Snooker Biggest Controversies

Let's be honest, one of the best things about the way Snooker's played and the rules of the game is it's obvious to see if someone's actually abiding by them. I mean, you don't need any special technology to tell if that black's in the pocket or not, you can just go and look. But that's not to say that nothing controversial ever happens. In fact, the game's had a fair bit to deal with over the past 40 years, from the odd clumsy rule to earth-shattering revelations that could have seen Snooker removed from TV schedules. Welcome back, and if it's your first time watching one of our videos, then it's fantastic to have you here. In a lot of ways, professional Snooker is fortunate enough to be followed around by a large media circus, and this has only helped elevate the game's popularity. However, when the press has nothing else to talk about, you can guarantee they'll blow any little incident out of all proportion. So this is my list of the top 10 things to happen in Snooker that I think are genuinely controversial. Let's begin then with number 10, and somebody who's bound to be mentioned a few times on this list, John Higgins. For this time, the incident involves his opponent, Jan Sejun, in the 2019 German Masters. Juan was just one frame away from completing an upset against his vastly more experienced opponent, and after a tense and thrilling decider, he got the chance to win the frame on the final black where this controversial incident happened. Did you miss it? Well, so did the players, the referees and the commentators, because when the cue ball came back down the table, it struck the rest. Even though the black had been potted, this is still a foul, and it meant the game shouldn't have ended in this way. So were the officials right to leave the result of this match be? Well I believe so, because although the frame wasn't over, when John Higgins shook hands, I'm convinced he conceded the match, and that happened before any foul took place. And that's why I think it's the least controversial on this list, but let me know what you think, just like Jody from Memphis, Tennessee has done. And number nine isn't something everybody missed, it's something that people can't stop hearing. Sometimes the audience are to blame, but this is something slightly new. I think the problem with the commentary is those earpieces are leaking in terms of sound, and if there are several of them switched on, then the players can hear what we're saying. That was Clive Everton explaining why he thought Steve Davis had overheard his commentary just before he'd made this excellent 1-4-5 break. Luckily it didn't put him off, but it was this that became more off-putting for players. The crowd laughing at commentators jokes, and every now and again it would happen when the players were actually on their shots. Neil Robertson had had enough of this, and before his 2013 United Kingdom final against Mark Selby, he politely asked commentators to save their old man jokes for when the players finished their shot. Did it work? Well Robertson won the title, but unfortunately the bad timing of the jokes hasn't changed. Now to change our map with Jamie in Leeds and Buzzard. Ah number eight, you've probably seen this guy coming. It's weird now to think that playing a fairly straightforward shot left-handed that you can't reach right-handed could be at all controversial, especially when you're a long way in front of the game. But it was these four shots against Canadian player Alan Robidoux and the press conference afterwards, where Ronnie O'Sullivan said he was a better player with his left hand than Robidoux was with his right, that got him accused of showboating. And this is, what do we say, taking the mic? He's got to do it in the exhibition, not in a match, a professional match. Looking at it today, it's difficult to see what all the fuss was about in 1996, as players regularly play exhibition shots after the frame's been won. Even at the time this wasn't unheard of, but I think the big problem in this match was the bad-tempered way in which it was played. Neither player shook hands either before or after the match in what some describe as the most angry match in history. And I think because of that, from Robidoux's point of view, Ronnie would have done something wrong at some stage. And at the time, snooker players were fairly unanimous in saying the left-handed stuff was irrelevant, but you should always shake hands. And today it's his left-handed shots that go part of the way to showing Ronnie O'Sullivan as a true genius he actually is. So on that note, it's time for a Ronnie O'Sullivan not-really-that-controversial bonus round. Which include, but not limited to, sitting with a towel over his head, describing a venue as a hellhole, retiring from a match early, brushing shoulders with Ali Carter, refusing a 1-4-7 over prize money then failing to do it again a second time, making obscene gestures to a wall, playing with an untucked shirt, giving lewd answers in a press conference, playing with no shoes and SPEEDING. Number 7 Every now and again though in snooker it can be very difficult to tell if you've hit the ball or not. And this was exactly the problem for Mark Selby in the 2017 World Final. He thought he'd hit the black, but Jan Verhaes, the referee, disagreed. The more controversial thing though was it seemed the officials of the game were having to decide whether or not they were allowed to use the video technology, and how accurate that video would actually be. Because this would give a huge advantage to Mark, or his opponent, who else but John Higgins. Jan did change his mind before deciding he shouldn't be influenced by what people had seen on the TV. Fortunately, as Mark Selby won, this didn't affect the result of a World Final. Number 6 I think the most frustrating frame of snooker I've ever played was when I was playing an opponent that was taking forever. I remember him taking over 5 minutes to decide which simple shot he was going to play, and then he followed it up by missing the simple shot. But many would argue this is nothing compared to what Ronnie O'Sullivan was put through in his 2005 World Quarter Final against Peter Ebdon. Peter was never known for being hasty, but in this match he took things to a whole new level, taking over 5 minutes here to make a break of 12. Ebdon