You think showing a dismissive attitude towards the referee is sportsmanship?

This is being called the greatest sportsmanship gesture but all I see and hear is a curt O’sullivan being extremely rude to the ref, unpleasant character.

HUGE difference if you compare this coverage to bbc . Neil Robertson commentating on the bbc was insightful and talked about the ‘ unbelievable sportsmanship’ . But he and Parrott kept talking so you never hear much of what Ronnie and the ref said . With Eurosport the commentators stopped talking , realising that the viewers would actually want to hear what was being said, rather than the sound of the commentators voices .

It’s a personality he needs!

calm down on "the greatest bit of sportsmanship ever"

The look the ref gives Ronnie @ 2:56 😂

The greatest act of sportsmanship, and then Ronnie doesn’t bother to shake the refs hand at the end of the session. Just leaves a sour taste in the mouth for me.

Looked at it again... He is trying to BULLY her.

He was arguing for 10 minutes the black wasn't on the spot. The refree said if it sits on the spot, it is on the spot. His break then came to an end.

SO GLAD TO SEE THE BACK OF THE MOST CONCEITED COUNT IN SPORT.HOPE HE NEVER RETURNS TO THE SPORT...PPP

This was not sportsmanship, Ronnie was trying to gain an advantage. His attitude to the referee left a lot to be desired. He is undoubtedly the GOAT. But his behaviour can be tiresome.Well played Stuart Bingham

Misleading title!

She is one of the best referees the sport has she is patient and very professional

Ronnie has an agenda to discredit the organisation of this event! Pure and simple

Article in the Guardian brought me here. The writer of the article declared this the greatest piece of sportsmanship ever. Apparently O'Sullivan kept making her re-spot the black to make it "more difficult for him". Complete nonsense. He kept asking her to make it EASIER for him.

Ronnie could break a cue over opponents head and they would call it fair play.

This guy gets more of a diva in every match he plays, and that had nothing to do with sportsmanship

he made a 147 break in less time

He played the safety because he realised it didn't pot. Nothing to do with sportsmanship.

Well done to Stuart Bingham on not getting drawn into Ronnie's silly little game playing.

He can really be a knob at times.

Ronnie could clearly be heard telling the referee the red now goes, and she said I know but the black is now on the spot. He also tells her he’s not going for it and she says “it’s your choice” Were the Eurosport commentators wearing earmuffs? How could they not grasp through all that the possibility the red actually could be potted and he didn’t want to take advantage of the situation - whether it did or not is neither here nor there - the only people that had the correct view were Ronnie and the referee, as the camera never panned round enough with the pocket in view.

Lack of sportsmanship in fact. Made a big deal because he wanted to play that ball

Breaking news: Ronnie O'Sullivan plays a safety off a red he couldn't pot.

O'Sullivan's a complete Div

Surely the indentation is caused by having the black respotted so many times before. When the referee places the ball, it rolls in to the right position, not out of it. Just because a player can't play the shot that they want doesn't mean that a ball was respotted incorrectly.

If only Ronnie had an ounce of Ray Readon`s sportsmanship.

3:41: Clearest view...that does not quite pot without bending the cue ball slightly. Ronnie was clearly trying to figure if he could bend it comfortably with so little room to play with and decided against risking it. He of course wanted to make sure Stuart saw for himself the difference, but it still didn't quite pot so he played safe. Not sure why so many people think that went without bending with a bit of side, and you need enough clearance from the black here to comfortably bend the cue ball, which he didn't have so wasn't comfortably in risking.

You must have uploaded the wrong clip

This undoubtedly worked against him and if i watched this a million times I will still not understand what Ronnie is trying to do. Sometimes proving a point is absolutely worthless and can work against you, this is one of those moments, the referee did a perfectly good job.

The way I viewed this is that Ronnie was trying to get an advantage, because the red didn't go in the first place. The red only MAYBE went at the very end then he decided to play safe anyway. Makes no sense at all. The black kept rocking back and blocking it even more. It was only when the black stopped rocking that it looked as if it went. I literally can't get my head around his frustration with the ref if he just wanted to play safe anyway.

