24.4.12

MARK ALLEN STATEMENT

Mark Allen's management stable, OnQ Promotions, have issued the following statement on his behalf:

"Following my recent comments in the press conference after my first round defeat to Cao Yupeng, I would like to formally apologise to anyone who may have been offended.

"Having taken some time to reflect on my comments I can appreciate that I over-stepped the line at a time when I was heavily influenced by the emotions of a disappointing defeat.

"I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Cao Yupeng if he felt that my comments were insinuating he were a cheat. I stand by my opinion that the shot in question was a foul, but I also stand by my previous comments in the press conference that Cao was the better player and fully deserved to win. I genuinely wish him the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.

"I would also like to apologise to World Snooker. I appreciate the hard work by many people to grow our sport and I am truly horrified to think that my actions could be perceived to be detrimental to this.

"It is fair to say that this season has been one of ups and downs. The highs of winning my first ranking title and finishing runner-up in the UK championships have been overshadowed by some ill judged comments from myself.

"I realise that I need to ensure that my off table behaviour matches the standard and level of professionalism I set for my on table etiquette. I will return for the 2012-13 season with an improved approach to giving my opinions publicly."

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easy to come out with this apology after he can see how his comments were seen as insulting yet again, also maybe Yupeng did foul but wasn't aware that he did but also maybe he didn't foul in the first place how many more insults is he going to throw out against the Chinese or China does he have a problem with them?

JAMIE O'REILLY said...

Hi David. Mark Allen, in my view, was right to apologise, fo these comments.

Anonymous said...

I do wish when some PR hack drafts out public apologies they would actually make it sound like it is coming from the person who is supposed to be issuing it.

Anonymous said...

stupid apology

i never meant it, honest

also, he was insinuating, even calling cao a cheat...and the chinese in general

does he think were as stupid as he is?

Anonymous said...

no amount of apologies will ever make me like or support this man again.

imho he said racist things and called 3 players as having directly cheated.

he was bang out of order when in china

hes not got any feet left to shoot himself on.

i find him a horrible vile little man now, yet 3 years ago he wasa great prospect and spoke well about himself and others.

his parent are lovely people, but he has turned into a sour, twisted little man, which is a shame.

i hope ws throw the book at him

Anonymous said...

Dave let's move on now. Can we have a post about the announcement that rankings are going to be based on prize money not points. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not.

Anonymous said...

You always know when you double hit or push. It was a foul. But Allen's comments did go too far.

kildare cueman said...

Allen is an idiot, but a great player to watch. Some similarities between him and Alex Higgins, in that they were both mouthy but talented and both are Belfast protestants.
I'm glad he apologised but not sure he meant it.
Think a fine in the region of £5000 is in order with a warning of double that amount for any subsequent tirades.

Mark Williams is in the doghouse too I see.
I agree with Doherty's take on Williams' professionalism. He sometimes talks as if he is an amateur down the pub after a match, rather than doing his bit to promote the game which feeds him.

I cant imagine either Allen or Williams earning anything much more than minimum wage had they not been snooker players as they both appear to be uneducated and unskilled.

I feel on this occasion though, that Williams' twitter quotes were taken too seriously. It was obvious he was joking so while he was out of order its not the same as slagging the venue with venom. He's not bright enough to realise the damage his throwaway comments can do, and I feel a warning or small fine would be adequate.

Perhaps WS should start some kind of course for new pros, explaining how to deal with the media, pressure, survival, investments, etc. A month long before the season starts. A condensed version of the YPOD course. Might avoid some future furores.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You always know when you double hit or push. It was a foul. But Allen's comments did go too far.

9:07 AM
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not when you miscue, are very close to the object ball with the cueball and the cueball jumps into the red before screwing back, right next to where your tip is.

the reaction of the white jumping and being airborn as it struck the red would make it react different and also youd already have a not normal feeling as you miscued.

if it hadnt been a miscue and the white jumping your statement would be true, but to say ALWAYS, is totally wrong.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Dave let's move on now.

7:35 AM

---------

Hi Mark.

no lets not move on.

Mignon said...

Nothing can be done about his IQ. Very little about his (trans)formative education. He comes through as stupid, aggressive and stubborn. No matter how much OnQ may want to see him as a possible world champion, they may soon discover he is also unmanageable. The good news is that given his IQ & his predictability, he can be kept under a certain control IF the OnQ people know which buttons to press.

Anonymous said...

