'Players agree with him' - Mark Selby backs Shaun Murphy comments at UK Championship
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Updated 25/11/2021 at 11:46 GMT
Mark Selby is the latest player to stand by Shaun Murphy's comments over the inclusion of amateurs at professional events. Murphy was beaten by amateur Si Jiahui in the first round of the UK Championship and launched an extraordinary attack on amateurs in the professional game, arguing they had “nothing to lose”.
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Mark Selby says he agrees with Shaun Murphy's criticism of amateurs playing in professional events.
Murphy lost in the first round of the UK Championship to amateur Si Jiahui and complained that his opponent's 'nothing to lose attitude' put him at a disadvantage.
Top ranked amateurs can enter the tournament via the top-up system if the 128 professional slots cannot be filled, and Murphy believes this system needs reviewing as he "needs snooker to make a living", rather than the amateurs who do not currently make money from the sport.
And Selby, who sailed through the first round of the UK Championship on Wednesday with a 6-2 sin over Ross Muir, admitted he agrees with Murphy.
"I think a lot of players agree with him," Selby told BBC Sport.
"Because he [Shaun Murphy] said it after he lost, people probably think it is sour grapes and he wouldn't have said it if he had won - but I totally stand by everything he said.
There's a reason there is a Q School to try to get on [the professional tour], and if you don't get on, you should have to wait another year and play in the amateur events."
Neil Robertson has also stood by Murphy's comments, telling the BBC: "I totally get where Shaun’s coming from, When you’re playing one of the Chinese boys, some of them are amateurs, but some are as good as anybody in the top 50 in the world."
And three-time world champion Mark Williams tweeted that Murphy's comments were justified, if not badly timed.
Yet while the likes of Robertson, Williams and Selby have thrown their support behind Murphy, the 39-year-old's comments were roundly criticised on social media while World Snooker Chiefs also dismissed his claims.
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