Glen Durrant has suggested a radical solution to the growing problem of players skipping Players Championship and European Tour events: fines. Speaking to Online Darts, the former Premier League Darts champion addressed the packed darts schedule and the sacrifices being made by the sport's top players. "I guess the one direct is, do you fine someone?" Durrant said. "But if you fine a player who's earning this much money, £250, they're not going to a Players Championship. To them, £250, I don't know. I don't know the answer."
Durrant's concern stems from the extended European Championship and the ease of qualifying for the top 48 through the Players Championships. "My only fear then is more people are going to pull out of the Euro Tour because it's easier to qualify to get to the top 48 out of the Players Championships," he explained. "So I think that area sort of needs addressing as well, but more opportunities." He added: "You don't want to go to — I love the Players Champs. As a commentator, I love going to Wigan, Leicester, etc. I love going to all those and doing that, but I want to see the best players there."
The 2027 PDC calendar has generated plenty of discussion, particularly with a European Tour event set for Lille, France, for the first time. "I was a little bit surprised that they're going to go to Lille. France is obviously Thibaut Tricole, etc. But I'm pleasantly surprised it's going to France," Durrant admitted. "The job of the darts is to get to every country in Europe. For me, I'm right in the middle of the World Series now where we're going to territories I never thought we'd ever go to. Madison Square Garden, I still pinch myself there. So France is a new area to go. When I went to Belgium, the numbers didn't look as good as the ones during that boom. But you're going to have that plateau, that whole Littler effect where everything just went bonkers."
Durrant also gave his backing to the PDC's strategic direction. "The PDC, they know. They'll make the right decisions. I think I say them words: I have full faith in the strategic direction which the company is going in now. And if it's France, then so be it." He was also a fan of the new European Open, a major tournament following the UK Open's format. "The format I like as well, so it's really exciting. Again, where you're going to fit in the calendar is another question. So I'm going to look and wait for the calendar to come out fully to really digest it exactly how we do. But more opportunities."
Turning to the standard of play, Durrant expressed surprise at the perceived drop-off from the mid-2010s. "Honestly, I'm surprised at that," he said. "I mean, because statistically, it's my forte, I love it. If you'd have asked me the question, I thought the averages right now superseded what was going on in the golden period, just because I just feel that the top 32 was better than it was." He urged players to stop making excuses: "They need to buck their ideas up because there's one player there who will break all records, on the back of the matchplay where he was sensational as well with those numbers. Like I said, it's a war of attrition to be a professional darts player. I think he's given himself a set time to do it, but the rest will have to pick up to do it."
On Michael van Gerwen's worrying trajectory, with the three-time world champion set to drop to 19th in the world at the start of the 2027 campaign, Durrant offered a stark assessment. "I heard him say at breakfast, 'If your head's not in a competition...' So I still think he gets motivated for the TV tournaments. I still think he gets up for them," Durrant commented. "But if you're not doing your bread and butter very well, if you're not doing the Players Championships and your mind's not in it, I think there's a few flaws with the issues. He's been working with the points of his dart. The 30mm is now hanging out of the dart, whereas he used to put a 30mm point, so you're putting a couple of mil into it."
Durrant drew on his own experience: "All I would say, and I can only sort of look back on my career, is that when I start to go downhill, it's very, very difficult then to all of a sudden go up. His mind is probably telling him what he wants to do, but physically and mentally trying to do that is a different equation." He cited Jonny Clayton as proof it can be turned around: "I mean, I thought Jonny Clayton maybe had reached his peak in 2021 when 2022 didn't go as good, but he's proved that you can still do that. And also that age of when you get to 50 as well. So not that Michael's got that sort of issue, but there's other things that you've got to take into factors as well."
When asked for a fantasy matchup between prime van Gerwen and current Luke Littler, Durrant picked the Dutchman. "Oh, that's a good one, because I only ever get asked the Phil Taylor one, of which I asked... Oh, that's a good question, that one. I think you would say MVG." He also highlighted Littler's broader impact on the sport: "A younger audience. And it's more the impact of what he's doing. You mentioned me being a coach there. I don't think I'm so busy because I'm a wonderful coach. I think I'm busy because people just want to throw a dart now, and they want to know the fundamentals, how to throw a dart, and I think a lot of that's down to Luke Littler."
