Barry Hearn has sparked outrage once again since he announced the Snooker Shoot-Out to be a ranking event last year by revealing his newest initiative – by introducing the Glitzy Shoes Masters as a ranking event.
After he waltzed into the press conference wearing star-studded, gold-glittered platforms, Barry Hearn claimed that the likes of Dechawat Poomjaeng, Zhang Yong and Mark Williams have not shown enough character and needed to make drastic changes to make snooker players stand out from the crowd.
“It is great that our sport is now global and brutal but we also need to show that our fashion is brutal too,” claimed Barry. “It is important that we look good and it will be a fantastic “feet” for any player to win this title. Due to the increase of prize money, there are no excuses for players to not strut their stuff with expensive footwear. You could say this would be a completely sole-less thing to do!” which led to an eruption of laughter. “And where better to look show off their confidence in the home of glamour and the home of the cobblers, Northampton? We will see what the purists will think of that!”
This of course resulted in split opinion among the circuit, with Judd Trump head over heels over this new event, now that he can finally put his £15,000 Christian Louboutin Rollerboy Spikes to more relevant use rather than looking like he really wants to join a punk rock band.
This has sparked interest among over players, such as Shaun Murphy and Dominic Dale, who are guaranteed their spot in Northampton and hoping to avoid the agony of de-feet. Meanwhile, Ronnie O’Sullivan, in reference to his shoe-related kerfuffle in the 2015 World Championship against Craig Steadman, campaigned to any spectators attending an event if they got a size 8 or a 9.
Immediately after this news, Hearn made drastic, swift action by instantly fining Mark Allen £5,000 “just in case.”
“I’m sure he will moan about this so I have to be one step ahead of him this time.” Allen has yet to comment.
