'They have to manage their schedule' - PDC boss Matt Porter responds to Michael van Gerwen pulling out of World Cup of Darts again

Michael van Gerwen announced last month that he once again, will be skipping the World Cup of Darts in 2025. It marks the third time in four years that the Dutch number one has pulled out of the yearly international battle.

“I won’t be part of the team this year – I’m on holiday,” Van Gerwen said in an exclusive interview with DartsNews.de from the recent German Darts Grand Prix, even going so far as to not totally rule out never playing in the event again. “Maybe it’s an option in the future – but you never know what might happen. Maybe I’ll never play in the World Cup of Darts again.”

In conversation with Online Darts, PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter has reacted to the somewhat expected news. "Yeah, I mean, Michael has been on and off with the World Cup hasn't he over the years," Porter admits. "It's not a ranking tournament, so I don't get detailed with him about the reasons why he doesn't want to play. And he makes his decision quite early."

Porter also understands that, with the ever-busier calendar of the top pros, skipping events is becoming more and more of a necessity. "They have to manage their schedule you know," he explains. "The good thing about our tournaments is that they are strong enough to survive the absence of players. Players have missed tournaments before and they'll miss tournaments again, but fans will still turn up and enjoy the tournaments, or watch them on TV in the same way that they will do with another event in another sport that doesn't have their favourite player in."

"Once you've got a certain standard and expectation level for the event, then they're strong enough to survive the absence of one or two players," Porter concludes firmly.

Notably, in Van Gerwen's absence, the fight for the Dutch national team is now looking like a three-way battle between Danny Noppert, Gian van Veen and Dirk van Duijvenbode. With only two spots on offer though, one player will end up disappointed.