New-look Premier League: Collier's verdict

The restructure of next season's Premier League has been largely been greeted with the thumbs up.

It's fair to say not everyone was happy with the format of the tournament last season but a switch back to a more league-based set-up seems to be going down well so far.

When the tournament cues off for its 27th campaign in August, there will be 10 players split into two groups of five.

Each player will compete in four matches over a best-of-six-frame format. After all the matches have been played the top two in each group will progress to the semi-final knockout stages.

That's it in a nutshell but for more on the changes, click here.

OnCue asked Premier League referee Paul Collier his thoughts on the revamp.

Here's what he had to say...

I think there's a tendency when change happens to wrongly assume something has been a failure in the past; but it's not always the case.

Although the tournament wasn't universally popular last season, the number of full-house crowds and exciting matches we had showed the event was a success again.

The big problem was that it didn't follow what people consider a traditional league format.

I'm always quite positive about change because I think it shows you are trying to make something better.

Personally, I'm quite pleased to see the back of the Shoot Out style deciding frames. I think it made the matches difficult to follow.

Last year's event was designed on the basis that fans want to see a result when they come to watch snooker. There may be an element of truth in that but I think the fact there can be matches drawn in the Premier League makes it a little bit different.

I'm sure there will be some more new venues to visit at next season's tournament too, and I welcome that wholeheartedly. It's great for us to take the snooker roadshow around the country and you can't really lose. If one venue turns out to be a failure, it's not the end of the world because you know we'll be somewhere else the following week.

I've also heard a rumour the finals weekend may be held in Grimsby, so watch out for that.

Thanks for reading.