Allen fined £10,000 over cheat claim

Antrim snooker player Mark Allen has been fined £10,000 and handed a three-month ban after accusing Chinese players of cheating.

The 26-year-old made the comments after he was beaten 10-6 by Cao Yupeng at the World Championship on 22 April.

He said his opponent had failed to own up to a "blatant push shot" before going on to question the sportsmanship of Chinese players in general.

"It seems to be a bit of a trait for the Chinese players because there've been instances in the past, of fouls and blatant cheating going on. It needs to be corrected," Allen said.

The case was taken up by the disciplinary committee of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, who found the player to be in breach of their regulations.

Rule 1.1 states: "Members shall, at all times behave in a proper and correct manner consistent with their status as professional sportsmen.

"Members shall not do anything which is likely to intimidate, offend, insult, humiliate or discriminate against any other person on the grounds of disability, their religion, race, colour or national or ethnic origin, sex or sexual orientation."

Rule 1.2 states: "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."

As a result, Allen was fined and given a suspended ban, with a further order to pay £1,000 towards the cost of the hearing.

He was also cautioned over comments he has made in the past about China on Twitter, after describing conditions during a tournament in Beijing as "horrendous".

In a statement the WPBSA confirmed: "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."

Allen has since said sorry for offence caused to Cao and Chinese players as a whole.