Ronnie O’Sullivan has insisted he is no longer playing for ranking points or positions because he finds that some ranking events are “chaos” and “demotivating” to play in.

The five-times world champion blasted the venue of the English Open last month – calling the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley a “hellhole” and said the placed smelled of “urine”.

And speaking to ITV4 after beating John Higgins in the Group 4 final of this year’s Champion of Champions, O’Sullivan continued his heavy criticism of a number of ranking events.

He candidly stated some, in his opinion, don’t give him the motivation to play well unlike a number of invitational events and major ranking events in the calendar.

Hit criticism came after he was asked by TV presenter Jill Douglas why he was so successful when playing in this tournament at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

“Most tournaments are like a marathon with 128 players,” he responded.

“I can’t play too many marathons. Here (Coventry) there are a small number of players and you can see the finish line before the tournament has even started, so you get a little bit excited.

Ronnie O’Sullivan. Picture by Monique Limbos

“The 128 draws now, until I get into the last 16 I’m just turning up five minutes before my game because it is absolutely chaos there. Honestly it is just mental. At least when you come here you feel appreciated.

“But when you go to some of the other places, you get there and you feel you’re beaten before you start and you just think it is so demotivating.

“I just can’t bare it.”

He later added: “I’m not chasing ranking points anymore. I’m just going to play for my fans and try to be in good form when I do play and forget about the rankings and have a different perspective on it.”

O’Sullivan returns to action on Friday when he plays Shaun Murphy in the first champion of Champions semi-final.

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