Snooker Coach makes an appeal to overturn the 12-year ban on the game.
According to a statement from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), 38-year-old Lee “is appealing against the finding of the tribunal, the sanction and the costs awarded.”
The appeal procedure will be overseen by Sport Resolutions UK, at the request of the WPBSA, and will be presided over by an impartial QC.
The claims, which concern seven matches from 2008 and 2009, including the world and UK championships, have been refuted by Lee time and time again. He also declared he would file an appeal shortly after the decision.
“I’m in complete shock. I’m not guilty of anything. I’m not at all guilty of this,” Lee declared at the time.
Lee was found guilty of “agreeing an arrangement… (and of) accepting or receiving or offering to receive… payment” for influencing the outcome or conduct of matches, which the WPBSA had referred to as “the worst case of snooker corruption we’ve seen.”
Lee was charged with providing insider information to friends, who utilised it to place bets and then shared it with others to do the same.
Attorney Adam Lewis stated in a written ruling for Sport Resolutions, an independent arbitration organisation, that following the initial tribunal, it was not proven that Lee intentionally lost a match that he could and should have won.
“Rather it is established, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lee acted improperly in relation to matches that he either believed he would lose, or that he believed he would win sufficiently comfortably that he could drop the first frame,” the lawyer concluded.
“Mr Lee did not strike me as a cynical cheat, but rather as a weak man who, under financial pressure, succumbed to the temptation to take improper steps that he may well have justified to himself as not really wrong, because the ultimate result of the match, win or lose, was the same.”
According to Lewis, a life sentence had not been applied since it was not thought to be appropriate in the given situation or required to serve as a deterrent.
Additionally, he emphasised that, absent extraordinary mitigating circumstances, there was no provision in the WPBSA disciplinary guidelines at the time of the charges stating that a player found guilty of match-fixing should face a life ban.
Willie Thorne, a former professional, claimed that Lee’s 12-year suspension was essentially the end of his playing career.
“It seems like a life sentence,” he stated to Sky Sports News. “When he regains his licence, he will be 50 years old, and there is no chance at that age… He won’t likely be allowed on the seniors tour, in my opinion.Snooker offers huge financial opportunities, but it’s not a fantastic place to make a life if you cheat.”
