Full List Of Snooker Players Investigated For Match-Fixing! All Suspicious Matches Of Cheat

Snooker has been plagued by allegations of corruption virtually since its inception as a professional sport. BBC commentator and retired professional player, Willie Thorne, concedes that match-fixing has always been a part of snooker, even acknowledging that some of the results in his own matches were bent. The earliest known case of corruption in the game involves Joe Davis, pioneer of the professional game and winner of the first fifteen world championships, who is believed to have “carried” weaker opponents in multi-session matches to maximise the gate revenue.

Players do not always enter into match-fixing arrangements of their own volition and sometimes are coerced into fixing results by threats of violence. Thai players in particular have been targeted by ruthless cartels; James Wattana once received a death threat encouraging him to lose a match, resulting in his father being shot dead. Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon and Passakorn Suwannawat—also both Thai players and flatmates—were the victims of a firebomb attack on their home in Sheffield after the governing body opened an investigation into them.

Match-fixing is notoriously difficult to prove: there have only been four arrests in the game’s history—Silvino Francisco, Stephen Lee and Scottish practice partners Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett—but no criminal prosecutions. The only players ever to be successfully prosecuted by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association for it are Stephen Lee, Leo Fernandez and amateur, John Sutton; however, three other players including Quinten Hann, John Higgins and Joe Jogia have all served bans on match-fixing related charges.

Watch all of them! Enjoy!? well…it’s the truth.

More info: youtube.com