Snooker’s headline act Ronnie O’Sullivan has never been one to mix his words and could find himself in hot water again following a series of disparaging tweets towards his fellow professionals.
The five-time world champion is lauded as the greatest player ever to pick up a cue and has inspired a generation to take up the game.
But there’s a good chance some of those young players will be feeling a little hurt this morning after he took to Twitter to label them “numptys”.
First he said: “I used to think I was a bad player hahahha the snooker tour is now 70 per cent full of no hopers.. all wasting everyone's time #getjob"
When asked why he decided not to enter this week’s European Masters, he said: “Couldn’t cope with playing a numpty at Barnsley to qualify. And promoter didn’t offer money so stayed at home to do some pilates instead.”
He also tweeted Mark Williams to say: “Let me know how many numptys you can spot in Belgium this week… we should have a numpty ranking list.”
These comments are unlikely to go down well with the sport’s supremo Barry Hearn who continues to work hard promote the game globally and some form of disciplinary action is likely to follow.
The tweets are likely to spark continued debate about the size of the tour and whether it should be reduced. While players lower down the rankings are struggling to earn enough prize money to play snooker full-time, this social media move from O’Sullivan is deemed by many to be both unprofessional and disrespectful.
O’Sullivan is next in action in Barnsley ironically for the English Open which begins on October 16.
