Mark Selby played Neil Robertson in a huge exhibition in Finland on Saturday (Picture: Getty Images)
Mark Selby admits he is confused that he was allowed to play in an exhibition in Finland during the Shoot Out after he was among five players blocked from competing in an exhibition in Macau during the Northern Ireland Open earlier this season.
Selby was a late replacement for Luca Brecel in the exhibition in Tampere, Finland on Saturday, taking on Neil Robertson in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000.
It looked to be a superb event and showed that there is great interest in snooker in the region, but Selby couldn’t work out why it was allowed to go ahead when another event caused such a fuss.
WST said the five men would be in breach of the players’ contract if they played in Macau, which ended up being a decision they didn’t have to make as the event was postponed until December.
They did lose out, though, as they had already withdrawn from Northern Ireland and so spent that week neither playing in Belfast nor Macau.
However, Selby and Robertson were happily able to play in Tampere on Saturday and the Jester from Leicester admits he doesn’t see the difference as a ranking event was going on in Swansea at the same time.
Asked if there were any issues with being allowed to play in Finland, Selby said: ‘No. Which is strange. It absolutely blew my mind, you know, because it was still clashing with the Shoot Out, which was no different to what we were doing with Macau, but apparently it got passed.
‘I don’t know. I’m fed up of caring about it, to be honest.’
World Snooker Tour were approached for an explanation on the situation but declined to comment.
It was suggested by six-time world champion Steve Davis on the BBC during the coverage of the UK Championship that Macau was a non-starter because it was due to be televised, which would unquestionably be in breach of the players’ contract.
However, part-organiser of the Macau event Victoria Shi told Metro.co.uk that the exhibition was never intended to be televised or streamed.
There is certainly some confusion among players over what they can and cannot do outside of professional events and that is causing unrest.
Speaking on his onefourseven podcast, Shaun Murphy said that the clash between players and WST over the players’ contract and how it is being interpreted is unlikely to fizzle out.
‘This thing isn’t going to go away,’ said the world number seven. ‘The serious battle between the players – the WPBSA Players’ Body that represents them – and WST with their players’ contract.
Shaun Murphy does not believe clashes are at an end between players and the powers that be (Picture: Getty Images)
‘This isn’t going anywhere. This is only going to increase in velocity and seriousness, because these two parties are going to clash over this and I’m not sure which way it’s going to go.’
In cheerier news for the sport, Selby said the Finnish exhibition was a great success and hopes that it can encourage more events and bigger tournaments to be staged in the country.
‘The venue was amazing with 2,000 people,’ he said. ‘There’s great appetite out there in Scandinavia.
‘I was speaking to Robin Hull, who put on the event, he was a former player himself and he was saying he was surprised it’s taken so long for snooker to go out there.
‘With Eurosport helping, it’s been very popular over there for years. Some of the boys are going out there in May for an eight-man event and hopefully we can get a tournament out there at some point.
‘They’ve got the crowds which is good. What we’re trying to do is hopefully the launchpad for getting a tournament out there. We’re trying to promote it out there and if WST see thew crowds that we’re getting then they can get a tournament on there and it could be another Germany in the making.
‘We’ve been to Germany for the last four or five years and the crowds are always great there so hopefully Finland can be another one.’
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‘I’m fed up of caring about it, to be honest.’