'Disappointed' – Ronnie O'Sullivan's Turkish Masters snub fails to bring delight to snooker chiefs
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ByEurosport
Updated 05/02/2022 at 12:27 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan's decision to opt out of playing in the inaugural Turkish Masters next month could cost him more money than the appearance fee he was demanding to play in Antalya, according to WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson. Ferguson has described O'Sullivan's decision as "disappointing". Watch snooker live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.
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Ronnie O'Sullivan has missed out on the opportunity to cash in by opting out of snooker's inaugural Turkish Masters in a dispute over appearance money, according to the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman (WPBSA) Jason Ferguson.
The world No. 2 has decided against travelling to the salubrious five-star Nirvana Cosmopolitan Hotel in Antalya next month because he was not offered any extra financial incentive by tournament promoters to participate.
The £500,000 Turkish Masters runs between March 7-13 and is live on Eurosport with a £100,000 winner's cheque, but that has not been enough to tempt the sport's biggest draw to board a plane in his 30th year as a professional.
O'Sullivan is the only player in the world's top 16 to give the event a miss, much to the chagrin of organisers, with former world No. 28 Ferguson lamenting the short-sightedness of the thought process.
"Of course I am disappointed he did not enter and won’t be there. I know Ronnie has a huge number of fans in Turkey," Ferguson said in an interview with the Sportsman. "And it is disappointing for them that they won’t see him.
"That said, they will be overjoyed with the rest of the players who make the trip, apart from that the entries were amazing – 15 of the top 16.
“I can only work hard to deliver world-class events."
It sounds a far cry from O'Sullivan's experience of the 2018 English Open at the K2 Leisure centre in Crawley when he said: "They put me by some toilet and I had to stand there for four or five minutes and all I could smell was urine.
"It was really quite off-putting, no-one wants to be subject to smelling urine.
YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE MAIN FOYER – YOU DON’T WANT TO BE TRAIPSING THROUGH FAMILIES GOING SWIMMING WITH KIDS WITH SNORKELS AND FLIP-FLOPS ON AND YOU’RE ABOUT TO PLAY A MATCH OR TO DO A PRESS CONFERENCE.
Ferguson is adamant the sport has worked hard to improve conditions for the World Snooker Tour and said: "Ronnie has in the past said he doesn’t want to play in leisure centres and wants better venues – this is exactly that.
So we have upped our game considerably and gone out to put something world-class on, and it is disappointing he won’t be there. I am led to believe it has generated quite a bit of comment in Turkey on social media that he is not leading the charge as a huge star in the sport.
“If every top player did the same we might not have any of them there – but they wouldn’t, that’s the point. Top players love winning and competing – as does Ronnie, to be fair. We have some terrific players and people in snooker who give back, and I don’t struggle with the rest of the membership asking for five minutes here or 10 minutes there.
“But Ronnie is different, it is an individual sport and he has got his own agenda. From the governing bodies it has to be a level playing field, so we will never and cannot offer extra money.
"We can’t force people to play, all we can do is provide the opportunities for all from world No. 1 down to the kid that first walks in to a club.
“Ironically something Ronnie may not be aware of is how huge potentially that market and fan base is in Turkey.
"It is a big country with huge companies and I think he has missed out passing up the chance to go.
The numbers he was asking for might have proved pennies financially in comparison to what he could have got while out there. We’ll never know now.
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“I don’t really have any regrets about not being involved in the Turkish Masters and playing in the qualifiers," said O'Sullivan, during his 38th ranking title success at the World Grand Prix in December.
A five-star hotel on the beach isn’t going to entice me to get my cue out of my case and enter a tournament. I could probably go anywhere in the world and experience that – and not have to be surrounded by loads of snooker players and officials!
“I could go to Hawaii or Dubai and get invited out there and have equally a great time. It is all about the value for my time and commercial decisions now. I am going to play 10 tournaments a season, because that is what I am contracted to do for my sponsors. I don’t have to play more.
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“And if promoters want me to play in their events, then they’ll have to get on the phone and we can come to some sort of arrangement. If not I have got enough work on and enough things to do to keep myself busy. It is a business for me, and I thank World Snooker Tour for that because they have shown it is a business.
“That’s what they are doing, and that’s what the players are doing. Was I surprised they didn’t try and get me there? No, listen, I don’t get surprised by anything these days and take each decision as it comes."
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