PDC amends controversial Euro Tour rule after massive criticism from players

The PDC has met with players who were quite critical of the new Euro Tour format. After talks between the players' union PDPA and the PDC, the union has made a new change.

The qualification structure European Tour tournaments had changed. Last year, only the top-16 of the Pro Tour rankings were invited. Starting this season, the top-16 of the world rankings and the top-16 of the cleaned Pro Tour Order of Merit are automatically seeded. As a result, only 10 spots remained to be divided at the Tour Card qualifying tournament, plus six remaining spots through three other qualifiers.

The 32 invited players are then ranked according to their Pro Tour rankings. The top-16 from this list will receive protected status in the draw for a Euro Tour event and enter the tournament from the second round. They must then win their first match in order for the prize money to count toward the various qualifying events.

The other 16 invited players do simply have to start the tournament from the first round. The PDC had initially figured that these players would also receive the first-round prize money in the world rankings.

Players like Raymond van Barneveld, Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall, Gian van Veen and Dimitri van den Bergh had already earned 5,000 pounds (for the first four Euro Tour tournaments) for the ranking in this way without having thrown a single arrow.

This would make it tremendously difficult for Tour Card qualifiers to still catch up with these players at the various qualifying events, such as for the European Championship. Therefore, the PDC has now decided that all 32 invited players must win their first match for the money to count toward the ranking.