Nathan Aspinall is through to the Premier League Darts play-offs taking place at The O2 in London later this evening but suggests a format change for next season to stop fans getting ‘bored’.
Nathan Aspinall faced heavy criticism for his inclusion in the 2025 Premier League Darts line-up.
The Asp had injuries and a three month period out from darts last year in order to rehabilitate, this ultimately led to a subpar season by his standards.
The 2023 World Matchplay winner suffered multiple first early round exits from major tournaments, missed out on the 2024 Premier League play-offs on the final night and dropped down the Order of Merit rankings.
These factors combined led to public criticism when he was announced in the line-up for the Premier League this year.
Even professional players like Dave Chisnall and Mike De Decker voiced that he didn’t deserve the position. De Decker in particular made it personal, claiming that Aspinall was ‘only included for his walk-on’.
Read more – Mike De Decker calls PDC ‘scandalous’ for Premier League decisions
Aspinall spoke about the toll it had taken on his mental health as he had to take himself away from social media to avoid the negativity.
16 weeks later and Aspinall has now proven that the PDC were justified to include him.
Gerwyn Price was another player who was questioned for his inclusion, yet both have now qualified for finals night alongside Luke Humphries and defending champion Luke Littler.
It’s been an emotional campaign for Aspinall and while he believes the format is great for the live crowds, he has suggested a format change for next year with TV viewers becoming ‘bored’…
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Nathan Aspinall Wants More Players in Premier League Format Change
After the initial controversy surrounding his selection, Nathan Aspinall called on the PDC to change the Premier League rules so that it’s just the top ranked players that qualify rather than it being part invitational.
Ahead of play-off night, he sat down with talkSPORT Darts and the format was brought up in conversation again. He was asked what changes he would make to the current Premier League format and he responded:
“I like the format for the live audience. I think for the people that pay money to come watch us every Thursday night it’s fantastic, I think it works better than the other format.
“From a TV point of view I think people are getting bored but what I think is a simple solution is whack it to 12 players because the strength and depth is there.
“Play 6 games a night, 1 a night [game for each player], after 11 weeks 4 people disappear. Then the last 8 [players] play over 5 weeks in a knockout format to make it to the final 4.
“That way you get a few different faces in it and I think you get the best of both formats.
“I just think there’s definitely enough strength and depth to up the players to 12. Or, just have two Premier Leagues?”
The format is one that is always heavily debated by fans and pundits, more so this year when the two Luke’s have won more than 50% of the nights between them.
Aspinall did however go on to say that he doesn’t really care about the format, just as long as he’s playing in it!
He’ll be hoping to lift the title tonight as he goes head-to-head with world number one Luke Humphries for a place in the final.
You can watch the full interview provided by talkSPORT below:
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