By Phil Haigh

Copyright metro

Neil Robertson is pushing for changes in snooker (Picture: Getty Images)

Neil Robertson hopes increased player power can help provide more transparency on how snooker is funded.

The Professional Snooker Players Association (PSPA) has emerged as an independent players’ union, with four-time world champion John Higgins as its chairman and with a string of big names involved.

It is early days for the new association, but they have outlined a number of issues they want to address with World Snooker Tour (WST) and the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), mainly surrounding player welfare.

There is concern that the PSPA will clash with the established powers that be, including WPBSA Players, the existing players board, of which Robertson is a member.

However, the Australian has dismissed the idea of infighting becoming an issue between the players and welcomes the new association.

‘I don’t see that happening,’ Robertson said of potential clashes. ‘The (WPBSA) Players board is very small. It’s myself and a handful of others.

‘As far as I know, there’s meant to be a meeting between us to see how we can move things forward and do the right things for the players and for the game. Watch this space, I suppose.’

John Higgins is leading the PSPA as chairman (Picture: Getty Images)

On whether he could be a member of both WPBSA Players and the PSPA, he said: ‘I’m not too sure what I am allowed to do or not allowed to do, but I’m not completely opposed to the idea at all. I think the Players Board is very good for what it does, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I think the players should have more power.’

Robertson was motivated to join WPBSA Players to help resolve a number of issues he sees in the game, one of the most significant being more transparency on revenue streams in the sport.

The former world champion feels players should be made aware of the finances surrounding television and sponsorship deals, so they can better understand the way the sport is funded.

‘The main thing is players want a lot more transparency with what’s going on,’ he said. ‘When there are these massive deals that are happening, the TV deals etc, I think that the players are certainly within their rights to find out how much these deals are actually worth.

Robertson landed £500,000 at the Saudi Arabia Masters last month (Picture: Getty Images)

‘When Barry Hearn took over, we were just so grateful to be playing the sport again and to be playing in a lot of tournaments. But that doesn’t mean that the players should be blind to all these deals and sponsorship deals that are coming into these events.

‘That’s probably one of the big issues is that the players just want to know, okay, the prize money breakdown is this. How much was actually contributed by the promoter or the sponsor?’

Another major alteration that Robertson wants to see is around scheduling of tournaments as he feels the calendar should be organised with geography more firmly in mind.

Chinese events are not played consecutively on the calendar, chiefly because promoters want them separated in order to stand out and be more prestigious, but Robertson feels other factors are more important.

‘The scheduling, long-term, is something I want fixed,’ he said. ‘I don’t want us bouncing all over the world. There’s jetlag, but not only that, players are having to pay out double or triple the travel expenses that we really need to. That could be condensed.

‘I’m sure we could get a situation where the calendar is better structured in and around the Asian events and then we work our way back to the UK.

How the new Professional Snooker Players Association plan to change the sport

‘There’s no reason to fly to Shanghai and all of a sudden you’ve got a week gap out of nowhere. Then you go into Saudi and then you go back to UK, then you’re going back to China again. Then you’re going back to UK and then you’re going back to China again.

‘It’s too much and there aren’t many sports which put that kind of demand on players. Just because a promoter says that they want it this way, I don’t think is really enough.

‘These kinds of things we’re trying to get done and change. A bit more empathy towards the players and their travels and all these sorts of things.’