BARNEY QUESTIONS PREMIER LEAGUE FORMAT
29/05/2025 By Aaron Nijjar
RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD has admitted he does not like the current Premier League format.
Former world champion Van Barneveld believes the tournament has become overly repetitive and is destroying the prestige of big rivalries on the oche.
‘Barney’ feels the current top stars such as world number one Luke Humphries, 47-times major winner Michael van Gerwen and teen sensation Luke Littler have faced off too many times in the competition.
The Lethal Lukes have done battle against each other on eight occasions in this year’s campaign.
MVG has had six matches with Littler during the league phase.
Dutch icon Van Barneveld revealed: “In our years in the Premier League you could live towards it.
“A game within three or four weeks where Raymond van Barneveld was playing Phil Taylor.
“Or Michael is playing Ray. That always gave me a warm feeling that I want to be here.
“In the current Premier League, it’s Luke against Luke every week.
“Luke [Littler] against Michael every week and I don’t like that very much.
“In my time and in Phil’s you really had that special game. That is not there anymore.
“To be honest there was a big rivalry.
“What is the rivalry at the moment? I don’t know.
“Is it Luke versus Luke?
“Or is it Luke [Littler] versus Michael?”
Cheshire thrower Humphries previously hit back at critics who have labelled the current format as stale.
He said: “Do you want to see the best players in the world playing against each other?
“Or do you want to wait six months?
“A lot of people say ‘It gets boring’, but I love watching the two best players in the world playing against each other.”
The current format, which sees eight arrowsmiths enter a mini-tournament each week, earning points based on their performance, has been in place since 2022.
At the end of the regular season, the four highest-ranked players qualify for the playoffs, where semi-finals and a final are held to determine the annual winner.
Image by Taylor Lanning.
