Jason Ferguson believes Joe Jogia’s ban shows how WPBSA deals with corruption
Recently, the WPBSA disciplinary committee launched a probe on the basis of reports about suspicious betting patterns in the 2012 Snooker Shootout match between England’s Joe Jogia and Matthew Selt.
The World Number 47, England’s Joe Jogia was suspended from World Snooker at the time of inquiry because the reports said that the bets were placed on Jogia’s defeat and the English potter did not play the match and pulled out of the event.
However, after the investigation the WPBSA found out that there was some doubtful betting on the game which makes Jogia guilty because he was unable to provide satisfactory explanation. The committee also found the link between two bettors and Jogia as they
exchanged calls and text messages which was enough for the World Snooker to ban the potter until the finish of the 2014 World Snooker Championship.
World Snooker stated, “It was established that the two persons placing the bets were known to Joe Jogia as associates and telephone records demonstrate that Joe Jogia was in repeated contact with them.”
Meanwhile the WPBSA Chairman, Jason Ferguson has once again told that the association will not tolerate such kind of matters and will deal with them harshly. He expressed that Jogia’s case shows how WPBSA is concerned and focused about such events.
He spoke to World Snooker, “In protecting the public image of our sport the WPBSA has strong links with the gambling commission and the betting industry. The integrity of our sport is of paramount importance and today's outcome highlights how seriously the
WPBSA will treat such matters.”
In the past couple of months, the snooker governing body, World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has made some drastic inquiries followed by strict decisions.
The winner of the 2012 Haikou World Open, Mark Allen, winner of the 2012 Welsh Open snooker event Ding Junhui and the former two-time World Snooker Championship winner Mark Williams had to pay fines following their offensive comments during the 2012 World
Snooker Championship.
It will be interesting to see how the fans react to the way that WPBSA has handled this issue and brought some closure to this scandal.
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