Judd Trump urges World Snooker to change 'terrible' rule and says he 'doesn't know' what rival has done

World Snooker frequently finds itself in tension between the sport's traditional values and the need for commercial modernisation.

The World Snooker Championship has been a battleground for years but its long-term future at Sheffield's famous Crucible theatre was secured earlier this year.

Nevertheless, the game's fine details are frequently up for debate and there are advocates for change within snooker's professional ranks.

World number five Judd Trump is often the leading voice and has taken aim at the World Snooker Tour's ranking system, which is based on prize money rather than ranking points over the season.

Consequently, the rankings are weighted towards the winners of the tournament that carry the biggest prize money – world champion Wu Yize collected £500,000 and the World Snooker Championship prize money will rise by £125,000 in 2027 – and prize money comes off the rolling total for the rankings two years after it's won.

When a lucrative tournament like the Saudi Arabia Masters is removed from the calendar, it has a huge ranking impact on its last two winners. Trump won in Saudi Arabia in 2024 and has suffered a £500,000 loss on his rankings total.

"It’s just so top-heavy and now there’s only one big event, it makes it even worse," Trump told Metro, referencing the loss of the Saudi Arabia Masters and the heavy weighting of the World Snooker Championship.

"You kind of know whoever wins the Worlds, it’s pretty much nailed on to be first or second for the next two seasons.

"Obviously I managed to win Saudi, Neil [Robertson] won Saudi, those points are going to come off. It’s just a bit of a pointless ranking system, I think.

"It needs to be changed because the Worlds prize money has gone up again this year which makes it even worse.

"It’s just terrible. It’s not an accurate system and that’s taking nothing away from [2025 world champion Zhao] Xintong because he deserves to be number one because he’s won other events as well.

"I think Neil, for example, I don’t really know what he’s done to be so close, apart from win Saudi, he hasn’t really done anything else."

The Englishman also singled out Sheffield-based 2026 Worlds winner Wu, who is the current world number three but has only won one other ranking event in his career.

Zintong is the world number one with a rolling tally of £1,253,550. Robertson is second; £500,000 of his total was won when he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan in Saudi Arabia last year.

Wu is followed by Selby in fourth and Trump in fifth, and it's last month's China Open winner Selby who's making the early running in the illustrative one-year money list.

"I think the world number one deserves to be world number one at the moment but I think there’s a chance in the next few months that maybe world number one shouldn’t be," concluded Trump, who beat Kyren Wilson in the final of the non-ranking Shanghai Masters at the beginning of August.