Mark Langdon: Lifetime bans not the answer for all of snooker's match-fixers

It has been an intense few weeks studying up on the life and times of Ange Postecoglou and from a base knowledge not far short of zero this time last month I now feel so fully invested that I begin to well up with every story about his relationship with dad Jim.

Clearly Ange was unlucky at Greek lower league club Panachaiki FC and since then it has been nothing but success story after success story for the new Spurs boss. What I don't know about his ideology frankly isn't worth knowing. 

I know much less about Chinese philosopher Confucius, who is attributed with the oft-repeated quote: "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."

Maybe Shaun Murphy is one of those who is of that belief and he is adamant that the snooker authorities were "too soft" in not dishing out lifetime bans to the many Chinese snooker players who were found guilty of match-fixing earlier this month.

Liang Wenbo and Li Hang, who have until June 20 to appeal, won't be allowed back on the green baize, but others such as 2021 Masters champion Yan Bingtao (five-year ban) and 2021 UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong (one year and eight months) will subsequently be allowed back on the circuit along with less-established players Lu Ning, Zhang Jiankang, Chen Zifan, Chang Bingyu, Zhao Jianbo and Bai Langning.

Murphy told The Sportsman: "I would have liked to keep it simple. If you are involved in match-fixing in any way, then you have no place in the sport – ever. 

"You get a third off just for pleading guilty – but you’ve still done it in the first place. So several of these players should be thankful it wasn’t up to me. Because if it had been me, anyone guilty of fixing a match we would never have seen again. And on that basis, a few of them could be seen as fortunate, even if I’m sure they don’t see it like that."

I don't know whether Murphy has read the entirety of the report into the allegations of manipulating matches, approaching players to fix games and betting on snooker. But having taken the plunge - and it's not as exciting as the monographs on big Ange's use of two attacking number eights - my overriding feeling is that it was more complex than Murphy's, er, law.

A detailed and clear picture was painted of two older men in Wenbo and Hang putting their younger compatriots under pressure to do as they were told in a world of card schools and casino visits in Sheffield. While the younger players in the Steel City stable had to be punished, banning them for life would have been harsh and the early admissions of guilt in many cases and co-operating with authorities needed to be taken into consideration.

Wenbo, 36, had been seen as something of a maverick when he first burst on the scene but is clearly not the jovial character some had thought. Last year he was found guilty of a domestic violence offence after he was caught on CCTV hitting and kicking a woman in the street in a "sustained and deliberate" attack in Sheffield city centre.

Dismissing Wenbo's advances would not have been easy and we know lengthy bans can help to educate. Cao Yupeng was suspended in 2018 for match-fixing but when Wenbo attempted to get him involved in 2022 he was told to get lost by Cao, who went on to give evidence in this case.

These are dark days for snooker and match-fixing obviously can't be tolerated. However, this appears not to have been a simple case. It was more complicated than that.

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