Vincent van der Voort has launched a scathing attack on the structure of the PDC darts calendar, singling out the Premier League Darts as a destructive force that forces the rest of the sport to bend around just eight players for a huge chunk of the season. Speaking to Online Darts, the former professional pulled no punches, declaring: "The Premier League is a terrible tournament for darts."
While Van der Voort concedes the invitational event has been a commercial juggernaut, he argues its influence has become suffocating. "Commercial-wise and money-wise, it's the best thing that could have happened to the PDC because they made a lot of money out of it. But because of that, everything else has to move around it for 16 weeks," he said. He also took aim at the idea that Premier League selection should guarantee access to every major televised event, insisting players must earn their places. "Of course, they still have to qualify. It would be different if the Premier League was based on ranking. But now, you can pick somebody. And if you can pick somebody, 'Oh, you're in the Premier League, so you're in all the TV tournaments,' that is always wrong."
The Dutchman painted a grim picture of the scheduling chaos that can ensue, using Michael van Gerwen as a hypothetical example. "If Michael, for instance, drops to number 20 in the world, he's going to be in the Premier League next year. So he has to play qualifiers on the Wednesday. He's going to play Monday, Tuesday ProTours, Wednesday qualifiers, Thursday the Premier League and then Friday he has to fly to another country to play Friday night. That cannot be good." Van der Voort accepted that players are responsible for their own rankings, but argued the calendar should not make life unnecessarily difficult, suggesting a midweek slot would help: "If the Premier League could be going to Wednesday, it would be a lot easier."
He also warned that the Premier League is crowding out room for new televised events, pointing to PDC chief executive Matt Porter's announcement that another TV tournament will be added next year. "You know, it's going to be very difficult to do it during the Premier League, so it has to be afterwards. So the first four or five months of the year are gone for the Premier League," he said, adding with disbelief: "And that's only for eight players." Van der Voort is no fan of the current format either, insisting the PDC should have acted years ago — "They should have changed it three years ago" — and lamenting the loss of the old league format's variety. "For me, it was good that I knew week six I'm going to see those two together and the build-up to it. I really liked that. And now you see too many times the same players play against each other, and that's not good, I think."
On the subject of player conduct, Van der Voort rejected the notion that there is simply too much darts on the calendar. "There cannot be too much darts because it's work for people to make money," he said. But he demanded far greater professionalism from the sport's leading names, criticising late withdrawals. "The top players should be more looking at their programme, what they want to play and what not. Now they just say, 'I'm going to play that,' and then Wednesday night say, 'Oh, I'm not going,' for the Euro Tour." He added: "In a way, it's not professional enough. The players are not professional enough," urging them to plan around holidays and family time: "Pick your calendar. Say, 'I'm going to play there, there and there,' and not drop out at a late moment."
Van der Voort also voiced serious concerns about the pressure on young players, particularly the obsession with match averages. "You can see all the averages. So there's no hiding. You can see the average after the match and I see all the youth players, they wait until they see their average and then decide if they played well, yes or no," he said, warning that winning is being forgotten. "Even if they lost the match but the average is good, they think, 'Okay, no problem,' instead of this is just about winning." Parents, he said, are part of the problem, recalling Junior Darts Corporation tournaments in Gibraltar: "The guy runs up to his parents, 'I won that match,' and the parents say, 'Oh, your average was too low, so it wasn't that good.'"
Most alarmingly, Van der Voort linked that pressure to dartitis. "I saw there were 180 players, or 170 players, minimum of 40 had dartitis last year. That's far too much. Far too much," he revealed. "That means pressure because they can throw everything to the board except the dart. So that's all in the head." He stressed the condition can be overcome — "You see so many players. It's all to do with pressure, but they came through it" — but insisted the sport must prioritise enjoyment. "It's a bad thing that there's so much pressure on youth players because they have to have fun playing darts." Reflecting on Gibraltar, he added: "Out of the 180, I think four people had fun and the rest were all just so critical on themselves that they forgot to have fun."
Finally, Van der Voort responded to recent comments from former PDC chairman Barry Hearn, agreeing that tour players should be more professional and plan their calendars properly. But he parted ways with Hearn over the warning that players who skip tournaments should not expect World Series invitations. "I don't think that counts for Littler, Humphries, Michael and Gezzy," he said. "He basically said to outside of those four, everybody has to play the tournaments or else you're not in the World Series."
