As the Snooker World Championship begins its final week at the Crucible, seven Sheffield-based players are being investigated for match-fixing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2021 Masters champion Yan Bingtao and world no. 9 Zhao Xintong train at the Victoria’s Snooker Academy in the city, and are both implicated in the investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both players would be making a bid for snooker’s biggest prize this week, but are suspended pending the conclusion of a private hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five more who train together at Sheffield’s Ding Junhui Snooker Academy are also involved in the hearings which could result in lengthy bans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Academy has created a strong community of Chinese players who socialise together, and play each other in the run up to tournaments to build match fitness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
China’s new generation of stars are taking snooker by storm, but the investigation could damage their reputation. The most serious offences could be punished by a ban of well over a decade, but they could get a reduced penalty if they can prove they were coerced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to BBC podcast Snookered, promoter and manager Barry Hearn said: “We will go through the proper systems, beautifully executed, both sides have a chance to put their case and the evidence will be decided by an independent arbitrator. That is how a sport should be run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If the case deserves suspensions, long suspensions, that sends the message to anyone who plays this game: do not run foul.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several players including Neil Robertson and Judd Trump have suggested that coercion could have been involved. The investigation is expected to establish whether there was collusion between different players. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The full charges are as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhao Xintong<\/strong>: being concerned in fixing matches and betting on snooker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yan Bingtao<\/strong>: fixing matches and betting on snooker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lu Ning<\/strong> and Li Hang<\/strong>: fixing a match and being concerned in fixing matches and approaching a player to fix a match seeking to obstruct the investigation and betting on snooker matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zhao Jianbo<\/strong>, Bai Langning<\/strong> and Chang Bingyu<\/strong>: match-fixing on the World Snooker Tour<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of China’s newest talents Si Jiahui has booked his place in the World Championship quarter-finals with a 13-6 victory over Robert Milkins. As the last remaining Chinese player, he will hope to make his success the bigger story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the Snooker World Championship begins its final week at the Crucible, seven Sheffield-based players are being investigated for match-fixing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":46173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,27],"tags":[9,522,338],"class_list":["post-46034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sport","tag-sheffield","tag-snooker","tag-south-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\n