O'Sullivan asked to explain on match-fixing following Lee ban

Five-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has been asked by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association to prove his claim that Stephen Lee may not be the only top-level cueist to be involved in match-fixing, or face possible sanction over his response.
Former world number five Lee was yesterday found guilty of fixing seven snooker matches in 2008 and 2009 by the disciplinary committee of the WPBSA.
England's Lee faces a lifetime ban after the verdict was confirmed by Nigel Mawer, the chairman of the disciplinary committee. The sanction will be announced at a separate hearing on September 24.
Following comments made by O'Sullivan on Twitter, World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn today said, "We take these type of allegations very seriously. We have written to Ronnie asking him to explain his comments and to provide details of any match fixing and the names of the players that he is referring to.

"Clearly, to make these type of allegations without informing the Governing Body through the correct channels is wholly unacceptable and extremely damaging to the sport. We await his response. We will not be making any further comment on this matter until it has been investigated further," Hearn said in a statement.
Reigning world champion O'Sullivan had claimed the scale of match-fixing in the sport could be much bigger than what people suspected and Lee's case may not be the only one.

He accused the snooker authorities of not doing enough to bring corruption in the sport to light.
"I've heard there's many more players who throw snooker matches .. I suppose Steve lee was just caught out," O'Sullivan wrote on his twitter account.

"I just love putting it out there bring it all out in the open.. Nothing like a bit of transparency is what I say. No need to worry if you got nothing to hide. But plenty of people have got loads to hide. That's why there is no free speech. There (sic) hiding. They will prob fine me for talking about it.. They don't like you doing that.. Like to keep things under the carpet.." he added.