Ronnie O'Sullivan on 'car crash' politics in sport - 'Snooker became a bit toxic in many ways'
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Updated 29/10/2021 at 07:36 GMT
"I emotionally untangled myself from the sport probably 10 years ago, in many ways, and I just made snooker work for me," O'Sullivan told Eurosport in a special extended interview ahead of the English Open. "I hear a lot of the bottom-ranked players complaining about various things, and the top-ranked players complaining about things; like I said, I feel like snooker became a bit toxic."
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Image credit: Eurosport
Ronnie O'Sullivan has opened up about how he felt that 'snooker became a bit toxic in many ways' and the level of involvement he now wants to have within the sport.
The 45-year-old, who would love to win a seventh world title in his illustrious career, has spoken candidly about his frustrations with getting involved in the politics of the sport and his current detachment from it.
In 2018, O'Sullivan claimed that he was "ready to go" to form a breakaway "Champions League-style" snooker tour after he said he was unhappy with the number of events on the regular calendar and the travelling required.
Despite saying that he wanted to make positive changes at one point, The Rocket has said that he "emotionally untangled myself from the sport", and is now happy with just doing his own thing.
"To be honest, I emotionally untangled myself from the sport probably 10 years ago, in many ways, and I just made snooker work for me," O'Sullivan told Eurosport in a special extended interview ahead of the English Open.
"There was a time where I thought things could be done differently and would be beneficial to everybody on the tour. But when you never got the support of your other players, I just kind of went, 'You know what, it's never going to happen'.
So now, when I hear a lot of the bottom-ranked players complaining about various things, and the top-ranked players complaining about things; like I said, I feel like snooker became a bit toxic in many ways.
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O'Sullivan conceded that, while he wanted to make changes, he did not feel as though he could do what he wanted and so has decided to simply see playing snooker as his "hobby" and "as fun".
"There was no unity and we all couldn't try and get what's right for all the players," he said. "So I decided to kind of like disentangle myself from snooker, and it's better that sort of way because now I do all my other stuff with all my sponsors and that's all great.
"I kind of see that as what I do for a living, if you like, and I enjoy to do that, and I just play snooker as a hobby, as fun. I enjoy playing, but by doing that I don't want to have an opinion.
"I don't want to feel like this can be changed and, in many ways - and it's probably not good thing - I hope it actually sometimes gets worse, because I think sometimes you can see the car crash happening. But unless people want to sort of unite, I suppose in many ways, then the car crash will just keep on continuing to happen.
"I'd rather not be emotionally involved in that, because I've got the utmost respect for any snooker player that plays on the tour, and you're just fighting for them in many ways. But at some point you've kind of got to go, 'It's not working, I'm better off just being quite tunnel vision about what's right for me and doing what's right for me, and just taking the best bits from it'.
"I've never been so happy, really, because I love snooker and I love playing, but it wouldn't be good for me to get involved in the politics or even having an opinion on what I think would be good for the game because it's pretty pointless, really."
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O’Sullivan begins his English Open campaign on Monday November 1 against David Lilley at 19:00 after a shock defeat to Hossein Vafaei at the German Masters.
Vafaei compiled breaks of 52, 50, 81, 64 and a magical 141 as the world number 60 stunned six-time world champion O'Sullivan 5-0 in the German Masters in Cannock in only 54 minutes. The last 32 qualify for the final stages of the German Masters, with the Tempodrom in Berlin staging the tournament between 26-30 January 2022.
Apart from breaking down among the balls in the second frame, O'Sullivan did little or nothing wrong as the inspired world number 60 raced to 4-0 clear in under an hour.
That became a 5-0 victory quickly after the mid-session interval with the world number three only making 24 after potting a red off the break-off shot – going for broke with an ultra-aggressive opening play – in throwing caution to the wind before Vafaei pounced with another lovely knock of 64 to end any hopes of a recovery by the record 37-times ranking event winner.
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