Cullen on potential for big names to miss out on European Championship: "I think it will be addressed and the criteria will change"

Joe Cullen saw off Geert de Vos 6-3 to begin his European Tour campaign as top seed at the Hungarian Darts Trophy and for 'The Rockstar', it was all about just getting over the line in his opening match of the weekend.

"I think it could have been a lot more comfortable than what it turned out but first round for myself, it's one of them. Just get over the line 6-5 with a 70 average, it doesn't matter as long as you get over the line and it's all on Sunday," said Cullen to Online Darts.

Cullen is known to have had personal problems away from the board in the past few months and he admitted that darts is very much still secondary at the moment.

"I've not even practiced to be honest. I've had other things going on at home and darts has taken a back seat as you can see with Jonny, he got beat the game before me by Adam Gawlas. I think with a lot of the players, if you don't practice they can still score with anyone but I think where it sort of comes to fruition a little bit is on the outer ring."

"Look at obviously the tragic passing of Kyle (Anderson). No-one saw that coming, Danny (Noppert) has had to pull out with the death of his father. It just put things into perspective that darts is not that important. It means if there was a situation that arose that I had to miss the rest of the year, I'd miss the rest of the year."

He added on the European Championship that he believes if the big names fail to qualify for the tournament, the criteria will then be changed.

"I've never agreed with the rule that you don't get the money on your rankings anyway because I think that you've earned the right to be a seed. If one of say the big three miss out, I think it will be addressed and the criteria will change."