Last year's finalist Joe Cullen reacted angrily to the nomination of the eight starters for the Darts Premier League and blamed the world association PDC.

“Shocked at my exit from the Premier League!

I don't think that's deserved at all, to be honest.

In fact, it's a kick in the balls," Cullen wrote on Twitter Monday night.

The 33-year-old Englishman had reached the final in the previous season and only just lost it in Berlin with 10:11 against the Dutchman Michael van Gerwen.

"I feel like I deserved another chance after being a millimeter from the title - it's been a tough day," Cullen lamented.

In addition to the four seeded starters - the top four players according to the world rankings - Gerwyn Price (Wales), Michael Smith (England), Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) and Peter Wright (Scotland), the two Englishmen Nathan Aspinall and Chris Dobey and the Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh and Welshman Jonny Clayton called up with wildcards.

Clayton is seventh in the world rankings, which are based on the prize money earned and are also known as the "Order of Merit".

Aspinall is ranked ninth as of January 23, van den Bergh eleven, but Dobey only 21. Cullen, on the other hand, is currently twelfth in the rankings.

Clemens takes it sporty

Fifth in the world rankings, Luke Humphries also regretted being knocked out for the tournament that started in Belfast this Thursday.

"I can't deny that I'm incredibly disappointed," wrote the Englishman.

The German World Cup semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens also didn't get the wildcard he had hoped for in the multi-million dollar Premiere League.

Clemens himself, however, had not expected an appointment for the Premier League and explained in a sportingly fair way, assured even before the nomination that other players would have deserved a starting place more than he did.

Most recently, the world number 19 lost.

at the Masters in Milton Keynes in the first round.

Clemens would have been the first German ever to belong to the permanent field of participants in the elite league.

In 2019, Max Hopp (Idstein) was allowed to play as a guest starter in Berlin for one matchday.

From Thursday onwards, the Premier League will play 16 matchdays in London for the final of the four best players.

On March 30th the PDC will also stop in the Mercedes-Benz-Arena in Berlin.

A total of one million pounds in prize money is being played, but this is not included in the world rankings.