World Championship should move from 'SMELLY' Crucible, insists snooker star - as he claims the practice room is 'like a garage' and 'no one looks after the players'

Snooker star Hossein Vafaei has slammed the Crucible and called for the World Snooker Championship to be moved.

The Crucible in Sheffield is an iconic British sporting venue, hosting the sport's most prestigious and long-running tournament since 1977.

However, there have been increasing calls for a new location for the showpiece event in recent years, with seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan among those, suggesting it could move to China or Saudi Arabia in the future.

And Vafaei, who is the first professional snooker player from Iran, joined that side of the argument and hit out at the venue.

'Everything's so bad,' Vafaei fumed after his 10-5 first round defeat by Judd Trump on Sunday. 'If you ask me if I want to come back here, I would tell you no way. 

'Forget the history, you want to go somewhere really nice as a player.

'You walk round the Crucible and it smells really bad. You go to other countries, and everything is shiny. But here it's completely different. 

'The practice room - do you see anything special? I feel like I'm practising in a garage.'

Vafaei seemingly went onto echo O'Sullivan's calls for a relocation to Asia as he pointed to the more pleasant experience players have when they compete abroad.

He added: 'Look at the China venues, how fantastic they treat the players, a red carpet and an opening ceremony. 

'The players are treated like stars. But here no one looks after the players, before and after the match no one cares who you are. 

'If they don't want to lose the Crucible invest some money, make it shinier, make it nicer, make it more luxury for the people. 

'If they make it cleaner and nicer, people will enjoy it.'

However, the World Snooker Tour defended the Crucible in response as they said: 'The Crucible is a historic venue and there are limitations given the size of the backstage areas. 

'We work with the Crucible to make it as welcoming as possible for players.'

The World Snooker Championship continues this week, with O'Sullivan beginning his campaign against Jackson Page on Wednesday afternoon, while the tournament runs until May 6.