The world association PDC nominated eight professionals for the darts Premier League, the second most important event in the sport. The game is played in front of big scenes and for a lot of money. Someone who isn’t there, although he was enormously successful in the last edition, is now angry. Very angry.
Last year’s finalist Joe Cullen reacted angrily to the nomination of the eight starters for the Darts Premier League and blamed the world association PDC. “Shocked about my exit from the Premier League! I don’t think it’s deserved at all if I’m being honest. It’s a kick in the balls in fact,” Cullen wrote on Twitter. The 33-year-old Englishman had reached the final in the previous season and only just lost it in Berlin with 10:11 against the Dutchman Michael van Gerwen.
“I feel like I deserved another chance after being a millimeter away from the title – it’s been a tough day,” Cullen said. In addition to the four seeded starters Gerwyn Price from Wales, the Englishman Michael Smith, the Dutchman Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright from Scotland, the two Englishmen Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey as well as the Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh and the Welshman Jonny Clayton were called up. Fifth in the world rankings, Luke Humphries also regretted being knocked out for the tournament that started in Belfast this Thursday. “I can’t deny that I’m incredibly disappointed,” wrote the Englishman.
Four starting places were awarded as “wildcards” by the PDC in consultation with the broadcasting TV station Sky Sports. “Not only sporting reasons are decisive here, otherwise you could simply select the players in places five to eight in the world rankings. Important factors in addition to playing strength are the entertainment factor, marketability and nationality also plays a role,” wrote ntv.de-Darts -Expert Kevin Schulte. “It was unthinkable that the PDC selected three or even four more Englishmen besides Michael Smith.” This calculation was now apparently Joe Cullen’s undoing.
The German World Cup semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens was not nominated either. However, Clemens had already assured before the nomination that other players deserved a starting place more than he did. The winner of the Premier League pocketed a good 310,000 euros in prize money, there is only more in darts for the world title. The runner-up wins almost 140,000 euros, even the last-placed after 16 weeks still gets 70,000 euros in prize money. In addition, the daily winners can look forward to the equivalent of 11,000 euros in prize money.
