Zhao Xintong will return to the Crucible on Saturday as he bids to defend the World Snooker Championship crown he claimed in 2025. While Zhao earned praise for becoming China's maiden snooker world champion with his 18-12 triumph over Mark Williams, scandal has dogged him. He was handed a 20-month ban over a match-fixing controversy in 2023.

The 29-year-old was among 10 players suspended for their involvement in the affair as he accepted charges of wagering on a match he knew had been manipulated. The star acknowledged that he was complicit in another player rigging two fixtures on different occasions in March 2022. The match-fixing scandal derailed his career, forcing him off the professional tour and onto the Q Tour, an amateur circuit, after his ban concluded in September 2024.

His showings there secured him a spot in World Snooker Championship qualifying as he became one of 16 qualifiers to join the top 16 ranked players globally at the Sheffield venue.

Nevertheless, World Snooker Tour conceded that their wording could have been improved as fury erupted over Zhao's ranking status following his success. His victory saw him climb into the world's top 16, with the rankings structure based on points and prize money, after Zhao banked £500,000.

The official regulations detailed in World Snooker Tour's entry pack state that an amateur's ranking points "will always reset to zero at the start of each season", which prompted bewilderment over how Zhao climbed so high, given he was previously competing on the amateur Q Tour.

The entry pack stated: "WST qualification for season 2025/2026: Top 64 from Prize Money Rankings after World Championship 2025. An amateur player can qualify in the Top 64 however their ranking points will always reset to zero at the start of each season.

"That amateur will count as a Top 64 player and the player ranked 64 would fall outside of the Top 64 and fail to qualify. Additional tour spaces will be announced in due course. Tour places are at the sole discretion of WST."

WST clarified that Zhao would ascend to number 11 in the world rankings, acknowledging that the entry pack inadvertently implies that would not occur. They admitted the language in the pack was unclear.

A statement said: "The principle clearly established in snooker is that amateurs can earn prize money and ranking points in the same way that professionals do, and there are many precedents for this. Zhao has earned his top 64 place on merit, he will keep the rankings points he has earned and if he wins the World Championship he will be seeded second for most events next season which again is a long standing principle.

"Our entry pack was agreed with the Players Board before the start of this season. We accept that the wording in this particular paragraph could have been clearer, but the principles are unchanged and well established."

Mark Allen spearheaded the outrage amongst players, saying: "What's the point in having rules/criteria if you just change it after the fact whenever suits? I'm baffled how people can't see how poor this is."

World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman Jason Ferguson described it as an entirely unprecedented situation, saying: "It's not actually a rule change, it's a scenario that's never happened before. Amateur players do enter events from time to time, from top-ups in various events, and as they come in they play against professionals but they never break into the top 64 because they only come in for one or two events.

"This is the first time we've seen this where somebody has broken all the way through, earnt enough points in a season. In that scenario the case is that the player retains those ranking points because the player is deemed a professional player and joins the professional tour by retaining that top 64 position."

Zhao will take on Englishman Liam Highfield, who battled through four qualifying rounds, when the World Snooker Championship kicks off this weekend. The duo are scheduled to get underway at 10am on Saturday.