That was a load of bullshit

Unbelievable sportsmanship, where!

Its just Ronnie being Ronnie, spoils the game for me

What bloody sportsmanship!! He wanted the black spotted so the red would go. Try playing better position in the first place.

The ref needed to assert her authority but didn’t. Also, the red wasn’t on, period.

Kudos to both

Em, why's he asking for the black to be repotted when he's a on a red? That's an act of arsemanship, not sportsmanship. Play the balls as they lie.

Oh, is that it? The BBC Sport feed made it sound like cured world hunger while giving Cliff Thornburn CPR or something

The referee should be firmer. Respot the black once, if you don't like it, tough.

Eurosport commentators defo didn’t get the point but surely if the black keeps falling into the indentation then it’s in the correct spot as the indentation was left with the black being in that exact position over and over?

No what people are failing to understand is when she first put the black on the spot it rolled slightly and the red wasn't pottable. Ronnie asked her to take it off and put it back on again and was then able to see the red now goes. he knows it wasn't an ideal situation and decided not to pot the red because it could of been argued that one minute he can pot the red and next minute he cant due to the ref placing the black and it rolling. he was quite right to bring that up but only certain people will understand this him being one of them

No 1. It was not on.. No 2. Ronnie and his ego says I know it's my choice. No 3. Ronnie says it's on , when it's not to massage his ego No 4. Nothing to do with sportsmanship.. and everything to do with his ego and complaining

Every other time the black was respotted during that match it would have set into the small divot in the cloth. Thats how a cloth wears......so why question it over and over......no need ron you know better than anyone how a cloth wears

That was Ronnie moaning as usual

Ronnie being an absolute knob more like

I love the space mans commentary, he's so interesting as a person a proper gentleman.

Whow, the coverage on Eurosport is so much better than the BBC, the camera angles and mic getting all the conversations between player and ref. I never knew.

Delighted Ronnie lost. His arrogance is off the scale now.

Great sportsmanship by Ronnie.

I love when the clickbait comes together. Fire.

As always Ronnie acting like a kid

Get on with it. If the ref is satisfied it’s on the spot it’s play on.

Alex Higgins would have cleared the table by this time...best player of All time and most exciting

O’Sullivan crying yet again ….

From that camera angle it looks like he could probably hit the red full in the face. Don’t think he was ever cutting that back into the pocket

For those that don’t understand what happened here - When Ronnie came to the table the black ball was resting in a Divot ever so slightly ‘off’ its official spot Ronnie then asked the ref to check the black and then when the ball was put on the spot proper, it meant that the Red was on to left corner (a different scenario to how Stuart left the table) When Ronnie played the shot, the red ball was 100% on ( it wasn’t when he first approached the table) and Ronnie chose purposely not to play the pot… subsequently losing the frame

Ronnie often ends up being petty when he knows he's going to lose.

JOKE OF THE CENTURY !!!! 🤣Ronnie and sportmanship ?!! NO, he's a great player but in terms of manner he's one of the worst !!

The commentator is clueless.

If ronnie shit his pants and ate it the crucible crowd would applaud

The two commentators didn't understand what they were watching

I dont think the red goes anyway without high risk of missing

The red is NEVER EVER on

Am I the only one thinking he actually wasn’t on the red anyway? 🤔😂

Did Ronnie end up winning that frame?

Ronnie plays a bad positional shot then blames the ref lol 😂

Imagine if other player was doing the same thing...

Why did he ask for it to be respotted to make it pottable just to refuse the pot when it allegedly was potable? Attention seeking.

Well done ref

Knob!

The red clearly potted. In the end there. Stevie wonder could see that. But that wasn't the setup when Bingham left the table so Ronnie refused to pot the red its called sportsmanship and the ref is incompetent

All those attacking the title of this vid & also Ronnie, have got things very wrong indeed. What happened was this..... Ronnie could've actually potted the red here, but he'd noticed that if the black was placed 100% correctly, the red wouldn't be on. He didn't want to take advantage of this & so decided to play a safety shot instead. Neil Robertson actually said, “If he plays safe here this will be probably the greatest bit of sportsmanship I have ever seen in any sport.” Maybe get your facts straight b4 having a go at people...?

