The news conference of Ronnie O'sullivan & Marco Fu

[Rane]

Now the ranking points doesn´t really matter, but that decision should have been made before the WC. What if 500 points had been dividing first and second place in the rankings, then it would have been a real joke. Or lets say Mark Allen had a judgement in the WC then starterpoints would have meant inside or outside the top 16!

There should be clear rules about the size of the penalties and decisions made before next tournament.

[the montrealer]

Conference Of Ronnie Osullivan

Hi I Am Happy In A Way That They Did Not Punish Ronnie Osullivan To Harsh If They Would Have Giving Him Say A Six Month Suspension It Would Have Been Bad For Snooker. As Without Osullivan In The Picture Snooker Would Be Going Down Hill. Cheers Leonard

[barbarossa]

alex was punished seriously when everyone said snooker need him, but snooker still lived until today

[Kyra]

alex was punished seriously when everyone said snooker need him, but snooker still lived until today

Well said. There are so many talented and interesting players on the circuit. Wouldn't it be intersting to see, what would have happened if Ronnie had indeed been banned for some time ?

[April madness]

Well said. There are so many talented and interesting players on the circuit. Wouldn't it be intersting to see, what would have happened if Ronnie had indeed been banned for some time ?

To be honest, I can't imagine anything 'interesting' coming out of Ronnie's ban. Snooker would still be played, tournaments go on, discussions on the forum too... And lots of speculations whether Ronnie is going to return. Is that exciting?

[Black_cat]

Well said. There are so many talented and interesting players on the circuit. Wouldn't it be intersting to see, what would have happened if Ronnie had indeed been banned for some time ?

Yes; I would only watch it if the alternative were terminal, dead-end, inescapable boredom and lacking almost all involvement. But that's just me suffering from a bout of politically incorrect honesty.

[Robert602]

Banning a lesser player hurts only them, but banning the top player on the circuit takes too much away from the sport. At the moment snooker needs him around for the tournaments to be credible, even if it doesn't need him for his crowd-pulling ability. No player could be completely satisfied lifting a trophy with Ronnie not part of the field and that's not fair to them.

I also don't in general agree with ranking point deductions - I think rankings should reflect performance on the table, nothing else.

I prefer the idea of offering the player the choice of either doing some service for the game (a promotional event or doing some work at the academy), or accepting an appropriately scaled fine (a proportion of long term prize money). In any case something should be put into writing before the season starts so that punishments in future can be applied fairly and transparently.

As for the ruling in this particular case, I tend to agree with Dave Hendon. There was a lot of hype, but in my opinion the crime itself was really quite minor and the punishment was proportional.

[Kyra]

To be honest, I can't imagine anything 'interesting' coming out of Ronnie's ban. Snooker would still be played, tournaments go on, discussions on the forum too... And lots of speculations whether Ronnie is going to return. Is that exciting?

That's exactly what I wanted to say. Life, or better Snooker, would go on. I think Ronnie's importance for the game is a bit overrated. But that's my own little opinion

[April madness]

That's exactly what I wanted to say. Life, or better Snooker, would go on. I think Ronnie's importance for the game is a bit overrated. But that's my own little opinion

Of course. But in the short term IMO he would be missed and there wouldn't be winners from that ban. In a longer run, snooker will still be snooker, with or without Ronnie.

(And in the long run, we're all dead. J.M.Keynes )

[Monique]

The entire top 16 could disappear in a plane crash (God forbid!) and the game would still go on... However sponsoring, audience and television coverage could become a bit of a challenge

To a lesser extend banning Ronnie would produce the same effects. Not mentioning half of the sports tabloïds journalists would be out of a job and a few forums would go to sleep . This forum would survive however thanks to the "cue" section activity ... phew...

Oh yes, and black_cat's organigram http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ad.php?t=10885 would become useless

Obviously that's unbearable

[ferret]

I know you all thought this thread had finally died but someone just mailed me a link to this video

[Black_cat]

Ew!
Even more disgusting than "the real thing".
Or a really successful rap song whose radio version would consist entirely of bleeps.
Only thing left to do is to find the appropriate actual song to sample. Any suggestions?