Due to the match-fixing incident in snooker, Liang Wenbo and Li Hang have received lifelong bans, and all ten players involved have
received significant sanctions. When it was first discovered that Wenbo and Hang were the heads of the match-fixing organization at
the beginning of the year, the snooker world was completely taken aback.
The other eight were Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao, Lu Ning, Zhang Jiankang, Chen Zifan, Zhao Jianbo, Bai Langning, and Chang
Bingyu. At the beginning of the year, all eight of them were named and suspended. The Disciplinary Commission of the World
Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has finally declared the penalties for the offenders.
Wenbo and Hang will each have to pay £43,000 in fees and forfeit their right to ever compete in professional snooker. The penalties
for the other eight players have varied, with Xintong—who took home the UK Championship in 2021—getting the lightest sentence of
one year and eight months.
“This has been a very complex case,” stated Jason Ferguson, chairman of the WPBSA. It has been devastating to witness some young,
gifted players violate the WPBSA Conduct Regulations as a result of two senior players’ pressure.
“This behavior has been recognized as completely undesirable, and participating in official snooker in any capacity has been
prohibited for two lifetimes. This result should serve as a warning to anyone who believe they can evade detection since individuals
who attempt to tamper with sport are always coming up with new ways to get around our monitoring procedures.
“Any player found to be participating in snooker match fixing will be severely penalized upon discovery. It pleases me that the
Commission concluded there was “no evidence of a wider culture of wrongdoing in snooker” in this particular case.
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