Vincent van der Voort left astonished at major PDC decision ahead of World Matchplay

When the World Matchplay begins at Blackpool's iconic Winter Gardens on July 18, the PDC could be forced into changing the schedule.

In a 32-player field, defending champion Luke Littler is unsurprisingly the favourite to win his 14th PDC major, and he begins his tournament with a clash against Niko Springer on Saturday.

The world No.1 has enjoyed another incredible 2026 in darts, but was recently beaten in the final of the US Darts Masters by Luke Humphries at New York's Madison Square Gardens.

Humphries begins his assault on the World Matchplay with a clash against Cameron Menzies on Monday, but before then, Sunday's fixtures could be impacted by a schedule change.

That is because if England reach the World Cup final by beating Argentina in Wednesday's semi-final, the PDC would be forced to move the weekend's matches.

Many players will be impacted by this prospect if it happens and would only learn shortly before their opening match exactly when they will play.

Premier League stars Michael van Gerwen, Gian van Veen and Jonny Clayton are among those who could be affected by this possibility, and former professional Vincent van der Voort thinks it is odd that darts is allowed to be influenced by another sport.

"You’re completely bowing to football. That changes everything again," Van der Voort said on the Darts Draait Door podcast. "I don’t think, as a sport, you should bend to another sport."

“You have to fall in line again. I don’t think many sports do this. It shows the sport is still very English, because everything is viewed purely through the lens of England,” he added.

The 'Dutch Destroyer' also believes the PDC aren't considering that the World Matchplay has a large international field with players from various countries and the same treatment wouldn't apply to them.

"If the Netherlands had reached the final, they wouldn’t take the Dutch players into account either. They wouldn’t care one bit. It’s purely about England. And that makes your sport so small,” the former dartist said.

READ MORE: This is how much Luke Littler could earn by defending his World Matchplay title

World Matchplay round one fixture list

While Van der Voort's anger is arguably justified, there are some exciting match-ups at the start of the World Matchplay, including Nathan Aspinall's clash against Joe Cullen on Saturday and Wessel Nijman's showdown with Dave Chisnall on Sunday.

Here is the first fixture list in full.

Saturday July 18 (7pm) or Saturday July 18 (1pm)

Round One x4

Josh Rock v Luke Woodhouse

Stephen Bunting v Niels Zonneveld

Luke Littler v Niko Springer

Nathan Aspinall v Joe Cullen

Sunday July 19 (1pm) or Saturday July 18 (7pm)

Round One x4

Chris Dobey v Dirk van Duijvenbode

Gary Anderson v Ryan Joyce

Michael van Gerwen v Andrew Gilding

Jonny Clayton v Damon Heta

Sunday July 19 (7pm) or Sunday July 19 (1pm)

Ryan Searle v William O'Connor

James Wade v Jermaine Wattimena

Gian van Veen v Krzysztof Ratajski

Wessel Nijman v Dave Chisnall

Monday July 20 (7pm)

Ross Smith v Kevin Doets

Gerwyn Price v Martin Schindler

Luke Humphries v Cameron Menzies

Danny Noppert v Rob Cross

*Schedule subject to change if England reach the World Cup final.