Stephen Lee turned 50 on Saturday, and he was in a position to rejoice the top of his 12-year ban from snooker for match fixing.
The previous world quantity 5 was suspended in October of 2012 following studies of irregular betting patterns throughout a Premier League fixture with John Higgins.
A wider investigation adopted earlier than an impartial tribunal discovered Lee responsible of fixing matches in 2008 and 2009, together with a World Championship encounter on the Crucible Theatre.
The Englishman was handed a 12-year sentence in 2014, backdated to when his authentic suspension started two years earlier on his thirty eighth birthday.
It was essentially the most extreme punishment handed to a participant within the sport’s historical past till final 12 months’s Chinese language match-fixing scandal noticed Liang Wenbo and Li Hold given lifetime bans from the game.
In concept, Lee is now free to return to aggressive motion from when his snooker ban ended on October twelfth, 2024.
Nonetheless, it’s unlikely that we’ll see him competing in any match sanctioned by or affiliated with the World Skilled Billiard and Snooker Affiliation (WPBSA) within the close to future.
Lee owes the WPBSA £125,000 in authorized charges associated to the courtroom instances and unsuccessful appeals from a decade in the past.
When approached for remark, a spokesperson for the WPBSA informed SnookerHQ.com: “Stephen Lee would wish to achieve a passable settlement with the WPBSA over settlement of his prices earlier than he may play.”
The unpaid fines will forestall Lee from collaborating on the Q Tour, Q Faculty, and the WSF Championship – regular routes for newbie gamers to achieve promotion again to the World Snooker Tour.
What has Stephen Lee stated?
“I have to get requested this weekly, day by day, minutely,” Stephen Lee stated a few attainable comeback in 2022, as reported in The Mirror.
“I wish to say no, however I’m nonetheless able to enjoying. Let’s see what occurs in two years. It’s not a no, and never a sure.”
“We will solely simply see what occurs in a few years’ time. I’ve some thrilling issues arising, and I’m additionally getting older.
“My eyes are getting worse, and I by no means had good eyes to begin with. As you become old the willpower and the fireplace goes.”
But it seems any of these small aspirations have since disappeared, with Lee confirming as a lot in a Fb publish in January this 12 months.
“Not an opportunity of it my good friend,” was Lee’s reply to a touch upon the social media platform which inspired him to finish the comeback.
“I battle to interrupt off these days. It’s all the way down to my son now…”
Lee’s son Alfie is an aspiring newbie participant who has competed in Q Faculty and on the WSF Championship in 2023.
What did Lee obtain in snooker?
When he was suspended in 2012, Stephen Lee was considered the most effective gamers on this planet and had not too long ago secured his fifth profession rating title.
The Englishman graduated to the professional tour in the identical 12 months as Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, and Mark Williams – the fabled Class of 1992.
He didn’t fairly take pleasure in the identical stage of success as his contemporaries from that period, however his silky cue motion was extensively considered among the many smoothest in historical past.
Along with reaching the 2008 Masters ultimate the place he was denied Triple Crown glory by Mark Selby, Lee’s finest end on the World Championship was a semi-final look in 2003.
He gained the Grand Prix twice (renamed the LG Cup in 2001), the Scottish Open, the Welsh Open, and the Gamers Tour Championship Grand Finals.
In the course of the 2000/01 and 2003/04 snooker seasons, Lee was ranked as excessive as quantity 5 on the official world rankings listing.
Why was Stephen Lee banned?
Lee had survived a number of investigations into suspicious betting patterns previous to the one which finally banished him from the game in 2014.
A tribunal dominated he intentionally misplaced matches towards Ken Doherty, Neil Robertson, and Marco Fu on the 2008 Malta Cup.
He was additionally deemed to have agreed to lose the primary body towards each Stephen Hendry and Mark King throughout matches performed on the 2008 UK Championship.
Lee was moreover discovered responsible of influencing the result of matches towards Mark Selby on the 2009 China Open and Ryan Day on the 2009 World Championship.
Since getting banned, the Trowbridge potter has had different run-ins with the regulation.
In 2014, Lee was fined by Swindon Magistrates’ Court docket for failing to ship a cue he had bought on-line to the client.
4 years later, he appeared in courtroom once more for instructing snooker and not using a allow in Hong Kong.
Featured picture credit score: Monique Limbos