came back from 8-2 down to eventually win 13-11, but after the match finished, his fellow professionals were less than happy with this. Ken Doherty described it as borderline ridiculous, and John Parrott said he'd never seen anybody play that slow before, and if he'd been playing in that match, he'd said he would have asked the referee to intervene. In Peter's defence, he said he was just trying really, really hard against one of the best players to have ever played the game. One good thing to come out of this is it did get everybody to consider introducing something resembling a shot clock. However, introducing anything in this area would be potentially controversial, as it would affect some players more than others. And unfortunately, at the time of recording this, 14 years later, nothing's been done about the problem. But what does Ronnie think? We're also being joined by Thomas in Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. Number 5, and it gets a little more heavy going from here on in. When you've got a touching ball like this, you have to play away. That would be a foul. If the balls are apart, that's fine, but you can't do this. Playing a push shot is when the cue ball runs on unnaturally fast like that, but if you're playing the shot with backspin, it can also jump up in the air quite a bit. So when Cao Yupeng played this shot in the first round of the 2012 World Championships, everybody thought it was a foul except the referee and Cao himself. The other things that can happen when you're striking the cue ball low is you can miss cue, and that can make the ball jump a little bit. Watching this back in slow motion though, it does look a lot like the cue ball struck the tip of the cue a second time. His opponent Mark Allen definitely thought so, describing the shot later on in a press conference as a blatant push. And to make matters worse, this is how Mark had just lost that match. Mark eventually had to apologise after he was fined £10,000 for describing Cao Yupeng and other fellow professional Lang Wenbo as blatant cheats. I think it probably was a foul, but I'm not 100% sure, so let me know what you think. Number 4 begins with your typical average snooker break-off, where you're trying to return the cue ball back to bulk safe, avoiding the blue and bulk colours, unless... So this is Quinton Han and his insane tactic for when everything was going wrong, and to be fair, once it did actually work. To start off with, I think he's right in so much as this gives you the best possible chance of actually potting a ball off the break. So how likely is it to work? Well, put it this way, I gave up after four goes after getting absolutely nowhere near a pot. But this has absolutely nothing to do with break-offs, because this is the closest we've ever got to having a punch-up live in the Crucible Theatre. In the 2004 World Championships, Andy Hicks defeated Quinton Han 10-4, and after being less than impressed with his attitude, told him as they shook hands, That's you out of the top 16, only in less polite language. Outside the arena, Han told Hicks you're short and bald and always will be, I'll fight you in the street for 50 grand any time you like. Hicks declined the offer, but Mark King, also bald, said he could do with the money and fought Han in a boxing match for now 10 grand, which he surprisingly lost. Shortly afterwards, Han was given a lengthy ban from snooker for match-fixing. But on the bright side, no more match-fixing. On the 11th of September 2013, Stephen Lee became the highest profile player ever to receive a ban for actually match-fixing. Lee was accused of fixing results in 8 matches over 4 tournaments in 2008 and 2009, and found guilty of fixing 7 of them, including this one against Stephen Hendry, where it was claimed he was paid to drop this very frame. I have to point out this was the result of a full and thorough criminal investigation, where Lee was also fined over £150,000. World Snooker were pushing for a full lifetime ban, but as Lee will be 50 before he ever gets the chance to compete again, it's unlikely we will ever see Lee play another full professional match. Lee has always protested his innocence, claiming his match-fixing prosecution completely lacked evidence. And it is difficult in this match to find any shot that looks like it was deliberately played wrong, so I'll leave a link to it in the description, so you can have a look for yourself and see if you can find anything suspicious. Number 2. After losing his first round match to Steve James in the 1990 World Championships, Alex Higgins, after consuming 27 vodkas during the match, punched an official before giving a drunken slurred press conference where he announced his retirement. Because of this and an earlier incident, he was given a 12 month ban and stripped of all of his ranking points. Looking at it now, this is less controversial and just sad, and thankfully he came back and got the chance to retire properly after a respectable loss to Ken Doherty in the 1994 World Championships, where he left to a standing ovation. Everyone who follows snooker should have absolutely no doubt about what number one is. After travelling to Kiev to promote snooker events, John Higgins and manager Pat Mooney were met by two men from the former British newspaper, the News of the World. But the two reporters were undercover and secretly filming the meeting, where they got Higgins to agree to drop matches in upcoming events. However, the specific matches were never agreed upon. What most people don't realise however, is this actually took place during the World Championships, after his second round defeat by Steve Davis. John claimed he had no intention of going through with anything and that he would have said anything just to get out of the room. But this didn't stop the snooker authorities issuing him with a six month ban for not telling anyone about the incident and raging to fix matches. A lot of people felt he got off far too lightly for causing a controversy that could have brought down snooker. But if you want to find out less about how to bring down snooker and more about how to play it, then these videos will show you how to queue straight and how to aim more accurately. And remember, don't just watch, play. And make the commitment to becoming a better player by subscribing to the channel. See you later.