Explainer | Which snooker players were banned for match fixing, for how long, and what did they do?
- 10 Chinese players have been banned for varying lengths of time for a combination of match-fixing and betting offences
- Their punishments have rocked the sport, in the latest of several cases in which snooker authorities detected match-fixing and dealt out heavy bans
There were precedents of bans of several years being imposed by governing body the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) for the charge of fixing.
Suspensions of months rather than years have been the norm for lesser offences such as failing to report an attempt to fix matches.
How long are Chinese players banned for?
Liang Wenbo has been given a lifetime ban from snooker after he was found to have fixed, or been a party to fix, five matches, and solicited, induced, enticed, persuaded, encouraged or facilitated players to fix nine matches, all in 2022.
He also bet on matches; tried to cover up his involvement by deleting messages on his mobile phone when aware of the WPBSA inquiry; threatened a player and made him delete phone messages; threatened another player to seek to persuade him not to assist the WPBSA inquiry; and failed to cooperate with the WPBSA inquiry.
Li Hang received a lifetime ban from snooker. It was found that he fixed or was a party to fix five matches; solicited, induced, enticed, persuaded, encouraged or facilitated players to fix seven matches, also last year; bet on matches; tried to cover up his involvement by deleting phone messages and asking other players to do the same.
Lu Ning was given a suspension of eight years, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to five years and four months. He accepted that he fixed three matches in 2014-15 and one match in 2022; bet on matches; and tried to cover up his involvement by deleting phone messages.
Yan Bingtao was given a suspension of seven years and six months, reduced following early admissions and guilty plea to five years. He accepted that he fixed one match in 2016 and three in 2022; and bet on matches.
Zhao Xintong has been handed a suspension of two years and six months, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to one year and eight months. He accepted that he was a party to another player fixing two snooker matches in 2022; and bet on matches.
Zhao Jianbo was suspended for three years and six months, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to two years and four months. He accepted that he fixed a match in 2022; and bet on the match he fixed.
Chang Bingyu has been given a suspension of three years, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to two years. He accepted that he fixed a match in 2022.
Bai Langning received a ban of four years, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to two years and eight months. He accepted that he fixed a match in 2022.
Chen Zifan was given a suspension of seven years and six months, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to five years. He accepted that in 2022 he fixed or contrived, or was a party to an effort to fix or contrive, the result or score of three matches.
Zhang Jiankang has been given a suspension of four years and five months, reduced following early admissions and his guilty plea to two years and 11 months. He accepted that he fixed a match in 2022; bet on matches; and failed to provide information requested by the WPBSA.
The players’ betting offences took place between 2019 and 2022.
Players banned before the 10 Chinese players’ case
Prior to the Chinese players’ hearing, seven players, in separate cases, had been banned by the WPBSA for the specific charge of match-fixing.
England’s Stephen Lee was the first and most high-profile, being banned in 2013 for 12 years, backdated to 2012, for accepting payment to influence the outcome of a match.
He was found to have colluded with three groups of gamblers to win them £97,000 in total from bets on seven of his matches in the 2008-09 season.
In 2015, Irish amateur John Sutton got a six-year ban for fixing and supplying information.
Sutton’s countryman Leo Fernandez was the following year banned for 15 months for his involvement in fixing an aspect of a match, by committing the first foul.
In 2018, China’s Yu Delu was suspended for 12 years, reduced to 10 years and nine months, for accepting payment to fix the outcome of a match.
The same year, for the same offence, Yu’s compatriot Cao Yupeng was given a ban of eight years, reduced to six. Three-and-a-half years of it was suspended after an agreement to “provide significant assistance to the WPBSA in its anti-corruption work”. He has since returned to the professional circuit.
The same offence also earned David John of Wales a seven-year ban in 2019 that was reduced to five years and seven months. Jamie Jones, his fellow Welshman, was banned for 16 months, reduced to 12, for failing to report an approach to John to fix his 2016 match against Graeme Dott.
Match fixing is soaring and football, basketball have worst problems, data shows
Last September, the WPBSA charged Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon of Thailand with fixing six matches between 2013 and 2015, having twice investigated him before over suspicious betting patterns.
Thanawat – the youngest to make an official maximum break in professional competition, aged 16 – was banned for nine years, reduced to six for pleading guilty. Over half of the ban is suspended, provided he helps anti-corruption efforts.
Have police caught snooker match fixing masterminds?
Behind each player punished, there were gamblers who stood to benefit from the manipulation of their sport.
But in cases brought by the snooker authorities, there are no known instances of criminal prosecutions.
A sport can sanction only those in its jurisdiction, whereas building a criminal case is more complex.
