Why is Van den Bergh missing the World Championship?
Because he chose not to play for a place. The Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad reported on Thursday that Van den Bergh had decided against entering either of the two qualifying events still open to him, and DartsNews, DartsKing, SPORT1 and t-online all carried the report the same day. None of them has a statement from the player, and the PDC has published nothing.
The first of the two is on Saturday. The World Championship qualifier for players from the Netherlands and Belgium takes place on 14 November, and Van den Bergh was offered a place in it on the strength of his ranking. He declined, and his name is absent from the entry list. The second is the Tour Card Holder Qualifier on Monday 30 November, restricted to card holders who have not already qualified. It is the last PDC-run way into a field that starts throwing on 11 December.
He had been clinging on through the autumn. He went out early in Den Bosch at the end of October, which left him dependent on exactly these events, and he has withdrawn from several tournaments since the summer. The decision not to enter converts a slim chance into none.
What happens to his Tour Card
A PDC Tour Card is a two-year licence to enter Players Championship and European Tour events, and the PDC treats the World Championship as the final event of the season. The Order of Merit is recalculated once Alexandra Palace finishes, and the top 64 on that list are offered a card for the next cycle. Our guide to the Tour Card sets out the four ways in and out.
Two things happen to Van den Bergh at that moment, and they pull the same way. He has no further ranking money to earn, because the World Championship was the only event left to him. At the same time his 2024 prize money — which includes the UK Open title that is still the largest single sum on his two-year total — drops off the list. He finishes outside the top 64 and the card goes.
Outlets differ on exactly where he lands once the sums are done, with projections running several places apart, so no figure appears here. The direction is not in dispute: every report published on Thursday has him outside the cut.
| Date | Event | His position |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 14 Nov 2026 | World Championship qualifier, Netherlands and Belgium | Place offered, declined |
| Mon 30 Nov 2026 | PDC Tour Card Holder Qualifier | Will not enter |
| Fri 11 Dec 2026 | World Championship begins, Alexandra Palace | Not in the field |
| After the Worlds | Year-end Order of Merit calculated | Expected to fall outside the top 64 |
| 4-10 Jan 2027 | PDC Qualifying School, Milton Keynes and Kalkar | Reported to be considering entry |
From world number five to Qualifying School
Van den Bergh reached fifth on the Order of Merit, spent several seasons inside the top 16 and was invited into the Premier League on that record. He is one of only a handful of players to have won the PDC World Youth Championship twice, and the only one to have retained it, beating Josh Payne in 2017 and Martin Schindler in 2018, both by 6-3.
The decline has been quick and it has not only been about darts. He pulled out mid-match at a ProTour event in April 2025 and took two months away from the sport, citing physical and mental health. He came back, reached a World Masters semi-final, and then stopped winning. December brought a first-round exit at the World Championship against Darren Beveridge, a debutant, who took it in straight sets. Het Nieuwsblad puts his last victory in any official match at the end of May.
| Year | Event | Stage | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | PDC World Youth Championship | Final | Josh Payne | Won 6-3 |
| 2018 | PDC World Youth Championship | Final | Martin Schindler | Won 6-3 |
| 2020 | World Matchplay | Final | Gary Anderson | Won 18-10 |
| 2021 | World Matchplay | Final | Peter Wright | Lost 9-18 |
| 2023 | World Championship | Semi-final | Michael van Gerwen | Lost 0-6 |
| 2024 | UK Open | Final | Luke Humphries | Won 11-10 |
Five matches in Milton Keynes
The 2020 World Matchplay remains the week that defined him, and it is worth looking at properly, because the scorelines say something the trophy photograph does not. He arrived unseeded and had never played the tournament. He left as the first debutant to win it since the inaugural staging in 1994, and the first unseeded finalist since James Wade in 2006. The whole event was played behind closed doors at the Marshall Arena during the pandemic, to an empty room.
Four of his five matches were close. He beat Nathan Aspinall, Joe Cullen, Adrian Lewis and Glen Durrant by margins of five, two, four and two legs, three of them seeded above him. Then he beat Gary Anderson 18-10, and the final was the most comfortable match of his week.
Source: Sporting Life and Sky Sports 2020 World Matchplay results. Rounds are identified by the leg target of each match, which rises from 10 in the first round to 18 in the final.
The UK Open four years later was tighter still. He led Luke Humphries 7-2, then missed six match darts and watched the reigning world champion get two of his own in the deciding leg, before taking it out on 64 for the 11-10 win and the £110,000 first prize. Minehead in March 2024 is the last major final he has played. Our explainer on the UK Open format covers the open draw that made that run possible.
What the way back looks like
Qualifying School, in January, is the fast route. The 2027 schools run from 4 to 10 January at Arena MK in Milton Keynes and Wunderland Kalkar in Germany, entry is £475 and the window shuts at 1400 GMT on 28 December, so a decision has to be made over Christmas. The full Q-School dates, venues and fees are set out separately. Het Nieuwsblad reports that he intends to enter; DartsKing says his entry has not been confirmed.
The slower route is the Challenge Tour, where the top two on the year-end Order of Merit who have not won a card another way take two-year cards. That is a full season of work for a player who has not won a match since the spring.
A two-time major champion going back to Qualifying School in January to play for his living alongside several hundred hopefuls is not unprecedented, but it is rare at this level, and it is a reminder of how little protection a ranking offers once the money behind it expires. The margins at the Ally Pally qualification cut were measured in hundreds of pounds this year. Van den Bergh had two chances left to stay on the right side of one, and used neither. The rest of the season is on the 2026 calendar.