England Membership Statement 2025
I write to you in relation to England Darts Organisation. This is a lengthy but important communication, on the future opportunities England Darts offers to all players senior & youth.
Historically within the BDO England were affiliated members of them, and when the BDO lost their sponsorship from Imperial Tobacco, they decided that England should take over responsibility of running the England International teams, but they continued to maintain a certain level of financial support towards the funding of the England International senior & youth teams at World Darts Federations Europe Cup Youth, Europe Cup and World Cups.
With the demise of the BDO, the County situation was assigned to the UK Darts.
Within their original proposals there was a mandate to continue a working relationship with the Countries, in essence to continue the original pyramid system, and maintain the opportunities to all the players.
We are now 4 years down the line from the BDO ceasing to trade, England has had to adapt their structure to try and maintain the original policies of why the BDO was formed in 1973.
Obviously to maintain these historical objectives there is cost implications.
Sadly some of the original England Counties decided that they no longer supported these historical objectives of protecting their players’ opportunities, and as a result chose to no longer support England Darts in their attempts to keep these opportunities open to all County members.
England Darts had to decide how to try and maintain these opportunities, and continue to protect the players whose county executives decided to withdraw from England which directly resulted in removing these players International opportunities.
The decisions England Darts made were in the hope that UK Darts and England could come to some sort of agreement in a working collaboration, which former UK Chairman Colin Savage was keen to accomplish.
England despite receiving no financial support from UK Darts (historically the BDO did assist) did however continue to incorporate within their International Selection criteria, a ruling that any players wishing to qualify through their county statistics to represent England had to complete a minimum of 6 county matches in the UK National League.
We are now 4 years down the line, and we are asking all counties to reconsider their original decisions and return as members of England, to protect their players’ opportunities.
Within our Criteria we are encouraging all players to commit to the UK Darts National League; within our criteria, it does give a continuing path from National League (County) to England International recognition, which maintains the pyramid.
I know we are all aware that the landscape of darts is changing, and this is having repercussions on the historical objectives of our darts system.
All counties have seen many of their players questioning whether they feel continuing to support the county darts system, is financially viable, when alternatively they can compete locally in events at local pubs with a chance of winning limited monies, with minimum travel costs, rather than the ongoing increasing costs of attending County Darts, with travel & hotel cost raising annually.
We feel that there is still a majority of players who in their ambitions regard playing for their Country (England) is important.
If this opportunity within the pyramid of our side of darts no longer exists, due to the removal of attaining International recognition through participation in National League, this ceases to be available to them, then some players “may” feel why bother with County Darts as that is as far as they can progress.
I think many counties will appreciate this is already happening, with many unable to maintain constant squads month in month out, as opposed to years ago where county teams changed minimally during the year.
When the counties loose the support of their best players, it inevitably diminishes the credibility of County Darts.
This has a knock on effect on counties being able to promote their home games to the paying public as a meaningful sporting product, reduced attendances equates to reduced income for the Venue and future sponsorship support, which historically was passed on to their players.
Together we can help each other to protect the future, for everyone’s benefit.
Counties who remain members of England, will have all their players statistics recorded monthly into the England County Rankings, these rankings are accessed by a great deal of players on and ongoing situation, proving they are still very important and relevant to their ambitions.
If a county decides to remain outside of England membership, we will continue to offer personal memberships.
However the deadline for this personal membership will also be 1st April 2025.
Only players whose counties or personally adhere to the 1st April deadline will have their statistics published, and only these players will be eligible for consideration into the England International teams on the selection process after the National Leagues 2025 December scheduled fixture.
I would respectfully ask that any counties not wishing to be associated as a member of England Darts make sure as a matter of courtesy that they make their players aware of their County situation, thus making their position quite clear to alleviate the situation where England Darts are constantly asked “is my county a member of England? Or I wasn’t aware our County wasn’t a member of England.
We are attempting to support the County system and maintain the pyramid of continuation towards supporting the player’s opportunities within our sport.
Membership of England is £250 and the Bank Details are as follows.
Bank Barclays
Account England Darts Organisation Limited
Account Number – 70219630
Sort Code – 20-10-03.
On Behalf of England Darts Organisation
Tommy Thompson
Chairman.
Corporate Partners
