Ronnie O'Sullivan has made his feelings clear on snooker in Saudi Arabia amid criticism over Masters event

Ronnie O'Sullivan has made his feelings clear on playing snooker in Saudi Arabia amid criticism of the ongoing Masters event in Jeddah.

The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters features a total of 144 players, including 16 wildcard players - though 2023 world champion Luca Brecel has been forced to pull out.

The tournament is played across nine rounds, with the top 16 seeds all entering in round five.

Unlike many other events, lower-ranked players are drawn against each other in the early rounds, giving the opportunity for lesser-fancied players to break through into the latter stages.

But the tournament has received criticism over the lack of fans in attendance thus far.

In one first-round match, the TV broadcast coverage showed that not a single fan was sat behind the players at the beginning of the best-of-seven-frame encounter.

Ahead of 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham's fourth-round clash against Sam Craigie, the vast majority - if not all - of the seats were still empty.

Image: Eurosport

The crowd was significantly higher for last year's final between Judd Trump and Mark Williams, but there clearly appears to be much less demand for snooker in Saudi, at least in terms of live spectators, than in other countries in the world.

With rumours surrounding whether the World Championship could leave the Crucible, fans have questioned whether the amount of interest from locals warrants the awarding of such a prestigious event over the likes of China if a move was sanctioned.

Ronnie O'Sullivan on Saudi Arabia

But O'Sullivan, a known critic of many of the snooker facilities in the UK, has reserved plenty of praise for Saudi Arabia as a host of the sport.

Speaking to SPORTbible during the 2024 Saudi Snooker Masters, he explained: "The venue [in Riyadh] is unbelievable. The practice facilities are fantastic.

"At home, you'll be in the venue, and you'll literally just go there just to get your practice in and get out of there, because you don't even get a cup of tea there.

"Here, there's food all day long. There's nice sofa areas, there's changing rooms. You can have a shower. Everything's fantastic.

"There's plenty of practice rooms you can use, so you're not just sitting around all day, getting 20 minute knocks here and there. You can get a lot of good, good practice in."

Image: Instagram/@ronnie

The seven-time world champion has opened up his own snooker club in Riyadh, and signed a three-year ambassador partnership to promote the sport in Saudi Arabia last April.

At the time, he said in a statement: "Playing in Riyadh last month was an amazing experience. I love the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the fans.

"We can make snooker huge in Saudi Arabia. I am excited by this chance to work to grow the sport there and the opportunity to coach the best young talent and pass on my experience."