I liked Allen until his comments on Stuart Bingham. MAYBE Bingham had had a mental block about going beyond a certain level, but Allen's comments were a malicious attack rather than an analysis.

If Allen thought there was a foul, he should have either said so at the time or kept his mouth shut afterwards.

Three cheers for Dave Gilbert for showing us that most players do know that good manners are still a part of the sport.

R.

Anonymous said...

Not sure what religion has got to do with it - I don't think Mark Allen is religious, though he is a 'cultural Protestant' He is not from Belfast - He is from Antrim, a smallish town about 20 miles from Belfast.

Despite what many are saying, he as a person is not stupid - he went to Antrim Grammar so has a modicum of intelligence in terms of schooling and qualifying to attend that school. THOUGH the comments of course can be regarded as daft, misguided and in the heat of the moment losing the way he did certainly there was emotiion attached. He has a point on the foul and should have left it there.

He does have a good family and he is outspoken and does say things in public which other players have discussed but are more diplomatic and he is now of an age where he needs to learn from this.

He is a player with a lot of flair and the crowd have warmed to him such as at the UK when he demonstrates flambuoyance. Perhaps something more than a fine is correct in this instance which both Mark Williams and Mark Allen have joked about on Twitter in the past. A short ban, with a longer suspended ban could be an option, and I say that as a fan as it may help him in the long run.

Anonymous said...

i say ban mark allen for all the china rankers next year....

and ban mjw for the worlds this year

Anonymous said...

The bottom line though is that Yupeng would have known he had fouled, and the situation with Wenbo was highly suspect too. I don't know enough about the Fu incident, but Allen seems to have highlighted a genuine aspect of gamesmanship with respect to these three players. The only problem with his remark that I can perceive was generalising it to all Chinese players which was unfair because there are many more that are forthcoming about fouls, but there is a danger of not seeing the forest for the trees here. Obviously the BBC goes mental at the mere whiff of racism on one of its stations and had Hazel fanning the flames every chance she got.

The controversy shouldn't be allowed to detract from the fact that recent cases have all involved Chinese players. Does that mean Chinese players are predisposed to cheating? Of course not, but there is certainly enough evidence that there is a disparity between the British and Chinese attitudes to owning up to fouls. China is much less tolerant of failure and defeat than Britian is, so the young Chinese players are under a very different set of pressures which may possibly be a factor. Ultimately, the rules don't require players to own up to fouls, and the concept of confessing a foul is actually unique to British snooker rather than British sport, so maybe it is the British players that are out of step with the modern day sporting mentality. It would be a shame to lose that facet of the sport, but as the game goes global these decisions are no longer exclusive to the domain of the UK game.

kildare cueman said...

I didn't intend to suggest that religion has any relevance 12.46.
Just that in the north theres always been that distinction between the two groups and he came from the same one as Higgins. Shouldn't really have put it in I suppose.

Anonymous said...

I still maintain you can clearly see the tip of the cue make contact with the white a second time after the white jumps backs.

Anonymous said...

"not when you miscue, are very close to the object ball with the cueball and the cueball jumps into the red before screwing back, right next to where your tip is."

None of those 3 condition apply to Cao imo.

1. I don't think it was a miscue. It *looks* like a miscue because it was a double hit imo. It is only when the white hits the cue tip a second time does it jump.

2. The cue ball and object ball are close, but not *that* close. I reckon you could fit another ball in between them.

3. The cue ball does not jump into the red. Look at the shot again. It only jumps after it hits the tip of the cue for a 2nd time (back to my first point).

Anonymous said...

1

you dont think it was a miscue?

you dont know what a miscue is then!

2

nobody said you couldnt fit another ball in between them.

3

i disagree

Anonymous said...

1. He didn't miscue.
2. He was not "very" close to the object ball.
3. The cue ball did not jump into the red - it did not leave the bed of the table between being struck and hitting the red.

Anon @ 2.23pm - I think that's a fair post.

jamie brannon said...

Was this is his words though? Or a carefully put together piece by his management team?

Anonymous said...

558 jamie, im fairly certain even you could work out the answer to that.

Anonymous said...

For a start, it was clearly written by a woman, Jamie, considering how feminine the wording is. So taking that into account, I would say it was not written by Allen unless he has a secret penchant for frocks and lippy.

Anonymous said...

254, some would argue allens more likely to wear that than the female who ( might have ;) ) wrote it.