The world of snooker was rocked on Tuesday when Liang Wenbo and Li Hang were handed lifetime bans from snooker among 10 Chinese players excluded in one of sports’ biggest match-fixing scandals.
The guilty verdicts were released on a range of match-fixing related charges and sanctions from the independent disciplinary hearing chaired by Ian Mill KC.
And world no.6 Neil Robertson admits that the sheer scale of snooker’s match-fixing scandal is “shocking”.
The Australian former world champion hopes that seeing 10 players banned including two for life will finally get the message across to the entire tour.
But Robertson also believes that while in the short term the damage is devastating, the efforts by the authorities to rid the game of corruption should be recognised.
Robertson, 41, said: “It is obviously very bad news for the sport this has happened, and the headlines tomorrow about match-fixing…I won’t be looking forward to reading them at all.
“It is especially shocking because of the number – 10 players. You very rarely see that in stories about other sports. And it is almost 10 percent of the tour.
“And it is also shocking the young age of some of the players that have been banned. There were whispers that there was intimidation and threats towards some younger players.
“The only positive to come out of it is that the authorities have tracked it, investigated thoroughly going back several years, taking strong action and enough to get these guilty verdicts.
“It sends the clearest possible message to anyone thinking about getting involved in fixing matches or anything related. And hopefully this will see the end of it altogether in snooker.”
All the players have until 20th June 2023 to appeal the decisions, arrived after a complex and often tough investigation by the WPBSA’s integrity unit.
