Ryan Day on narrowly avoiding Macau controversy and searching for a spark

19/10/2023 18:48

The Macau Five very nearly had another member as Ryan Day was set to play in the exhibition that has caused a stir in snooker, but he pulled out and will be at the Northern Ireland Open, unlike the other five players.

Day was on the poster advertising the Macau Snooker Masters, alongside Mark Selby, John Higgins, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, but unlike the other five, the Welshman was not named in the statement from World Snooker Tour threatening sanctions if they appear in the exhibition.

The problem that WST had with the event was that it was running at the same time as the Northern Ireland Open, feeling that a string of top stars choosing an exhibition over a ranking tournament would damage the reputation of the Belfast competition.

The Macau event has now been moved to December, so the five players who pulled out of Northern Ireland will be twiddling their thumbs next week, with neither tournament to play in.

Day made a late decision to head to Belfast over Macau, though, explaining that his position at number 17 in the world rankings, along with the possibility of punishment from World Snooker Tour, saw him change his plans.

‘I was planning to play in Macau,’ Day told . ‘I emailed World Snooker to withdraw from Northern Ireland, then emails came through to the players reminding us of contracts and whatnot.

‘We thought as a group that we might not have been in breach of contract clauses. They thought that we were.

‘I looked at it a bit more closely, and I’m right on the bubble of the top 16. Maybe not qualifying for the UK [Championship], the Masters and along with the potential of sanctions from World Snooker if I did go and play, I phoned the promoter and pulled out, then re-entered Northern Ireland.’

It is understandable why players would be confused over whether they were in breach of the players’ contract or not with the Macau event.

The contract between professional players and WST lays out situations in which they cannot play exhibitions and the circumstances of the Macau event next week are not specifically covered.

However, there is a clause which covers a range of possibilities as it bars players from doing anything that could undermine or damage the reputation of World Snooker events.

WST’s statement on ‘The Macau Five’ included: ‘The WST does not support any clash with a WST event and would consider a player's decision to prioritise a non-sanctioned event clashing with a WST event to be a breach of their player contract, as this would undoubtedly result in sizeable financial implications to the WST including loss of broadcast income, and sponsorship and ticket sales revenue let alone losses due to any reputational damage.'

Day feels that this part of the contract should be changed and made more clear in future to prevent any future disagreements.

‘It’s so vague. It’s just a blanket term. I think potentially going forward the players might need to try and put in place a better, more understandable clause,’ said the Welshman.

‘Maybe it’s a bit of an eye-opener, because I don’t know how many players have read the contract, maybe it needs changing.