LONDON: World snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has landed himself in trouble with the sport's authorities for claiming on Twitter that many players on the circuit are fixing matches.

A day after former world No. 5 Stephen Lee was found guilty of fixing seven matches, O'Sullivan, snooker's most celebrated player , tweeted Tuesday ''I've heard there's many more players who throw snooker matches.''

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said making such allegations ''without informing the governing body through the correct channels is wholly unacceptable and extremely damaging to the sport.''

Hearn has asked O'Sullivan to explain his comments and provide ''names of the players that he is referring to.''

O'Sullivan later tweeted that he had ''no concrete evidence of match fixing in snooker.''