Five-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is to be asked to explain his comments after claiming he rejected a £20,000 offer to fix a Premier League snooker match. The 37-year-old says in his autobiography that he was approached during a 15-minute meeting with someone he knew in Epping Forest, Essex, about 10 years ago. Nigel Mawer, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's (WPBSA) disciplinary committee, says: "We are aware of what has been said in the book and will be writing to Ronnie O'Sullivan to ask him to explain his comments."
"Someone rang me and said he'd like to meet me over in the forest and have a walk through the woods," O'Sullivan writes. "I knew the fella, and it was someone you don't want to mess around with. "What they were offering me, 20 grand, I could get for a couple of nights' work." Detailing the offer, O'Sullivan writes: "'You're playing in the Premier League,' he said. 'Yes.' 'And we've got people who can put big bets on. If you lose this frame and this frame we can get enough on it to make some money. We'll give you this out of it."'
O'Sullivan turned down the offer and has gone on to become a five-time world champion. O'Sullivan's fellow English cueman, former world number five Stephen Lee, was banned last month for 12 years for seven match-fixing offences and is to appeal against the verdict and the punishment imposed. After a Twitter outburst last month, O'Sullivan backtracked on his claim that match-fixing could be rife in snooker. The threat of disciplinary action against O'Sullivan arose when he spoke out on social media a day after Lee was found guilty by an independent panel of fixing charges following matches played in 2008 and 2009.
O'Sullivan wrote at the time: "I've heard there's many more players who throw snooker matches .. I suppose Steve lee was just caught out." He added that "plenty of people have got loads to hide". World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn, who is close to O'Sullivan, warned the 37-year-old he must not make "vague announcements" and stressed he could face a disrepute charge if he knew of undetected fixing offences having been committed.
