WPBSA seeks to protect the integrity of snooker

Following the intense speculation regarding the match between Jamie Burnett and Stephen Maguire over the past few days, the governing body has tonight issued a statement confirming that they will be launching a formal investigation into the match…

The full statement from the WPBSA is as follows:

“WPBSA Statement

The WPBSA is committed to taking all steps within its power to protect the integrity of the sport of snooker.

It takes all of the steps available to it to police and enforce those rules, including working with its contacts at the Gambling Commission, as well as putting information-sharing arrangements in place with bookmakers.At approximately 4.50 pm on Friday 12 December, the WPBSA received a telephone call from a bookmaker, reporting an unusual pattern of bets on Stephen Maguire to beat Jamie Burnett by a frame score of 9 – 3 in a match due to take place on Sunday 14 December.

The WPBSA immediately notified its other bookmaker contacts, so that the bookmakers could alert the industry and obtain feedback in relation to bets placed on the match. It also arranged for World Snooker officials to attend and observe the match in question, and secured tapes of the match afterwards for further study.Now that the match has been played, the WPBSA will move forward with a formal investigation. It has already instructed specialist external legal counsel to assist it in pursuing the investigation robustly and efficiently, so as to protect the integrity of the sport while at the same time respecting its obligation to treat those being investigated fairly.

As part of the investigation, information will be gathered from all pertinent parties, including the players themselves, the match officials, the bookmakers, and others, in order to determine, based on the available evidence, whether or not there is a case to answer for breach of the WPBSA’s rules. If it is determined that there is a case to answer, the WPBSA will pursue it vigorously.Once a decision has been reached, the WPBSA will announce it. Until that time, it will not comment further on the matter, so as to avoid prejudice to the process or the people involved. In the meantime, anyone with relevant information is invited to contact the WPBSA immediately.”

As bad as it is to see stories like this in the news, it is a positive move by the governing body to launch a thorough investigation into the match and a necessary one to protect the integrity of the sport as they put it.

Hopefully there will be nothing to these stories but if there is then hopefully the appropriate action will be taken, as some former world champions have suggested today:

Stephen Hendry told The Herald:

“If any player is caught match-fixing, they deserve to be banned for life,”

“It’s such a serious issue I don’t think any player deserves to go unpunished. In any sport there’s always betting, but any hint of match-fixing should be investigated. There’s not a place for it in our sport.”

“Nothing shocks you these days, especially in sport.”

“We’ve only had a couple of incidents of match-fixing in our sport. Peter Francisco and Quinten Hann both got banned and there’s been suspensions in the past, but snooker has had very few incidents. However, anybody throwing results should be banned.”

Ken Doherty told Setanta:

“Any player caught match fixing should be banned for life,”

“It’s as simple as that. It’s such a serious issue, the authorities need to deal with the issue very strongly.

“If any player got found guilty of match-fixing I’d have no sympathy with them. They deserve to be banned.”

“I don’t like to see it. You find yourself defending your sport, it would be horrible to see anyone [fix matches]. I don’t understand why anyone would throw a match for money, they’d be risking throwing their career away,”

“I’ve never been approached by anyone to throw a match. If I was I’d tell them where to go. To be honest I think the sport is clean, but the only way to prove that 100 per cent is to investigate these incidents.

“Ninety nine per cent of professionals are honest, but there’s no harm finding out if there is anything bad going on.”