In addition to the European Football Championship, another international title fight will take place in Germany this weekend. The “World Cup of Darts”, the team world championship of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), will be played in Frankfurt from Thursday to Sunday. Austria will again be taking part in the line-up of Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez.
Both are looking for a taste of success after a dry spell. And they have achieved this: the duo, seeded tenth, beat China 4-0 in the preliminary round group F. Their next opponent is the team from Guyana on Friday. This means that their chances of reaching the round of 16 are intact.
Top stars and legends
The group winners advance to the round of 16, where they are drawn against the four top-seeded nations: England, Wales, the Netherlands and Scotland. England will be competing with world champion Luke Humphries and Michael “Bullyboy” Smith. Vice world champion and darts prodigy Luke Littler is missing because only the two top-ranked players from each country in the PDC rankings are nominated.
Defending champions Wales will be represented by Jonny Clayton, who will play with Jim Williams because Gerwyn Price had to withdraw due to illness. The Netherlands will be represented for the first time in three years by Michael van Gerwen, who will be partnered by Danny Noppert. Scotland will be sending out veterans and crowd favourites Gary Anderson and Peter Wright.
The duos from Northern Ireland (Josh Rock, Brendan Dolan), Australia (Damon Heta, Simon Whitlock) and the feuding Belgian pairing Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts could also have a good chance of winning the 80,000 Euro prize. Also taking part is 70-year-old darts legend Paul “The Singapore Slinger” Lim, who will be competing for the Asian city-state together with Harith Lim. The winning duo will receive 80,000 Euro in Frankfurt.
