De Zwaan stunned after harsh remarks by Koert Westerman: ''He's making a mountain out of a molehill''

Jeffrey de Zwaan's mouth fell open in amazement after some statements made by Koert Westerman in a podcast. In an interview, the darts presenter said he would never want to do an interview with 'The Black Cobra' again.

Speaking to 433darts, Westerman blamed De Zwaan that he had said to him ''something very ugly'' about Viaplay after a lost match at the Dutch Darts Masters at the Ziggo Dome in June 2022.

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That De Zwaan said something ugly about Viaplay, the 26-year-old darter does not deny that. However, he does stress that Westerman played no part whatsoever around the remark in question. De Zwaan also swears that he did not use the disease that is regularly used as an adjective in the Hague region in his remark. To Dartsnieuws.com, De Zwaan gives his account of the facts.

Something else did precede the incident in question. De Zwaan had arrived at the Ziggo Dome for his match against James Wade. He had put on his interview shirt, thinking he had to do an interview at Viaplay prior to his match to look ahead to his match against Wade. He said that won't be necessary.

''I took that a bit personally. I had fallen away in the rankings due to a shoulder injury and suddenly I wasn't important anymore,'' the 2018 World Matchplay semi-finalist began his story.

De Zwaan then continued his preparation and played his match against Wade. That one was lost 6-2 to 'The Black Cobra'. The Dutchman then walked off stage and was asked by tournament director Graham Fairhurst if he wanted to go to Viaplay for a comment.

''But because I took what had happened before the match personally I was like: you don't want to do a pre-interview, then you don't have to expect me for an after-interview either. So initially I said 'no' to Graham (tournament director, ed.). I had obviously lost and was in my emotion. I actually just wanted to go for a smoke and end up doing that interview anyway. From the PDC, there is a rule that you can take a 20-minute break before doing an interview so you have time to cool down. I know that and wanted to take advantage of it because otherwise I would have been full of emotion in front of the camera.''

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De Zwaan then walked out through the backstage area to smoke a cigarette. But then someone from Viaplay came up to him. ''Who wanted me to do a semi-live interview. I then said to him; 'I don't have to do anything at all. There is a rule from the PDC that I can take a 20-minute break and if I want to take it, I will take it. I'm going to smoke a cigarette first, Viaplay can get to f*** from me'. That's exactly the way I said it.''

While he was making those statements, Westerman, who did the honours as interviewer at the Dutch Darts Masters, was nowhere to be seen.

''He phrased it as if I said something very bad to Koert himself, while it wasn't to Koert at all and I didn't say it to Koert either. I find it weird that things that happened behind the scenes are coming out this way through a podcast,'' De Zwaan said of Westerman's remarks.

''I didn't say anything to Koert. I didn't even see him standing there at that moment. This is all very much at odds with what Koert said in the podcast. It was certainly not from my perspective towards him, because I liked Koert very much. After this podcast, I didn't. I never spoke to him about this either. It happened almost a year ago now and now suddenly it comes out in a podcast, which I find weird then. Koert says it in such a way in the podcast that he is making a mountain out of a molehill."