July 2, 1997

Press Statement

The Executive of the World Darts Federation (WDF) welcomes the agreement between the British Darts Organisation and certain players, which ends the lawsuit between them. Such legal disputes only serve to distract the public and darts players from what is important in the sport: playing and enjoying a game of darts, win or lose.

The WDF, as the governing body of darts in the world, has as its purpose to promote the sport of darts throughout the world. Through its members, country darts organizations, the WDF represents all darts players in the world. This includes not only the top players and those who make a living through darts but also the hundreds of thousands (or millions) of the other players: those that play in the hundreds of local and national tournaments, those that play in the thousands of darts leagues, and those that just play occasionally at their club or home.

It has always been the policy of the WDF not to distinguish between "professional" players and "amateur" players. The WDF official tournamments, such as the World Cup, the Europe Cup, the Pacific Cup and the Asia Cup, have no money prizes and are played by teams representing their countries. Most of the WDF ranked tournaments, held by the WDF member countries, do have money prizes. In addition, there are many other tournaments with prize money. To try to separate "professional" and "amateur" players would create all the problems other sports have experiened. Even the Olympics have done away with the distinction.

At the same time, the WDF recognizes that those darts players that earn their living through the sport might wish to form "professional" players groups to discuss their mutual concerns. The WDF has no problems with such groups, so long as they recognize the WDF as the worldwide governing body in the sport.

The WDF welcomes any company or association that wishes to establish additional darts tournaments, exhibitions or matches, especially if they can acquire television coverage, which acquaints more people with the sport. This is so long as they: (1) Recognize the WDF as the world governing body; (2) In any country in which such darts event is held, recognize that country's WDF member organization as the country's governing authority for darts; and (3) Cooperate and work through and with the WDF member organization, unless other arrangements have been agreed to between the parties.