Barry Hearn: ‘If people want to leave for a quick buck then I wish them well'

There is disquiet among professionals after the Macau Five situation this season, which saw John Higgins, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh sign up for a lucrative exhibition in China which was set to be held during the Northern Ireland Open.

WST were not happy about it and told the five in question that they would be in breach of their players’ contract if they took part in the exhibition while the ranking event was being played in Belfast.

The exhibition was eventually moved to December to avoid the clash, but the five men had already pulled out of Northern Ireland so they didn’t play in anything during that week in October.

Shaun Murphy told the BBC during the coverage of the UK Championship that he was ‘offered the same amount of money to go to that event in the Far East as I would have had for getting to the final of the Northern Ireland Open.’ Ronnie O’Sullivan has also spoken out on the subject, saying it is very hard to turn down the huge sums of cash being offered in China.

‘I get paid so much more for going to do that,’ the Rocket said of the Chinese events. ‘It’s really hard for me to turn them down, I can’t. I’ve got to think of my family and all that sort of stuff.

‘It’s all right if you win all of these tournaments, great. But if you get beat first round you’re struggling to pay your bills and stuff.’

WST say players are free to take part in exhibitions when professional events aren’t being staged, but Hearn, the president of Matchroom Sport, says that if there is a clash then players will have to choose between being part of the tour or exploring other opportunities.

‘Everyone has a choice in what they want to play in and whether they want to be a part of our tour,’ Hearn told Metro.co.uk.

‘I think the game’s in really good hands. There’s always going to be temptations for a one-off quickie, but we don’t do one-off quickies. We are a sustainable business that’s growing very well, with some great news that’s coming in the next month or so, we’ve got a big month coming up.

‘Look, you’ll always get someone who wants to do something for a quick buck, but that’s just not the way that I run businesses, nor will it ever be.

‘If people want to leave for a quick buck then I wish them well, they’ve got their own lives to run, they make their own decisions.

‘I won’t be unreasonable with anybody, but we have rules, contracts in place and we’re always happy to sit down and talk to them, but in a professional dialogue.

‘I don’t think there’s going to be any real issues, to be honest with you, I think Ronnie in particular is in demand in China. They offer him a lot of money and he wants to take advantage of that, I understand that.

‘But he can’t do anything that’s harmful to the players’ contract. He has the choice not to sign the players contract, that’s his call, not mine.’

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