Ronnie O’Sullivan on snooker match-fixing inquiry: Football, tennis and golf haven’t been harmed

Ronnie O’Sullivan believes other sports haven’t been “harmed” by match-fixing investigations, as the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) inquires about alleged manipulations of matches.

Ten players have been suspended in the investigation including 2021 UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong and former Masters champion Yan Bingtao.

Liang Wenbo, Chen Zifan, Lu Ning, Li Hang, Zhao Jianbo, Bai Langning and Chang Bingyu are the other players who have been suspended.

“It hasn’t affected them. We have to talk about these things but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not really that important.

“There is a lot of stuff going on in the world like famine, starvation, malnutrition. These are really important issues and to me they are very important. Sport is just a game.”

Asked whether he had any integrity concerns about any of his opponents, O’Sullivan said: “No, not at all.”

“[The investigation] is at a very mature stage,” said Ferguson.

“Nigel Mawer – our head of integrity – is leading the investigation. He is a very experienced person – and we are probably only a week or two away from understanding whether charges will be pressed or not.

“Mawer is ruthlessly just going through this case on a day-to-day basis. He is the best in the business in my view; he is a very experienced, senior police officer and detective and investigative officer and he is very thorough.

“The key thing about these suspensions and going through this case and bringing it to a close is to make sure that no stone is unturned. We must make sure that we can 100% say, ‘we have looked at everything, we have dealt with it and let’s move on’.”

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