Ronnie O’Sullivan in sensational snooker QUIT threat over row with chiefs’ China plans

Snooker’s box-office attraction Ronnie O’Sullivan has sensationally revealed he may be forced to QUIT the sport due to a bitter ongoing spat with authorities.

The world No.1 landed himself in hot water when he slammed World Snooker Tour (WST) for threatening the ‘Macau 5’ with punishment after they snubbed last month’s Northern Ireland Open for a lucrative exhibition, since moved to December, in China.

Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan, 47, has regularly travelled to the Far East for big-money exhibitions and official WST tournaments this season. And the Rocket, currently embroiled in disciplinary proceedings with the WPBSA for his comments, admitted: “I know that they’re going to throw the book at me. I can’t speak out. I’ve accepted that. So that’s the situation that I’m in. I’m under disciplinary. I have no option now. If I can’t go out and do what I need to do - which is play a lot in China - then I won’t ever play again.

“We are at a sort of crossroads now. There’s not enough here for me in the UK to justify the effort that I put in.” O’Sullivan won last year’s Hong Kong Masters in front of a crowd of 9,500 people and scooped the £210,000 winners’ check at the Shanghai Masters earlier this term.

“When I go to China I play in great venues, great crowds, great prize money. And I love it,” added O’Sullivan. I’m an individual and I have to go where is best for me. I don’t get appreciated on the snooker circuit. None of the top players do in my opinion. I’d love to be able to keep playing snooker for the next five, six, seven, eight years.

“If that gets to the point where I’m not able to do that or I’m not allowed to do that, then I probably won’t play. I’ll probably go and play Chinese 8 ball (pool) because I still