"If that's a way to make up for it... Then I'd say: stick it somewhere I can't see it" - World Series a small consolation prize compared to Premier League rejection for Noppert

Danny Noppert was slated to appear on the latest episode of Vincent van der Voort and Damien Vlottes’ Darts Draait Door podcast, but due to his commitments at the World Series events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia he was unfortunately unable to attend. Still, the discussion largely centered on the 35-year-old Dutchman, who earlier this month was left out of the Premier League line-up.

The previous episode of the podcast was recorded barely five minutes after the announcement. Even then, both Van der Voort and Vlottes made clear they disagreed with the decision to exclude Noppert from the eight names. Now that the pair have had a week to reflect, that frustration has not faded.

"If you think about it all week... That doesn't exactly improve my mood." You end up thinking it’s a disgrace,” opened Van der Voort. What irks him even more is the relative silence around it. "It's actually a disgrace that he's not there. But when you see how little fuss there is about it, you see that everyone is actually used to the organisation (the PDC, ed.) making ridiculous decisions. That it's just considered a few idiots doing whatever they want. That's what it comes down to."

In their view, the pattern has become all too familiar. Vlottes said: “That Danny Noppert, for the fourth time in his career, the fourth in a row, has to watch someone lower on the world rankings get invited ahead of him.” Van der Voort added the crux of the issue: "You hope it's about the sporting aspect, not about who fits the bill best. So this is another mistake, and that's a shame."

It’s a recurring theme: the tension between sporting logic and commercial choices. "The PDC can do whatever they want," Van der Voort said. "They have the players where they want them. Everyone is terrified of saying anything negative, otherwise you won't be invited to anything anymore. They only think about their showpieces and don't care about anything else."

Noppert, meanwhile, is on the entry list for the upcoming World Series events, alongside the likes of Michael van Gerwen and Gian van Veen.

Vlottes says it out loud: those invitations feel to many like a kind of peace offering. Van der Voort also has a clear view. "If that's a way to make up for it... Then I'd say: stick it somewhere I can't see it."

Why so blunt? Because, in his view, the scales simply aren’t balanced. “The Premier League carries a bit more weight. With sponsorship. With bonuses. With commerce. They really don’t compare.”

The name of Gary Anderson also comes up as a player who, according to both, deserved a Premier League invite. And that goes beyond performances, touching on how relationships work at the top of the PDC.

Van der Voort sketches a world where egos play a role. “We’ve noticed throughout the year that Matt Porter has quite an ego too.” It becomes a psychological game: Anderson previously said he would ‘turn down’ the Premier League, and Van der Voort suspects the PDC won’t forget that. “Then he thinks: I’m not giving him that.”

Vlottes calls it ‘pretty childish’, but Van der Voort adds: “On both sides, by the way. Anderson bringing it up almost obsessively, the PDC possibly taking it personally—it helps no one,” he concluded.