World champion Luca Brecel, Mark Selby and John Higgins are leading a player mutiny after handing an embarrassing snub to snooker bosses, while also retaining support from snooker icon Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Four-time world champions Selby and Higgins plus the reigning Crucible king Brecel – along with Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh – have shunned this month’s official Northern Ireland Open.
Despite threats of legal action from World Snooker Tour, the five decided not to play in Belfast and opted instead for a lucrative exhibition event in Macau.
WST bosses sent first emails and then strongly-worded letters claiming if the players took part in Macau they would be breaching contracts, harming the game and facing disciplinary action.
But lawyers representing the players reckon the threats are baseless since they did not enter the Northern Ireland event, and believe they are just doing what they want on their own time.
And world No1 O’Sullivan, himself playing in a Shanghai exhibition this month, has backed the ‘Macau Five’ – describing WST’s stance as “b******s, trying to scare players like that”.
