Snooker ace Hossein Vafaei launched a scathing attack on the World Snooker Championship venue following his defeat to Judd Trump. The Iranian complained about the Crucible, insisting it ‘smells bad’ during a furious post-match rant.
Vafaei presented few problems to the 2019 world champion, with Trump recording a 10-5 victory. But it was the current state of the Crucible that angered Vafaei during his post-match interview.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the 29-year-old said: “Should I be honest? Are you enjoying being here? History is very important but when nobody invests any money in this historical venue.
“You want to go somewhere really nice as players, as a media team. If you walk around the Crucible it smells really bad. I’m honest. Everything is so bad. You go to other top venues in other countries and you can see how nice they treat you, how nice everything is and it is so shiny and it is completely different. If you ask me do I want to come back here, the answer is no.”
It’s a debate that has been raging ahead of – and now during – this year’s World Championships. The Crucible is currently contracted to hold the tournament until 2027, with talk of a move elsewhere beginning to pick up – something Vafaei is backing.
He added: “The practice room? Do you see anything special about it? It feels like I’m practising in a garage and that’s not good. I’m coming here from a different country to see that. I’m sorry I have to tell the truth.”
And when asked if the World Championships would benefit from moving to a different country, Vafaei said: “One hundred per cent. Look at China and how they organise their tournaments, fantastic, how they treat the players with the red carpet, the opening ceremony.
“The players are feeling like stars but here nobody looks after the players, after the match, before the match here, no one cares who you are. In China everything is different, Saudi Arabia everything is probably going to be different.”
The snooker circus travelled to Saudi Arabia earlier this year, with the first-ever World Masters of Snooker held in Riyadh. Vafaei believes the Middle East would be a more suitable host for the World Championships, with the Crucible having been neglected in recent years.
Vafaei commented: “It would be good for all the players, the referees, the media team. If they don’t want to lose the Crucible, invest some money – make it shinier, make it nicer, more luxury for the people. If they make it cleaner and nicer people would enjoy it.
“Why do you have to find a reason to move it? We are not stupid, you saw Riyadh season, that probably means they have already signed a contract without anyone knowing. Nobody cares what we are saying.”
