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Snooker star Stephen Lee has made his long-awaited comeback to the game after being banned for 12 years for match-fixing. Lee, 50, was spotted playing in an exhibition match against ex-world number three James Wattana in Thailand last week. Back in 2013 Lee was found guilty of influencing the outcome of seven matches that were played between 2008 and 2009.Rumours of a comeback have swirled in recent times.

The former world number five was found to have received a payment 'to influence the result of a match', including a 10-4 defeat by Ryan Day at the 2009 World Snooker Championship. Lee was hit with the stunning ban from competitive snooker, which was also backdated to his original suspension in October 2012; however, this expired in October 2024. His actions were condemned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) as "the worst case of corruption" within snooker circles.

Lee looked up to scratch in the footage that has emerged from his recent game, as he stalked the baize with ease. Lee hit a break of 46 to clear the table in frame one after Wattana had missed his shot.

Lee ultimately battled for three frames to win it by 2-1, and afterwards, both players took part in a trickshot competition. Questions over whether Lee could play on the World Snooker Tour now may rear their head once again.

However, it's understood that Lee would have to settle unpaid fines imposed by the WPBSA before taking to the tour again. According to Snooker HQLee owed the WPBSA £125,000 in legal fees related to his case and for unsuccessful appeals.

The WPBSA clarified: "Stephen Lee would need to reach a satisfactory agreement with the WPBSA over the settlement of his outstanding costs before he could return to compete at WPBSA/WST events."

Lee could have pursued qualification for this year's World Championship, as his ban from playing ceased in October 2024. He had previously expressed his reluctance to return to competition in an interview with The Mirror back in 2022.

He said: "I must get asked this weekly, daily, minutely. I would like to say no, but I am still capable of playing. Let's see what happens in two years. It's not a no, and not a yes. My eyes are getting worse, and I never had good eyes to start with. As you get older the determination and the fire goes."

Around the same time, Lee further trashed rumours of a comeback on Facebook, writing: "Not a chance of it my friend. I struggle to break off nowadays. It's down to my son now."

Lee responded to the match-fixing allegations at the time, claiming he was "totally innocent" and "devastated" by the guilty verdict. However, a tribunal found him guilty of intentionally throwing matches against Ken Doherty and Marco Fu at the 2008 Malta Cup, and also deliberately losing the opening frame in matches against Stephen Hendry and Mark King at the 2008 UK Championship.