Mike De Decker has spoken out after he became the first player in history to win a major televised event on Sky Sports and not be selected for the Premier League.
The 29-year-old, who lifted the World Grand Prix in October following a 6-4 win over Luke Humphries, was overlooked by PDC chiefs as they announced the full line-up for the 2025 Premier League.
Luke Littler will, of course, return to the fold as defending champion alongside Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross, who all qualified through the PDC Order of Merit.
The final four spots were then handed to Nathan Aspinall, Stephen Bunting, Chris Dobey and Gerwyn Price as the likes of Jonny Clayton, Dave Chisnall, Damon Heta and Mike De Decker missed out.
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In fact, after the eight-man line-up was announced, PDC chief executive Matthew Porter gave an insight into the decision to snub De Decker, despite his World Grand Prix victory.
"Mike [De Decker] is an outstanding talent and is someone that undoubtedly we will see in Premier League Darts in the future,” Porter said. “We didn't feel he was quite ready. There's a lot of tournaments throughout the year and winning one."
Porter continued: “We've seen players in the past I don't want to embarass [them] by naming them but players like Danny Noppert, Ross Smith and Andrew Gilding that have won TV tournaments.
“But you have to show that you can compete in the latter stages of TV tournaments on a regular basis. Doing it once is fantastic and is something that you will always have but to really be part of the elite, you have to be doing it on a regular basis over multiple years."
Since the news emerged, De Decker has taken to Instagram to give his thoughts on the latest Premier League line-up.
Taking to his story, the Belgian reposted a tweet that read: "Mike De Decker becomes the first player in the 20-year history of the Premier League to win a major televised on Sky Sports and not be selected for the Premier League. Sickening."
As you can see below, he also made his feelings clear by including the 'rolling eyes' emoji in his post.
As well as explaining De Decker's absence from the line-up, Porter admitted that “big stage presence” was a significant factor when deciding who to pick.
"Price, Dobey and Aspinall. There are players above them in the rankings that haven't been selected," he said. "But we've looked at it in terms of big stage presence. We've looked at it in terms of popularity in the way that they can get a 10,000 crowd every week going.
"We want people on the edge of their seats and up enjoying the darts. That's not to say other players can't do that. You have to make a decision as to what you feel is right at the time.
“The board has selected players that we feel will deliver that level of entertainment and that level of darting excellence every week. People will disagree with us and that's the nature of it. It's part and parcel of sport."
Porter added: “Every decision will be analysed, we may get decisions wrong, we may get decisions right. But ultimately the proof will be in the pudding in the numbers every week."
Thoughts on the line-up? Let us know in the comments.
Topics: Darts, World Darts Championship, Premier League
Jack Kenmare