Stephen Lee has been found guilty of match fixing and will
face a 12 year ban and £40,000 worth of fines.
The former World number five was found guilty of fixing
results in a number of matches across four tournaments during the 2008 and 09
seasons.
Matches Stephen Lee Fixed
2008 UK Championship: Agreed to lose the first frame in matches against Stephen Hendry and Mark King.
2009 China Open: To lose to Mark Selby by a set score, Selby winning 5-1.
2009 World Championship: That Ryan Day would win by a pre-arranged score, Day winning 10-4.
A winner of Five ranking events and a mainstay at the top of
the game for the last 15 years this has obviously put Snooker in a bad light
again. The case, being described as "the worst case of snooker corruption
we've seen" has been extremely thorough with Lee being suspended for
almost a year while it was being built.
Lee was an amazing talent who was renowned for his silky
smooth cue action, regarded as one of the games underachievers given his
natural ability. After 12 years he could make a comeback but at the age of 50
it wouldn’t likely end well and he would be long past his best playing years.
Snooker will move on from this and the season has
effectively just got properly going, from now on there is tournaments happening
weekly and it’s a very exciting time for the game.
