Well Ian Mill KC Of Blackstone Chambers, acting as judge, jury, and executioner has imposed lifetime bans on two players, one of whom is a world ranking winner ( Liang Wengbo) and recent former top 16 player.
Yan Bingtao, recent former Masters Winner and world number ten banned for five years. And Xhao Xingtong world number 8, twice recent ranking tournament, including the UK which is a major was banned for 18 months. He was widely tipped to win the World Championship this year, and was on course to be number 1 in two years. A truly phenomenal player.
They mostly pleaded guilty and received appropiate discounts. What a fooking waste for such brilliant players to have thrown their careers in jeopardy for years. I am certain they were acting at the behest/threatened by serious organised crime syndicates in China, there is no reason for top players to do this. They as a collective were dominating snooker, with a quater of the main tour chinese . 5 were in the top 16, and they normally have 10 or so left in the last 32 of most tournaments.
Whats interesting about this is the BIG money tournaments are returning to China next season. I reckon the chinese government ( yes snooker is a government backed sport) will say fook you uk , and start a rival tour with tennis like money, and watch the english/european players flock to it.
The WPBSA have fooked themselves
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I cannot link, full article in the Metro and WPBSA website .
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"There is no reason for top players to do this." Can you be more naive? These people are not getting massive sponsorship deals, so their prize money is reflective of their total income. An agent may be taking 10-15% of everything. You will then be paying for travel, accommodation. So a player that makes £200k is quickly down to sub-£150, if not getting down to £100k, having practised for decades to get that good. They are massively open to bribery especially in a world where betting now takes place on minute events.
There are things that happen in Premier League games that make me think some lesser players are bent, and they are on £20k+ a week.
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Bannanaman, I am not naive , I have variously been " part " of the snooker circuit since 16 years old, in that I used to play competitively at Pro- Am level, and have made centuries.
I used to follow the tour religiously , when time permitted, including trips to China, Thailand and Germany. A close friend from near me in London has been a top 16 player for over a decade, and has been as high as world number four. Two other very, very well known players used my club as their practice facility with their own installed players. They were in the top 16 for god knows how long and one of the two is a formerly ranked two.
Do you have any idea, how much the top Chines players get paid for wearing logos on their waist coats , and shirts? Take a guess? The prize money is for them basic food money. The silly money comes from the logo sponsorship.
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on the club circuit he was known as Peter 'the Ebitda' Ebdon. The notchampion from Northampton.
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Wowser, what a waste for Liang Wengbo and Yan Bingtao. Both major talents.
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LOL @ made centuries. Also for all your bragging as a toff hanger-on you miss the point that you are completely naive about corruption in sport generally. Why do you think there is comparatively fook all drug testing in football and tennis?
I am going to guess they don't earn e.g. what Ronaldo does compared to his wages, which are already outsized and take him, and most other top league players, out of the pool of potentially bent sports people. This lot are just bent like e.g. snooker beta blocker takers, cycling blood transfusers, cricket intentional oversteppers etc. because the money they can make from being bent outweighs what they can earn legitimately, rather than honest geezers leant on by wrong 'uns from Macau.
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Banana , " These people are not getting massive sponsorship deals, so their prize money is reflective of their TOTAL income " is what you said.
I said that simply wasn't true, and asked you to guess what the Chinese players get paid by way of logo sponsorship, and your reply above made no reference to that. No it is ronaldo money, very, very few are in that bracket. But is laughable that you thing chinese players in the top 16, who have won snooker majors, and world ranking tournaments are grossing 200k a year.
Xingtong earned 387k, in the last 15 months and he was banned for 7 of those months... Now what do you think they get paid for logo sponsorship as a base. On top of that if they win or even go deep, the amount increases significantly. They generally have 3 or 4 logo deals at anyone time. Take a guess mate
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Trans agreed , Liangs family are minted, and he married extremely well. Yan I think is only 23, so he can easily come back, although how he will keep himself motivated for, four years will be a huge challenge. He only recently bought a house in the Yorkshire countryside . What a pity.
Xingtong will be fine he only has a year left. The others were "journey" men pros, financially down that end of the rankings it is grim. You need to be in the top 64 to make it pay, just( the rest were mostly outside the 64), and ideally in the top 32 to be comfortable. Top 16 and your laughing.
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