Van Barneveld holds on to World Championship place for now
The 59-year-old darter is exactly on the borderline for an automatic World Championship place.
.jpg){kind=link}
Raymond van Barneveld is currently 40th in the PDC Order of Merit. The five-time world champion therefore occupies the final place that grants direct entry to the forthcoming World Championship.
The position is still provisional. According to the current ranking published on 8 October, Van Barneveld is 40th with £202,250 in prize money. The darter therefore has a place in hand, but no definitive certainty yet: the ranking can change in the coming weeks.
World Championship qualification operates through several routes. The top 40 players in the world ranking qualify directly. There is also a separate ProTour route, through which players move up when higher-ranked darters have already qualified via the overall ranking. In that ProTour table, adjusted for the World Championship, Van Barneveld is also provisionally 40th.
The definitive cut-off will not be set until after the Players Championship Finals, which will be played from 27 to 29 November. Several ranking tournaments are still scheduled before then. This weekend Van Barneveld will play the Swiss Darts Trophy, followed by the Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht and several Players Championship tournaments.
The Hague native therefore still has chances to move clear of the cut-off, but rivals can also overtake him. At this stage, one deep run in a tournament can significantly change the order around 40th place. An early exit is not automatically fatal, but it reduces the margin for error.
Van Barneveld showed in September that a strong result is still possible. At Players Championship 30 in Den Bosch, he reached the quarter-finals. There, he lost 6-4 to Niels Zonneveld. The results also show why his World Championship position remains vulnerable: he still produces standout performances, but is not consistently high in the overall ProTour ranking.
For Van Barneveld, qualification would mean another return to Alexandra Palace. He has won five world titles: four with the BDO and one with the PDC. His age and long career make the qualification battle noteworthy, but they do not determine the ranking; only prize money and the official qualification rules count.
The coming weeks are therefore not about a definitive farewell or certain World Championship participation. Friday evening's standings mainly give Van Barneveld renewed hope of appearing on the stage, while the final decision will not come until the end of November.
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The article's core is based on a current ranking publication and official or directly player-related sources. The uncertainty surrounding qualification is correctly presented as provisional.
- confirmed On 8 October, Raymond van Barneveld was provisionally 40th in the PDC Order of Merit with £202,250. — Mentioned in the current qualification analysis. source
- confirmed The World Championship qualification cut-off will not be finalised until after the Players Championship Finals from 27 to 29 November. — The qualification calendar and definitive cut-off are stated in the source. source
- confirmed In September, Van Barneveld reached the quarter-finals of Players Championship 30 in Den Bosch. — Mentioned on his official website and in the results register. source
- confirmed Van Barneveld is 59 years old and has won five world titles. — His age is listed by Mastercaller; the five world titles are listed on his official website. source
Editor's note
The provisional ranking position, the remaining qualification calendar and the result in Den Bosch are certain. The live standings can change during new tournaments; Van Barneveld has not yet qualified definitively.Sources
- Doet Raymond van Barneveld dit jaar nog mee aan het WK Darts? — Squawka
- Raymond van Barneveld - Five Times World Champion — Raymond van Barneveld
- Raymond van Barneveld — Mastercaller
- European Tour — Professional Darts Corporation
More on this in Dutch media
- de Volkskrant — „darten raymond van barneveld”
- RTL Nieuws — „darten raymond van barneveld”
- NOS — „darten raymond van barneveld”