Luke Humphries does not want the World Championships to  move to Saudi Arabia “I think the World Championships is where it belongs and that is Alexandra Palace”

In recent years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made obvious steps to exert influence over the larger sporting industry. Whether or if darts will be the next sport affected remains a heated topic of discussion among fans and darters alike.

During his recent visit to Gliwice for the Poland Darts Masters, world number one and reigning world darts champion Luke Humphries was questioned about the growing speculation that PDC President Barry Hearn may one day relocate the World Darts Championship from London’s Alexandra Palace to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, having recently been very open about his plans to do the same with the Snooker World Championship and leave the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

“Saudi Arabia, yeah it would be great to play there. I’m not an advocate for it to be the World Championships. I think the World Championships is where it belongs and that is Alexandra Palace, where we all want to play,” Cool Hand Luke reflected when asked about the Saudi interest in holding the World Darts Championship in future. “That is one of them things where I feel like you have to be careful because the fans are what make us what we are. So if you move away from Alexandra Palace and go somewhere else you could take away that little bit from the fans. Every year when we go to play the World Championships the fanbase seems to grow and you’re nothing without the fans so I’d love the World Championships to stay at Alexandra Palace.”

As previously said, Humphries is not opposed to organising darts competitions in Saudi Arabia, just not the World Darts Championship. “I’d love to see an event in Saudi Arabia, maybe a World Series event or just something, because obviously the sport’s growing over there as well,” he says.