Williams fined

The Welshman used Twitter to denounce the venue tweeting in April: "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS just around the corner. Shame it's played in the Crucible, s*** hole, hopefully it will be in China soon."

Williams also said he would "rather play in Pontins" and that the Crucible was "over hyped" although he did say he had no problem with Sheffield which he called a "nice place".

Governing body World Snooker released the following statement in response to the comments:

"On Tuesday 29th May 2012, the Disciplinary Committee of the WPBSA formally considered the case of Mark Williams.

This relates to derogatory comments he made on Twitter regarding the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield on the 20th April 2012, the eve of the Betfred.com World Championship at the Crucible Theatre. The Disciplinary Committee found that he is in breach of the following members rules:

1.1 Members shall, at all times (i.e. whether at a Tournament or not), behave in a proper and correct manner consistent with their status as professional sportsmen…….

1.2 A Member shall not make or cause to be made any statement or commit or cause to be committed any act which in the reasonable view of the WPBSA is likely to bring into disrepute the games of snooker and/or billiards.

He was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 towards the costs of the hearing.

The WPBSA Disciplinary Committee consider that Mark’s Twitter remarks were unacceptable and potentially highly damaging to snooker's long relationship with Sheffield and the Crucible Theatre."

Williams won the world title in 2000 and 2003, but lost in the second round this year to winner Ronnie O'Sullivan.