Jonny Clayton has slammed the Grand Slam of Darts qualification process as he hit out that the top players in the world aren’t guaranteed a place – comparing it to the FA Cup without Premier League clubs.
The world No.5 was at risk of missing out on the tournament for the second time in three years due to the obscure requirements to be one of the 48 players to fight for the £150,000 winners’ prize money. Clayton was able to book his place by beating Luke Humphries 8-4 in the Swiss Darts Trophy this month, subsequently securing his spot in Wolverhampton.
Players qualify through their performances in TV finals, winning regional PDC Championships, Players Championship events and women’s ranking tournaments. The final spots are then settled by Pro Tour Holder qualifiers, which could see the likes of Gary Anderson miss out.
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Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, via AskGamblers, Clayton hit out at the criteria to make it to Wolverhampton: “To be honest, I’ve got different opinions on this because I get what they’re doing. If you get to a major final, a TV final, yes, obviously you get in. You win on the European Tour, you can get in on that.
“But I do also think that as a top 16 player, you work your a*** off all year, and you miss out on a lot of things, but you work hard. You have to play well to be in the top 16 in the world, so I don’t get why the top 16 aren’t in every tournament. It’s like doing the FA Cup without the Premier League teams in it.
“I’m a little bit on edge with that because we do work hard. It’s not easy to be in the top 16 in the world. You give up a lot of things to get where you are and to stay where you are.
“And I think every tournament, in whichever sport that you play in, should have your top players in.
“And that’s just my opinion. It’s my opinion. It doesn’t matter if people listen to it or not, but the top 16 darts players should be in everything. You work hard to get to where you are and to stay there is even harder, because everybody’s chasing you.
”Everybody wants to knock you off your peg. So that’s one of my things. I think the top players, the top 16 players, should definitely be in every tournament, every TV tournament at least.”
Thankfully for the ‘Ferret’, he no longer needs to concern himself with qualification for the tournament after beating Humphries in the final in Basel. Clayton’s win marks his first ranking title of the year and the fourth European title of his career.
Clayton beat Gian van Veen in the semi-final 7-4 after knocking Karel Sadlacek out in the quarter-final 6-4. He can now look forward to playing in the Grand Slam next month in Wolverhampton.