Luke Littler has been accused of being 'out of order' for his conduct during a Premier League Darts quarter-final game against Gian van Veen.
Last night (2 April), Littler was defeated by the Dutchman after a tense end to the game at the AO Arena in Manchester, with both players missing crucial match darts.
And it's here that the 19-year-old darts prodigy found himself facing the heat for his behaviour.
After missing a game-winning double 15, van Veen turned around to see Littler celebrating his miss with the crowd, something which did not go down well with the 23-year-old.
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Littler could then be seen gesturing again behind van Veen before turning and motioning to the audience again. He then steps up to the board and misses throwing a double seven, allowing van Veen to win the game – but not before making another gesture, this time fake crying.
Van Veen's win has since been overshadowed by Littler's conduct during the final moments, with the PDC World Champion facing some criticism from viewers on social media.
"I cannot believe I ever liked this man," wrote one person on X, while a second penned: "Great what he’s done for the sport, but his attitude has been so poor."
Meanwhile, others praised van Veen for not reacting to Littler's actions, with a third person writing: "Fair f**ks to Van Veen because if everyone was against me that much and I won I’d be doing cartwheels on the stage."
Van Veen has since addressed the incident in a post-match interview, telling Sky Sports that Littler was 'out of order' for his actions.
"I'm on 90, I miss double 15 on the inside, and then I see him celebrating towards the crowd. I don't think that's normal," he said. "And then he also makes that crying gesture."
Van Veen continued: "He was celebrating me missing double 15. That's out of order. I was fuming about that, and he missed three darts at double seven.
"Then he looked at me like I was the problem. He is probably fuming."
Van Veen went on to praise Littler's work in bringing international attention to darts, but added that he didn't think the teenager was a good loser.
"He's a fantastic darts player, but today he showed he's not a good loser. Celebrating a miss from your opponent, that really annoys me," he said.
Littler appears to have doubled down on his behaviour, responding to van Veen's statement on Instagram by sharing a series of crying laughing emojis on his story.
He also shared another post of his Wikipedia page, showing all the PDC titles he's bagged over the past two years.
Meanwhile, Welsh darts player Gerwyn Price has since defended Littler, acknowledging that emotions often run high during games.
"I've been in that situation, it's part and parcel. In darts, emotions are high, it's a rollercoaster, and people get hyped up," he said (via The Express).
"Do you not want to win that much? You'll probably regret some of the things you do, or the reactions you have, then you think about it tomorrow."
Price continued: "But if you're not up for it in the game, sometimes it happens. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I've been there, the backlash of it, Luke will probably have it, but in a couple of weeks, it'll be gone."
Van Veen went on to beat Josh Rock 6-3 in the semi-finals but failed to take home the victory after losing 6-2 to Price in the final.
Topics: Sport, Luke Littler, UK News
Brenna Cooper