Cheating Irish Snooker Player Gets Banned for 15 Months

A cheeky Irish snooker player was suspended until 2017 after deliberately taking a foul-shot at the Snooker World Championships.

Leo Fernandez’s snooker career will be put on hold. The Irishman has been suspended until August of 2017 after making Irish gambling news by admitting to spot-fixing in the first qualifying round of the Snooker World Championship. He is said to have made his contacts £1,300 with the foul-shot. Fernandez is now ordered to pay a fine of £2,000.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association made a statement on Wednesday. “At an early stage Leo Fernandez fully admitted his involvement in delivering the foul shot in the first frame of the match in question for other persons to make money through betting. As a condition of his sentence he has pledged to assist the WPBSA in its anti-corruption education work to try and help other players avoid being drawn into match manipulation.”

Fernandez has been one of Ireland’s most successful snooker players

The Irish snooker player has been playing competitively since 1995. Some of his accomplishments include finishing second in the PIOS Order of Merit in 2007, reaching the last 16 of the Welsh Open, and placing second in the 2010 English Amateur Championship.

WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson sees the ban as a positive step for snooker, but a huge mistake on Fernandez’s part. “This demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that all aspects of matches in World Snooker events are competed in a fair and honest manner. Leo Fernandez had just qualified to play on the WSL tour this season as a full professional and by his actions he has thrown away this opportunity.”

What do you think of the Irish Snooker player’s ban? Should it have been longer? Leave your comments below, and make sure to check out GamingZion’s list of online sportsbooks in Ireland to find the best websites for betting on snooker!