Van der Voort's view on female players at World Championship

[PVDarts501]

Vincent van der Voort does not agree with the way Lisa Ashton and Anastasia Dobromyslova have qualified for the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship.

https://dartsnews.com/van-der-voort-doe ... publicity/

[Ginge]

Jesus all he does is bloody moan!

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

To be fair to him, he's got a point. Barry is endlessly going on about how the PDC is all about true equality, and the opportunities are there for women if they are good enough.
To then go and give them their own qualifiers is inconsistent to say the least

[billyd]

Moaning about a female thats already beaten him on TV lol. Of course it's about publicity, the same publicity that in turn allows him to potentially earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. Cretin

[ChrisW]

Jesus all he does is bloody moan!

Are you related by any chance?

[Paddy McGinty]

To be fair to him, he's got a point. Barry is endlessly going on about how the PDC is all about true equality, and the opportunities are there for women if they are good enough.
To then go and give them their own qualifiers is inconsistent to say the least

Yes he does have a point there.....

[1205]

To be fair to him, he's got a point. Barry is endlessly going on about how the PDC is all about true equality, and the opportunities are there for women if they are good enough.
To then go and give them their own qualifiers is inconsistent to say the least

Sky called the tune on ditching the walk-on girls, and probably called the tune on this.

[trotter]

There's 67 PDPA spots through the tour and qualifier...if a player cannot make it to Ally Pally through the tour then to be fair they don't deserve to so 2 spots to the ladies in an already expanded field isn't going to make any difference....yes it's for publicity but it's good publicity which basically benefits the male players there as well....I cannot see a problem.

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

There's 67 PDPA spots through the tour and qualifier...if a player cannot make it to Ally Pally through the tour then to be fair they don't deserve to so 2 spots to the ladies in an already expanded field isn't going to make any difference....yes it's for publicity but it's good publicity which basically benefits the male players there as well....I cannot see a problem.

You're quite right, and I've got no problem with having the 2 spots for the ladies, if only for novelty value, but you can't just gloss over the massive inconsistency with what Barry has said previously.
It's either a completely level playing field or it isn't.
As it stands Barry seems content to tell everybody one thing then go and do the opposite.

[markymark]

As it stands Barry seems content to tell everybody one thing then go and do the opposite.

I guess he does whatever he feels is best for his business at the time.

[Bag Carrier]

He gets more mentions now Ana is back on tv.

I like his moaning, He is like Mark Allen and Ronnie. Except not in there league.

[Dannyboy]

He gets more mentions now Ana is back on tv.

I like his moaning, He is like Mark Allen and Ronnie. Except not in there league.

It’s their.

But his opinion should be respected and honestly in my opinion, he is right. Certainly having 2 places is a bit much considering they have the same opportunities as everyone else. That said, the same could be said about the other international qualifiers, but the instances where you win one tournament and you’re in are becoming less and less.

[Chambord]

This particular year the PDC World Championship is full of shitty male qualifiers who are here only because they had an even shittier competition to get thru and who will average lower (or win fewer legs / sets) than the 2 ladies.

If you want to moan, how about starting with those, eh, VVDV ?

And if you happen to be THE guy whose most popular moment in life is being beaten by a girl on a TV Major, then you should particulary keep your mouth shut about the subject of female vs male players. Otherwise you'd only embarass yourself even more.

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

As it stands Barry seems content to tell everybody one thing then go and do the opposite.

I guess he does whatever he feels is best for his business at the time.

Of course he does, and I'm not criticising him for it. It's his company, and he's entitled to do whatever he wants to make as much money as he can. As it happens I think giving the ladies their own qualifier was the right thing to do overall.

The issue is that this goes against everything he has said in the past, and he's done nothing to address this apparent change of heart. Once again, it's his company and he doesn't need to explain himself to anyone if he doesn't want to, but the very predictable end result of that decision is unhappiness amongst players who are told one thing and then presented with something else with no word of explanation. That said, I imagine Van Der Voort being a bit upset is the least of his worries.

Van Der Voort is clearly in the midst of some sort of sponsored whinge-athon at the moment, but in this instance it's impossible to deny he's making a valid point.

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

As it stands Barry seems content to tell everybody one thing then go and do the opposite.

I guess he does whatever he feels is best for his business at the time.

Of course he does, and I'm not criticising him for it. It's his company, and he's entitled to do whatever he wants to make as much money as he can. As it happens I think giving the ladies their own qualifier was the right thing to do overall.

