Ronnie O'Sullivan Slams English Open Venue, Says It Smells of Urine

Five-time world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has slammed the venue of this year's English Open, the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley, calling it a "hellhole" and saying it smells of urine.

The Rocket didn't hold back when describing the place to the BBC, per Mark Dobson of the Guardian:

"It's such a bad venue, it demotivates you to want to play. This is about as bad as I've ever seen. It's a bit of a hellhole.

"I don't know what this gaff is, but I've just done an interview and all I can smell is urine. It's just got no atmosphere in there. I'm practising and I've got wires all around the table. There's no security, you've got people running at you left, right and centre.

"It's not the fans' fault. They [World Snooker] obviously haven't got the budget to run it properly. I don't know where their budget is but they're cutting corners. I think they should invest in good venues. Players deserve better."

As noted by Dobson, O'Sullivan has never been shy to voice his opinion and has taken plenty of shots at World Snooker over the years.

The organisation responded in a statement: "We are surprised to hear these comments from Ronnie given that he has made no formal complaint and the feedback from the other players has been overwhelmingly positive. And the partners we are working with on the event agree with our view that K2 Crawley is an excellent venue with very good facilities."

O'Sullivan is the defending English Open champion, winning in Barnsley in 2017. He lost just a single frame in his opening-round win over Kurt Maflin this year but made no attempt to hide his displeasure with the venue.

The Rocket has always been one of the most outspoken and controversial players on the tour, and Barry Hearn played down his latest comments:

BBC's Dan Walker, who is from Crawley, didn't seem to take the comments too seriously either:

Live Snooker's Jonathan Davies broke down some of O'Sullivan's other controversial moments over the years, which included rude gestures at the table, playing in his socks and purposely missing out on a maximum break.

The Rocket remains the biggest draw in snooker and currently sits in third place in the world rankings behind Mark Selby and Mark Williams.