Snooker hero Ronnie O'Sullivan onceslammed the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award for being a "popularity contest". The 50-year-old also previously claimed that the profile of his sport wasn't high enough for him to ever be given the award.

O'Sullivan has been nominated twice for the award, with this year's ceremony set to take place on Thursday, but he has finished outside the top three in both 2020 and 2022.

He is often hailed as snooker's greatest-ever player, having an all-time record total of 23 Triple Crown titles, seven world crowns, eight Masters and eight victories at the UK Championship.

O'Sullivan has not had a vintage 2025 by his standards, and he probably wouldn't expect a nomination this time around. He was knocked out of the UK Championship and suffered a crushing 17-7 defeat to Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals of the World Championship.

While he has shown flutters of his undeniable genius this year, O'Sullivan last won a title at the 2024 Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker. However, back in 2023, O'Sullivan won the UK Championship and reached the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship, but was not nominated for the award.

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Years prior he had blamed his sport's lack of coverage on the BBC as the main reason for his failure to ever win the award. Stuart Broad, Frankie Dettori, Mary Earps, Alfie Hewett, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Rory McIlroy all made the shortlist ahead of 'the rocket'.

"You’re competing with Formula One, tennis, golf and the Olympics," he said in 2016. "They give it like 10 seconds on BBC Sports Personality - it’s a complete insult to the sport. But it’s what they think of it and what they believe it warrants, and that says it all really.

"Snooker is becoming a nothing-type sport – it’s a bit like a garage sale, but with other sports it’s like shopping at Harrods. They’re playing so much of it, it’s cheap TV. I think snooker has lost that respect among other sports – the Olympics are such a massive thing now as are sports like golf and tennis."

He has also hinted that it is not an award he actually wants to win. Back in 2020, he said: "I won’t ever get that one. I don’t know why. I don’t think I’ll be in the hunt. I don’t think so. It’s not one I want to win. I’m not bothered about awards, trophies or accolades."

"It would be nice [to win SPOTY] but obviously I understand that there are other sportspeople out there that maybe come ahead of me in the popularity stakes. It’s probably more of a popularity contest and what type of sport you play," he told Eurosport Seventh Heaven Show.

"If I was a golfer or a tennis player, I would probably have won it seven or eight times. 10 times! But I’m not, I’m a snooker player, so it probably doesn’t get the recognition as other sports do.

"If it was taken on your achievements for what you do in the sport, I would have probably won it a few times by now. So to not even get in the reckoning, I sometimes question what is the BBC Sports Personality? What does it stand for?

"If I can’t win it at least three or four times with the career I’ve had, then it probably doesn’t matter what I do. I could probably win every tournament, not lose a match, make 12 maximums and they would still find a reason to not give it to me.

"I kind of think what’s the point of entering a race that you can’t win? So I don’t pay too much attention to it because I can’t think of any British sportsman that has dominated their sport, been as successful at their sport as I have.

"I’m trying to figure out why I don’t fit in. It’s OK, it is what it is. I don’t feel any less of a player or a sportsman because of it."

This year's Sports Personality will take place on Thursday, December 18. England footballers Hannah Hampton and Chloe Kelly, rugby star Ellie Kildunne, darts icon Luke Littler, golfing hero Rory McIlroy and the 2025 F1 champion Lando Norris are all in contention.