Snooker needs to bring in some basic tech to sort out this re spotting of a ball. Ipads with remind on the `spot ` to show both players and get on with the game. £99 in Curry`s!

Commentators have no idea what is going on

Thought he could make Desi look bad and still win, got what he deserved, fair play to Stuart Bingham, delighted he beat the unsporting moaner

Oh do shut up your all jealous Ronnie is the greatest player to ever pick a cue up and in my opinion it was great sportsmanship

She IS lovely tho

Sportsmanship ? Behave he was trying to cheat. He's a brat. The commentators are bias towards ronnie...!!

Пол дня собирался ударить и по факту удар был таким (единственным), как бы не стоял черный ( +-мм) он просто оттягивал свой проигрыш

bollocks. The tendency is for the ball to roll towards the centre of the divet, if anything the ball was always respotted too low or possibly the ball was always on the right place until the ref flatten it out.

The opposite of sportsmanship. I’m a fan of Ronnie but he was definitely trying to intimidate the ref and gain an advantage.

clickbait at its finest

If ronnie takes a crap on the table, the commentators would praise ronnie for taking the best looking piece of crap ever.

Fantasma O'Sullivan. Ha ha ha ha ha, per xuleria i no saber perdre, au cap a casa mal perdedor.

In what other sport do the players change the refs mind? Get on with it Ronnie. I hate it when he's like that.

I think the ref is behaving a little above her station

Respect Ronnie as a player but not as a person this wasn't Sportsmanship it was bullying the referee was 100% right not the first time Ronnie has acted this way with referees

People are completing getting the wrong end of the stick with this.... The black was placed on the spot, but as there's an indent (due to the number of times the back has been put on the spot), it rocked back. Ronnie saw this and asked the referee if she could respot it. When she did, she also saw that it rocked. It's the referees job to ensure it doesn't, hence why she tried flattening it with her finger, and tool. Ronnie was NOT being a dick in any way. As it kept happening, he even asked if Bingham wanted to come and check and he wanted him to see exactly what was going on. After repeated attempts, Desi said she spotted it fine and all was okay. But as Ronnie could then see the red "too easily" to pot, he felt he was getting an unfair advantage e.g. he still wasn't 100% sure it was on its spot. As Neil Robertson said...Ronnie is playing safe even though he could pot the red. It's a truly magnificent piece of sportsmanship.

Clickbait

I'll tell you what it was, one of the most bizarre pieces of overblown commentary from Robertson, and poor camerawork as the angle they kept showing from behind the pocket was not the potting angle, and a move to the left would have clearly shown what any snooker player knows, that he never had a potting angle and was too close to the black to use side without significant risk.

This is silliness. As was the exchange with the ref about the open door, and his miscalculation when he wellied that yellow. This was not a happy Ronnie. He wasn't in the right frame of mind at all. Stuart didn't beat Ronnie. Ronnie beat Ronnie.

and haters gonna hate.

Wtf the ball doesn't go Ronnie just get on with it.

Stuart Bingham should not have just sat there he could of move the game along if he just had a look satisfying ronnie and giving the referee some backing

what kind of title is that lol it wasn’t on

Certaines personnes parlent d'esprit sportif. Ça fait bien rire. Rien à voir avec l'esprit sportif, c'est le Championnat du monde, pas le billard club de votre village. L'arbitre se doit d'être de qualité

Don’t understand,so what what was the point in going through all that if he refuses to pot it

Ronnie has spent too long in Saudi Arabia and it shows with his repeated disrespect of this female referee.

To be honest the ‘ amazing sportsmanship ‘ was not mentioned by Dale or Yates. This all comes from Neil Robertson on bbc The real q is was Ronnie annoyed at being adament the red could pot then after realising he couldn’t , played safe Or did it pot and Ronnie decided to display amazing sportsmanship . Ronnie is known to not snookering an opponent if he gets a lucky fluke .