Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon handed six-year ban from snooker after admitting to match fixing
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Updated 18/11/2022 at 13:56 GMT
Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon will be absent from the professional snooker scene until at least 2025 after admitting to fixing six matches. The 28-year-old cooperated with the WPBSA panel at all stages and was given credit for doing so. As such the tribunal elected to reduce his initial nine-year suspension to six years, of which he will serve a minimum of two years and nine months.
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Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon was handed a nine-year suspension from snooker, reduced to six years, after admitting to fixing a number of matches.
The 28-year-old Thai, who reached a career high of 67 in the world in 2012, admitted fixing the outcome of six matches between 2013 and 2015.
A disciplinary hearing took place in October, which the WPBSA said Tirapongpaiboon fully cooperated with.
The tribunal handed down a nine-year suspension, but Tirapongpaiboon was “given credit for his plea of guilty which reduced the suspension to six years. Of that period, he will serve a suspension of two years, nine months unconditionally.
"The remaining three years and three months will be suspended, provided there is compliance with the terms agreed between Tirapongpaiboon and the WPBSA to provide significant assistance to the WPBSA in its anti-corruption work.
“Provided he complies with his agreement with the WPBSA, his suspension will run from 15th June 2022 until 14th March 2025. He was ordered to pay £1,925 towards the WPBSA costs.”
WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson said: “This case shows that if a player chooses to fix a match they will be caught, no matter how long after the event.
"Thanawat has shown true remorse and wants to help ensure that other players do not make the mistakes that he did as a young player by assisting the WPBSA in its player education program. This has been reflected in the sanction. This case shows how seriously the WPBSA treats match fixing.”
The games Tirapongpaiboon admitted to fixing involved notable figures in the sport including Ding Junhui, Martin Gould and 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham.
The WPBSA stated that “Tirapongpaiboon’s opponents in the matches in question were not involved in any way in these rule breaches.”
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