This year's Premier League Darts selection left a particular stir. Not least with Mike De Decker, who, to his own surprise, missed out on a selection. De Decker expressed his anger toward the PDC afterward, but realizes he misstated certain things.
Mike De Decker didn't and players like Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall did, it didn't just make many darts followers marvel. De Decker himself also reacted in disbelief. "I honestly think their decision was a bit outrageous," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "They didn't deserve it. All of a sudden they make a quarterfinal at the World Cup and they are there. Aspinall is in it with his walk-on purely for entertainment and if Price performs poorly in the first few weeks, he will complain again. They say you get into the Premier League based on results, but apparently that's not the case."
About two weeks later, De Decker wants to frame his statements a bit. "I misstated certain things. But I still stand by it. Maybe the PDC is right, and it was too early to put me in the Premier league. But I still think it's a strange choice. So be it, they are the boss. If they think it's still too early, I guess it's true, right?"
Truth
Meanwhile, Aspinall and Price also already responded to Decker's words by saying that they did deserve their selection. "I don't think I said anything wrong," said the 29-year-old Belgian. "There are a lot of people who think the same way. They may not like it when I say it, but that's the way I am. If I don't like something, I say so. If it doesn't click, then I clash. It's just the truth."
"Aspinall? Fantastic darter, really. And so is Price. But you can't expect me to understand why they're there and I'm not. Aspinall is not in shape and is struggling with an injury, and Price effectively said he didn't want to participate. I just repeated what they said."
Mike De Decker after his 3-2 loss to James Wade in R1 of the World Masters:
— Vincent Van Genechten (@VVGenechten180) January 31, 2025
"Scoring wasn't bad, doubles weren't good. But for the first time with new darts/flights/shafts I'm not complaining"
The Real Deal leaves Bulls NL on Feb 22 and has been practicing with prototypes pic.twitter.com/RcDD9kgoBX