10 Oct 2013

Banned snooker player to appeal

11:26 am on 10 October 2013

England's Stephen Lee has appealed against his 12-year ban from snooker for match-fixing.

Lee, the former world number five, had repeatedly insisted upon his innocence of match-fixing charges relating to seven matches in 2008 and 2009.

He was banned last month by an independent tribunal and his appeal was widely anticipated.

Lee's case is the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit snooker since Australia's Quinten Hann was suspended for eight years in 2006 after he was caught in a sting by undercover reporters where he agreed to lose a game at the China Open in return for money.

The WPBSA said Lee was in contact with three different groups of people all of whom placed bets on the outcomes of his matches or on the outcomes of frames within his matches or on the exact score of his matches.