Gary Anderson calls for darts chiefs to make major rule change that could have big impact on World Championship

Gary Anderson has called on PDC darts chiefs to implement a major rule change which could affect the World Championship.

The Scotsman, who is now 53, will once again qualifying for the biggest tournament of the season through his ranking position.

He is currently ranked 19th on the Order of Merit, which is used to determine automatic qualification spots.

Anderson, a two-time world champion, has also qualified for next month's Grand Slam of Darts through his ranking points collected on the European Tour.

Currently, points earned on the European Tour counts towards the ProTour Order of Merit, from which the top 32 will qualify for the World Championship.

Part of the reason why Anderson is ranked so low in the main Order of Merit is because he has not regularly competed on the European Tour in recent years.

That has changed this year, with the Scotsman winning an event.

He reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship on Saturday after defeating Michael van Gerwen in Dortmund, before losing to the in-form Ritchie Edhouse.

Now, Anderson has called for European Tour points to be earned separately from other tours in order to stop players who do not compete in them from slipping down the rankings.

He explained: "Ever since they started putting the European money on the overall merit [in 2016], the main ranking, it's hard.

"You know, I've not done Europeans for eight years. And you've got to remember, I stayed in the top 10 for about six of the eight years [while] missing all the Europeans. So [the way] I look at it, I've done well to do that.

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"The Europeans, the money goes on to your overall rankings. And then the only way you can play in the [European Tour] finals is to play in the Europeans.

"But I don't think it should go on to the overall rankings. I think that's a no-no."

Should the rules be changed by the PDC, it would affect players differently.

Those who do not play in the European Tour events, or are unable to qualify, would have a higher chance of qualifying for the World Championship by recording strong results in other events.

For instance, the leader of the European Tour standings for this season is Germany's Martin Schindler, who is positioned in 23rd in the overall Order of Merit and is set to comfortably qualify for the World Championship.

Should those points be taken away, Schindler would drop several positions, with the likes of Raymond van Barneveld and Gabriel Clemens - who have both had less success in the European Tour - going ahead of him.