On March 21, at the main draw ceremony of the 2019 CBSA Chinese Billiards World Championships, the Chinese Billiards Association announced the penalty decision to add billiards player Yu Delu for life.
This is an additional penalty imposed by the Chinese Taiwan Association after Yu Delu was punished by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association last year, and it is also the heaviest penalty in the history of Chinese billiards, which means that Yu Delu will completely bid farewell to the domestic arena and basically end his career.
Yu Delu Visual China Infographic
The heaviest fine in history, why it was several months late
In May 2018, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association issued a statement that Yu Delu and another Chinese player, Cao Yupeng, were temporarily suspended for allegedly manipulating the game. In December, the World Professional Snooker Association disclosed on its official website the investigation report of Yu Delu and Cao Yupeng, which pointed out that for two and a half years, Yu Delu manipulated the game in five matches and thus obtained huge profits, with a total bet of 264,500 pounds, and Cao Yupeng played 3 match-fixing games, with a total profit of 15,000 pounds.
Subsequently, the World Taiwan Federation imposed a 10-year and 9-month ban on Yu Delu, and Cao Yupeng was banned for 6 years, of which two and a half years were immediately executed, and the remaining three and a half years were suspended (the original ban was 12 years and 8 years respectively, and the sentence was reduced because the people involved in the case cooperated with the investigation).
At the same time, China Billiards announced that it would impose a ban on Delu from May 25, 2018 to May 24, 2028, and Cao Yupeng's ban would run from May 25, 2018 to May 24, 2020. Judging from the suspension time, this basically overlaps with the ban period of the World Taiwan Federation, and it is obvious that under the circumstance of solid evidence, the China Taiwan Association decided to unify the pace with the World Taiwan Federation. So why is the China-Taiwan Association now using a heavy code against Yu Delu, one of the players who violated discipline, after a few months?
According to Wang Tao, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Billiards Association, the Chinese Taiwan Association had repeatedly reminded the British players to ensure the purity of the arena before the East Window incident, and the investigation results proved that Cao Yupeng's violation of discipline was before the Taiwan Association sounded the alarm bell, and judging from the time of Yu Delu's involvement, he did not restrain him from the precipice.
"I personally made two special trips to the UK a few years ago to meet with all the players to remind them not to get involved in gambling and similar incidents, after which Cao Yupeng stopped his wrong behavior, but Yu Delu was still wrong again and again. In addition, after the incident, Cao Yupeng went to the association many times, admitted his mistakes and said that he would actively correct them, while Yu Delu continued to defend himself to the Taiwan Association and did not make a correct understanding of his mistakes. Combining these two points, the association is now making a lifelong ban on Theland. ”
In fact, after Yu Delu and Cao Yupeng violated discipline, the attitude of the China Taiwan Association was very clear and it would never tolerate such behavior.
In January this year, the China Taiwan Association also deliberately set up a professional player committee in the UK, with Ding Junhui as the director, And Liang Wenbo, Tian Pengfei and four other people as deputy directors, which in addition to helping the training and life of the british players, is also to strengthen the management of the players and prevent the recurrence of disciplinary incidents.
Wales' Jamie Jones was banned indefinitely on suspicion of manipulating the 2016 National Championship qualifiers.
Why is match-fixing so much forbidden?
For Yu Delu, the lifetime ban of the China Taiwan Association has made him unable to play in the domestic arena since then, and judging from the long 10-year ban of the World Taiwan Federation, even if the ban expires, it will be difficult for the player to return to the professional arena.
Yu Delu is the same age as Ding Junhui, once one of the best players in China, in 2009 he represented China in the East Asian Games to win the snooker individual championship, in the same year he scored 147 points in the Chinese professional snooker tour, before being banned yu Delu ranked 43rd in the world, and the story of Yu Delu is undoubtedly sad.
It is worth mentioning that in the snooker world, gambling balls and even suspected manipulation of the game are not alone.
In October last year, during the investigation of Yu Delu, Wales' Jamie Jones was suspected of manipulating the 2016 National Championship qualifiers and was suspended indefinitely, and the opponent of the other national championships at the time, David John, was also banned in May for suspected gambling with Yu Delu and Cao Yupeng, in addition to these unknown players, in October 2017, the former champion Bingham was also banned for 6 months for participating in gambling, and the investigation showed that from the 2009-10 season, Bingham has repeatedly used his personal and agent's accounts to bet on snooker matches, including his own matches, and another player, Joe Perry, has been pointed out that he has bet on nearly 200 matches, although his personal reason is "too boring"...
The biggest player in snooker's banned game is the "wizard" Higgins, who profited more than 300,000 euros by deliberately losing at the World Championships and the World Snooker Series, after which Higgins was suspended for half a year and fined £75,000... When it comes to the match-fixing incident in Snooker World, the old ball king Davis bluntly said that this is the "cancer" in the sport, "the tumor must be removed." "The problem is that match-fixing has long been banned in snooker.
On this issue, industry insiders also have analysis, on the one hand, most snooker players are not treated well (80% of British snooker players have a year's bonus equivalent to the salary of ordinary office workers), and some profit-hungry players simply know the law and break the law, "After all, the profit of one or two match-fixings is sometimes worth a season's game." On the other hand, "counterfeiting" in snooker sports is relatively easy, and for snooker games with extremely high precision requirements, if there is a low-level mistake, it is difficult for you to equate with the match-fixing, which also creates a hotbed for players who violate professional ethics to play match-fixing.
During this time, there are also rumors that even the great "rocket" O'Sullivan can not completely get rid of the relationship, some insiders said that O'Sullivan once booked a ticket to return to China before the first round of the China Open, "the flight time does not allow him to advance to the next round." ”
In such a situation, in addition to further improving the commercialization of sports and improving the treatment of athletes, the current strict punishment is probably the most powerful tool, betting on their careers for one or two match-fixings, and seeing how many people dare to take risks.