Snooker in crisis as world star makes BOYCOTT threat in wake of Ronnie rant but WST fire back amid 'disarray' claim

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Mark Allen believes snooker could be on the verge of civil war – and has suggested BOYCOTTS to force change.Scots star John Higgins and fellow world champions Mark Selby and Luca Brecel opened themselves up to disciplinary action from the World Snooker Tour for snubbing next week’s Northern Ireland Open for a lucrative exhibition in China, which has since been postponed until December.

The issue of player freedom to enjoy bumper sideline paydays has erupted in recent weeks, with the players’ contracts and WST’s handling of the situation under fire.Allen has now branded WST’s running of the sport as “embarrassing” and “amateurish” with big-money offers from China outweighing the prize money for reaching the latter stages of the Home Nations events "I think the game is in disarray, it’s gone nowhere in recent years,” said world No.3 Allen. "I do not think that anything will change until the players revolt and in my view we need to boycott collectively as top players missing an event, that’s the only way things will ever change.“The statements WST have been putting out are amateurish.

To say that they’ve treated the players with respect is laughable. There’s a lot of guaranteed money for these exhibitions. Whereas the prize money for the Home Nations in particular has really stagnated.

Ultimately if prize money is bigger in events like Belfast then people wouldn’t even consider exhibitions.”Seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan ripped into the WST on Tuesday and Allen backed him up, saying: “Ronnie’s hit the nail on the head with a lot of the things he’s said.