O’CONNOR DOUBLES DOWN ON WORLD CUP FORMAT CRITICISM
13/06/2026 By Aaron Nijjar
WILLIAM O’CONNOR claimed he could win the World Cup if Ireland were given the same treatment as the tournament’s top seeds.
The Magpie doubled down on his criticism of the format after he and Mickey Mansell stormed into a second successive quarter-final with an outstanding 8-5 victory over Poland.
The duo were superb in Frankfurt, producing one of their strongest displays of the event as they nailed eight of their 16 darts at doubles and averaged 92.21.
But O’Connor turned his attention to what he sees as a major flaw at the heart of the competition.
England, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Scotland are all handed byes straight into round two, allowing them to skip the opening phase and arrive fresh when matches move into the longer best of 15 leg format.
Ireland, by contrast, have already been through three demanding days of action to get to the same stage.
O’Connor believes that difference gives the seeded nations a huge edge.
He said: “They’re coming in fresh, we’ve had three hard days now.
“We’ve come in today and we’ve felt the toll the last two days.
“I’d feel like I could win this tournament if I come in fresh.
“When these four teams go through to today and they have no playing to be done to get there, it’s not fair on the rest of the field.
“You can be as fit as you want say what you like, the longer this goes on the more your body feels it. It’s harder for the boys that’s been here that few days longer and that’s no two ways about it.
“Those boys know the story as well.”
O’Connor has long argued every nation should be forced to start at the same stage, and his latest comments amount to his strongest criticism yet of a system he believes is weighted heavily in favour of the leading countries.
Ireland return to action on Sunday afternoon and face either Scotland or Norway for a place in the semi-final.