The issue is that this goes against everything he has said in the past, and he's done nothing to address this apparent change of heart. Once again, it's his company and he doesn't need to explain himself to anyone if he doesn't want to, but the very predictable end result of that decision is unhappiness amongst players who are told one thing and then presented with something else with no word of explanation. That said, I imagine Van Der Voort being a bit upset is the least of his worries.

Van Der Voort is clearly in the midst of some sort of sponsored whinge-athon at the moment, but in this instance it's impossible to deny he's making a valid point.

Hello everyone,
Agreed, for all of Hearn's talk of the PDC being a meritocracy (which it is for the most part), making money has always been far more important. His methods of growing the game have never been 100% meritocratic (take VvdV's rant on Germany getting so many ET events for example, which is a very valid point), but the game is in a much better position for it. I'm a bit mixed on the women being included, they wouldn't have made it otherwise, but then again, the PDPA players are benefiting most out of the expansion, so it's not as if there are top quality players missing out. Going forward, if it can get more women interested in darts (and potentially qualifying by right in the future), then it will have to go down as a masterstroke

[Little Lonely Garry]

Vinny has always been a miserable moaner....he is dutch,

However he makes a valid point, in that if it is suppose to be true equality then a womens only set of qualifiers is unfair.
If this is a one off thing for this year, then its not a problem but a publicity stunt and the PDC using it as a stepping stone and fully understand that.

If the women continue to get their own qualifiers for future years, then Vinny is right, as it means 2 women will get in every year based solely on their sex which in itself is sexism

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

As it stands Barry seems content to tell everybody one thing then go and do the opposite.

I guess he does whatever he feels is best for his business at the time.

Of course he does, and I'm not criticising him for it. It's his company, and he's entitled to do whatever he wants to make as much money as he can. As it happens I think giving the ladies their own qualifier was the right thing to do overall.

The issue is that this goes against everything he has said in the past, and he's done nothing to address this apparent change of heart. Once again, it's his company and he doesn't need to explain himself to anyone if he doesn't want to, but the very predictable end result of that decision is unhappiness amongst players who are told one thing and then presented with something else with no word of explanation. That said, I imagine Van Der Voort being a bit upset is the least of his worries.

Van Der Voort is clearly in the midst of some sort of sponsored whinge-athon at the moment, but in this instance it's impossible to deny he's making a valid point.

Hello everyone,
Agreed, for all of Hearn's talk of the PDC being a meritocracy (which it is for the most part), making money has always been far more important. His methods of growing the game have never been 100% meritocratic (take VvdV's rant on Germany getting so many ET events for example, which is a very valid point), but the game is in a much better position for it. I'm a bit mixed on the women being included, they wouldn't have made it otherwise, but then again, the PDPA players are benefiting most out of the expansion, so it's not as if there are top quality players missing out. Going forward, if it can get more women interested in darts (and potentially qualifying by right in the future), then it will have to go down as a masterstroke

Welcome aboard mate.
You're right about Barry putting the chance to make profit ahead of true meritocracy, but that's really to be expected when you consider his background in boxing (a sport that's probably as far from a meritocracy as you'll find with it's multitude of governing bodies, and rankings seemingly drawn up on the back of a fag packet - I recall a time in the 90s when the British Board of Control published a set of British middleweight rankings that placed a fighter called Fidel Castro Smith 4 or 5 places higher in the rankings than a fighter called Slugger O'Toole, which was quite some achievement considering he was the same bloke. Turned out the British Board had forgotten he'd changed his name when his boxing licence came up for renewal).

I'm not sure there's anything wrong with the approach he's taken. Within reason, anything that benefits the long term health of the game should be welcomed (cautiously at least).
I suppose only time will tell whether the intention here is to develop the ladies game to the benefit of everyone, or if it's a rather cynical short term gimmick

[craigmc]

Equality is a one way street. Hid behind when suits then ignored in female favour

[Skewball]

With the first year of no Taylor it's a masterstroke in getting good early PR before the darts itself takes over. I'm sure it's why the ladies are on early as well.
All the pre tournament PR last year was about Taylor. Next year they will think of something new.

[PreciesJJ]

With the first year of no Taylor it's a masterstroke in getting good early PR before the darts itself takes over. I'm sure it's why the ladies are on early as well.
All the pre tournament PR last year was about Taylor. Next year they will think of something new.

Next year will be about RVB.