Northern Ireland Open draw confirms 'Macau 5' will not play the event

11/10/2023 12:25

The five players threatened with disciplinary action if they play in a Macau exhibition during the Northern Ireland Open are all missing from the draw for the Belfast event.

Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, John Higgins, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Ali Carter have all agreed to play in an exhibition event in Macau while the World Snooker Tour ranking event is ongoing in Belfast.

WST have stated that if players do choose to play elsewhere while sanctioned tournaments are on then they will be in breach of their players contract.

A statement on Tuesday night from WST named the five players in question not choosing to play in Belfast and stated: ‘As a result, if these players decide to participate in the exhibition in Macau, the WST will have no alternative but to refer them to the WPBSA Disciplinary Committee for breach of their player contract, and this has been clearly communicated to the players.’

The draw for the 2023 Northern Ireland Open has now been made and Brecel, Selby, Higgins, Un-Nooh and Carter are indeed all missing from it.

Despite those notable absences, there is no shortage of big names in the ranking event, with the likes of defending champion Mark Allen, world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan and newly crowned British and English Open champions Mark Williams and Judd Trump all playing.

Brecel, Selby, Higgins and Carter are all top 16 players who are missing the trip to Northern Ireland, but the only other member of the elite group who will not be involved is Ding Junhui, who is also not in the draw.

The other top 16 members who will be playing in Belfast are Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy, Kyren Wilson, Robert Milkins, Jack Lisowski, Barry Hawkins and Hossein Vafaei.

Ryan Day, who originally appeared on the poster for the Macau event, is playing in the Northern Ireland Open, taking on Ma Hailong in qualifying.

Northern Ireland Open qualifiers run from 17-20 October in Sheffield before the main stages run from 22-29 October in Belfast, which is when the world’s top 16 will be involved.

Notable first round games include Allen facing Ben Mertens, Ronnie O’Sullivan meeting Ahmed Aly ElSayed and Neil Robertson playing Chinese youngster Wu Yize, just as he did at the Crucible this year.

MORE : Five players face being ‘fined, banned or thrown out’ over Macau event, says Barry Hearn

MORE : Ronnie O’Sullivan backs dissenting players in stand-off with World Snooker Tour

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