Allen fined for slur

He must also pay £1,000 towards the cost of the hearing, and undergo media training following the incident.

Allen, 26, claimed that Cao Yupeng failed to notify match officials of an illegal push shot while 5-4 up in their World Championship first round match, which Cao went on to win 10-6.

Allen would then claim that Chinese players had cheated against him in the past, and that such behaviour was a "Chinese thing".

The controversial Northern Irishman's latest outburst was called "unacceptable" by World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn leading to a disciplinary charge.

After quitting social media site Twitter in the aftermath, Allen would go on to apologise for his comments.

A WPBSA statement said: "The disciplinary committee of the WPBSA has formally considered the case of Mark Allen in relation to his comments in a press conference on Sunday 22nd April 2012 following his defeat in the Betfred.com World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

"In this conference he accused his opponent Cao Yupeng of cheating and said that cheating appeared to be a trait of Chinese players. He named two other Chinese players as being known for cheating.

"He was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 towards the cost of the hearing and was suspended from playing for a period of three months.

"This suspension will only come into effect if he commits any new breach of the WPBSA members rules that are dealt with by the WPBSA disciplinary process in the next six months. He has also been required to undergo media training.

"The WPBSA disciplinary committee consider that this behaviour is unacceptable and offensive to China and the Chinese players. Such behaviour will not be tolerated by the WPBSA."