Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen both think that a return to a points-based system for the official snooker rankings list should be adopted.
Following his success at the English Open in Brentwood at the weekend, Allen expressed his disdain towards the lack of fairness of the current system.
Since 2014, the snooker rankings have been devised through an accumulation of prize money earned during a rolling two-year period.
Yet this has often led to the standings being skewed, with the format heavily favouring those who perform well in the most lucrative ranking tournaments.
Allen collected the £100,000 champion’s cheque for his efforts at the Brentwood Centre last week, taking him back up to number seven in the world.
It was the fourth different top prize in a ranking event handed out this season.
Stephen Maguire pocketed £33,000 for his Championship League Snooker success, Xiao Guodong was awarded £140,000 for defending his Wuhan Open crown, and Neil Robertson landed a bumper £500,000 jackpot for capturing the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters title.
That took the Australian up to number three in the world and Robertson’s total on the two-year ranking system is roughly £400,000 greater than that of Allen’s – mirroring the disparity in their respective windfalls this term.
“I could win one frame less and one match more and be £400,000 behind. Something definitely needs to change in that regard,” Mark Allen was quoted as saying by the Express.
What were Murphy’s views on the ranking system?
“[Mark Allen] made the point that the rankings need looking at,” Shaun Murphy said on the latest episode of the OneFourSeven Snooker Podcast.
“He’s won an event and Neil Robertson’s won an event a few weeks ago, and there’s £400,000 difference – 400,000 points.”
“A couple of the matches are longer in Saudi of course, but it’s an interesting point anyway in terms of the rankings based on the money list.
“There’s such a disparity between the highest-paid tournaments and the lowest-paid tournaments. Winning is difficult.
“I think if you took a poll of the player, I think all of the players want it to go back to a points-based system.
“When it changed to money years ago, I think everyone thought it was great. But that was sort of around the explosion when Barry [Hearn] took over the game 15 years ago.
“But there wasn’t that difference between the lowest-paid event and the highest-paid event. You know, it wasn’t as stark.
“I remember at some stage in the last few years winning the Gibraltar Open, I won it and went backwards. Not sure about that!
“I’d probably agree with Mark’s points on it. I think ‘all’ is probably a bit too far, but most of the players, if you asked them, they’d like to see the return of a points-based system.
“Have the money list in the background, I’ve no problem with that. Have it, show it, and use it for whatever you want.
“But in terms of the rankings, a win is a win. Some events are more difficult to win than others, that’s fine – show that in the rankings. That’s no problem.
“It’s alright increasing the value of some events by having big prizes, but you then obviously devalue the others.
“If it were a points-based system, which was a bit easier to award merit, then maybe that might be a better system. That’s for the powers to be.”
How are Murphy and Allen doing at the British Open?
Shaun Murphy, meanwhile, returned to the top 16 of the snooker rankings despite only reaching the last 16 of last week’s Home Nations Series event.
The Magician briefly dropped out of the elite bracket for the first time in 19 years after the Wuhan Open, but he has returned to 16th spot as things stand.
Murphy will be hoping to move further back up the ladder when he participates in this week’s British Open at the Centaur in Cheltenham.
After winning his held over opening-round fixture against Ross Muir on Monday, the reigning Masters champion will attempt to overcome another Scot when he entertains Scott Donaldson on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Allen reached the last 64 on Tuesday. The Pistol continued his fine run of victories by beating Jiang Jun 4-1.
The round of 64 concludes on day three with the last 32 also commencing during the evening session.
The British Open champion on Sunday will receive £100,000.
2025 British Open Draw
Round of 64 (bo7)
Chang Binggyu 4-1 Long Zehuang
He Guoqiang 3-4 Robbie McGuigan
Ben Woollaston 3-4 Noppon Saengkham
Haris Tahir 2-4 Louis Heathcote
Amir Sarkhosh 0-4 Jak Jones
Iulian Boiko 4-2 Sam Craigie
Ian Burns 4-3 Marco Fu
Zak Surety 4-0 Ashley Carty
Ryan Davies 2-4 Liam Davies
Robert Milkins 2-4 Antoni Kowalski
Xu Yichen vs David Lilley
Mitchell Mann vs Gao Yang
Cheung Ka Wai vs Matthew Stevens
Lei Peifan vs Matthew Selt
Martin O’Donnell vs Sunny Akani
Joe O’Connor vs Allan Taylor
Yuan Sijun 0-4 Barry Hawkins
Stan Moody 4-2 Kyren Wilson
Bai Yulu 3-4 Zhang Anda
Xu Si 1-4 Neil Robertson
Mark Williams 4-3 Sanderson Lam
Jack Lisowski 3-4 John Higgins
Umut Dikme 2-4 Xiao Guodong
Jackson Page 1-4 Oliver Lines
Anthony McGill 4-1 Gary Wilson
Stuart Bingham 1-4 Zhao Xintong
Leone Crowley vs Judd Trump
Ben Mertens vs Reanne Evans
Wu Yize vs Ali Carter
Liu Hongyu vs Mark Selby
Bulcsu Revesz vs Mark Allen
Scott Donaldson vs Shaun Murphy
Round of 32 (bo7)
Iulian Boiko vs Wu/Carter
Zhang Anda vs Xiao Guodong
Zak Surety vs Louis Heathcote
Mertens/Evans vs Robbie McGuigan
Antoni Kowalski vs Mann/Gao
John Higgins vs Zhao Xintong
Trump/Crowley vs O’Donnell/Akani
Barry Hawkins vs Jak Jones
Stan Moody vs Ian Burns
Stevens/Cheung vs Lei/Selt
O’Connor/Taylor vs Selby/Liu
Noppon Saengkham vs Chang Bingyu
Anthony McGill vs Oliver Lines
Mark Williams vs Revesz/Allen
Liam Davies vs Lilley/Xu
Murphy/Donaldson vs Neil Robertson
Click here for the update results and draw (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Interesting to hear Matt Selt, on the Framed podcast, say a factor in moving to Dubai was because he felt his kids were in danger staying here. He didn’t expand on the threats but wonder if it’s do with social media and people sending him abusive and threatening messages regarding his poor behaviour in recent years.
To be fair to Shaun Murphy, he didn’t quite say that we should return to a points-based system. He speculated that ‘majority of players’ would vote for it, with a few ‘maybes’ of his own.
But it shouldn’t be put to a vote. What do they know? It’s a bit like me telling Shaun Murphy how to play his shots. Any change to rankings should be based on a proper study, such as an academic recommendation. It should take into account snooker’s requirements, and compare different systems used by other sports. It should NOT just be someone divising a plausible system ‘off the top of their head’. We have seen the mess WPBSA got into regarding Zhao Xintong’s ranking points, and other hastily ‘clarified’ rules. The current system was supposed to be simple (Barry Hearn’s comment about the overall stupidity of snooker fans), yet it requires 3 spreadsheets and a whole series of exceptions and anomalies (when prize-money counts, when it does not). It needs careful design, not a back-of-the-envelope fix, and it should have a set of rules that are watertight. This issue matters (in my view more than any other) – players succeed or fail to qualify for events, they can be relegated from the tour, and the ranking system dictates what events are viable (‘ranking tournaments’) which determines the direction of the future of the game.