Snooker star told 'don't come back' to World Championship returns to Crucible
Hossein Vafaei was told not to return to the Crucible last year.
Hossein Vafaei is set to compete at the World Snooker Championship, despite receiving a stark warning to steer clear of the Crucible last year. The Prince of Persia took aim at the venue after suffering a 10-5 first-round loss to Judd Trump.
After the match, Vafaei took aim at the venue, prompting former world champion Shaun Murphy to slam the criticism of his rival and insist that he should not return to the competition if he is that unhappy with competing at the Crucible. However, despite Murphy's message, Vafaei looks to have ignored the message as he is set to compete again this year and is set to face Barry Hawkins in the first round.
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Vafaei's appearance may rise eyebrows given the nature of his rant last year, where he said: "You want to go somewhere really nice as a player, as a media team. You walk around the Crucible and it smells really bad. As a player I'm honest, it's just really bad. Everything's so bad.
"You go to other venues in other countries and you see how nice they treat you. Everything is shiny. But here it's completely different. If you ask me do I want to come back here again, I tell you 'no way.' The practice room, do you see anything special? I feel like I'm practising in a garage."
Vafaei's tirade didn't sit well with some peers, prompting a response from Murphy. He replied: "Listen, this is a working theatre, it's not a purpose-built snooker venue. We're coming up on the 50th anniversary of snooker being here.
"If the World Snooker Tour turned up tomorrow to do a site visit, they probably wouldn't come here because it's not big enough. There's nothing we can do about that. But this is holy ground and it's almost sacrilege for a professional snooker player to be so openly critical about our home."
"Hossein should educate himself on how our tour works and the relationships with WST and our broadcast partners, our venues and how special these places are. Does he think he's helping the sport grow by being so openly critical of one of our business partners? He hasn't helped the sport at all and I was always taught by my mum, if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything."
Murphy concluded by saying: "He said he doesn't want to come back. Don't come back. He doesn't have to, he's not forced to come here. Don't come."
