Chris Dobey has suggested he could boycott certain ProTour events this season following a frustrating incident ahead of the opening Players Championship of 2026.
The first Players Championship event of the year is taking place in Hildesheim, Germany, with action getting underway on Monday. Several high-profile names are absent, including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Josh Rock, Stephen Bunting and Jonny Clayton, with their places taken by the five highest-ranked players from the PDC Challenge Tour.
Dobey did make the journey to Germany and began his campaign with a solid 6-3 victory over Tom Bissell in the opening round. However, the Northumberland thrower was unable to progress beyond the last 64, suffering a 6-4 defeat to Scotland’s Greg Ritchie.
With Players Championship events staged over two consecutive days, ‘Hollywood’ is still set to feature in Players Championship 2 on Tuesday before heading back home. But his frustration had already boiled over before he even stepped up to the oche.
After arriving in Hildesheim, Dobey took to social media to vent his anger after discovering that his luggage — including his darts — had failed to arrive.
“First flight of the year done and same result no f***ing luggage,” Dobey wrote on X.
“There’s a reason I didn’t bother doing any of these last year. Probs be my last this year. @KLM shambles again!”
The post quickly drew attention within the darts community, with travel logistics once again becoming a talking point around ProTour events held outside the UK.
A number of players have previously questioned the decision to stage Players Championship tournaments in Germany, pointing to the cost, inconvenience and lack of spectators. Jonny Clayton said back in November: “I don’t think we should have them there,” while Joe Cullen posted in 2024: “Germany is a huge market and an amazing place to play darts (with a crowd). I can’t see the value in having ProTours there as there’s no ticket sales?!”
While the majority of the PDC’s 128 tour card holders are either English or based in England, the number of continental European players continues to grow steadily, which has helped justify the expansion of events across mainland Europe.
Germany remains one of the sport’s fastest-growing markets, and 15 German players entered Players Championship 1, including world number 15 Martin Schindler. However, it was a nightmare start to the season for Schindler, who averaged just 65 in a 6-0 whitewash defeat to Maik Kuivenhoven in round one.
There was better news for Lukas Wenig, Gabriel Clemens and Max Hopp, all of whom progressed through to the third round on home soil.
The Netherlands are also well represented in Hildesheim, with 19 Dutch players in the field, including Michael van Gerwen, Gian van Veen and Raymond van Barneveld.
For Dobey, though, the off-oche frustrations may once again overshadow the darts, with his comments raising fresh questions about whether top players will continue to commit fully to ProTour events held overseas.
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