure not to undermine by taking part in elsewhere.
“I get paid so much more for going to do that (exhibitions),” added O’Sullivan. “It’s really hard for me to turn them down, I can’t. I’ve got to think of my family and all that sort of stuff.
“It’s all right if you win all of these tournaments, great. But if you get beat first round you’re struggling to pay your bills and stuff.
“It’s hard. I’m trying to find the balance between competing and playing and trying to take the good offers that are out there for me to do my own sort of thing.”
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