WDF censors darts fans after World Championship Lakeside draw blunder

The WDF did not do a best job last Sunday in conducting the draw for the women's tournament of the WDF World Championship at Lakeside. What should have been a festive end to the darts weekend in Hungary turned into a storm of criticism after an administrative blunder came to light and the federation then decided to completely disable fan comments on Facebook.

The fuss started after the World Masters in Budapest, where the last qualification places for the World Championships were divided. Mayumi Ouchi and Nina Lech-Musialska won convincingly, but were told a few hours later that they would have to play an additional playoff to actually be admitted to the main tournament.

The cause turned out to be an error in the calculation of the world rankings. Sweden's Maud Jansson was incorrectly included in the draw as a direct seeded player, at the expense of Switzerland's Lisa Zollikofer.

When the error was discovered, the WDF decided to invite both players after all, increasing the field to 25 players, an unusual situation for a World Championship tournament.

Although they acknowledged in a now-deleted statement that there had been a "miscalculation," communication was remarkably closed afterward. When the draw was published on Facebook, comments were disabled, reportedly to avoid a wave of negative comments.

To mitigate some of the damage, the league announced that all players involved, including Jansson, Zollikofer, Ouchi and Musialska - will at least receive first-round prize money.

Still, the situation remains sour for Ouchi and Lech-Musialska, who had clinched their places, but must now return to action to secure their starting spot. The WDF World Darts Championship 2025 will be played from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7. In the men's event, Shane McGuirk is the defending champion. Beau Greaves won the women's event last year, but Greaves has decided to compete in the PDC's World Darts Championship this year.

The WDF is not the first association to turn off comments under a post to avoid negative reactions on social media. The PDC also uses this method when reporting on Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who as a transgender is regularly criticized for allowing her to compete in the women's tournaments.