Snooker chiefs issue response as Shaun Murphy goes on fiery Zhao Xintong rant

 Shaun Murphy called out the World Snooker Tour in a scathing rant about Zhao Xintong.

Shaun Murphy was not happy at Zhao Xintong's treatment

The World Snooker Tour (WST) have responded to Shaun Murphy after he branded the decision to allow Zhao Xintong to keep his World Championship ranking points as “staggering”. The 2005 Crucible winner explained that as stipulated in WST contracts, Zhao should not have been moved up to world No. 11 following his £500,000 final win.

Zhao was competing as an amateur, having returned to the circuit for the first time since his 20-month ban for involvement in a match-fixing scandal with nine other Chinese players. He remains banned by his own country’s governing body. Amateur players can keep any prize money earned and secure their professional status for the following campaign, but Murphy has alleged that contracts signed state that those earnings do not translate into ranking points.

“What is a new thing is WST’s decision – a staggering decision, a jaw-dropping decision – to totally ignore the wording of their own contract,” said the Magician on his OneFourSeven snooker podcast.

“It is black and white, it’s what we’ve all agreed to, and it isn’t as things stand how World Snooker Tour are proceeding. And just to make this absolutely clear, this is nothing to do with Xintong. Nobody has got a problem with Zhao Xintong.

“This is about World Snooker Tour riding roughshod over our players’ contract, which we renegotiated in good faith and signed in good faith. And they’ve just decided to ignore it and rewrite it as they see fit.”

Snooker chiefs have had their say on the controversy

Due to Zhao’s win and subsequent move to world No. 11, Ali Carter has been bumped out of the top 16. That elite class of players are often given invitations to events and are seeded at some tournaments, rather than forced to come through qualifiers.

Carter and Mark Allen have both addressed the controversial matter on social media, after BBC host Hazel Irvine claimed that the Captain would feel “aggrieved” to miss out because of Zhao’s success.

When approached by Express Sport for a response to Murphy's comments, the WST said: "The principle clearly established in snooker is that amateurs can earn prize money and ranking points in the same way that professionals do, and there are many precedents for this.

"Zhao has earned his top 64 place on merit, he will keep the rankings points he has earned and as world champion he will be seeded second for most events next season which again is a long standing principle.

"Our entry pack was agreed with the players board before the start of this season. We accept that the wording in this particular paragraph could have been clearer, but the principles are unchanged and well established."