Barry Hearn faces a rival bid for control of snooker’s commercial arm World Snooker.

Former Olympian and businessman John Davison has already had his ideas backed by former World Champions Stephen Hendry and Peter Ebdon.

Ebdon himself was massively opposed to Hearn’s plans – which would see his Matchroom company take a permanent 51% stake in World Snooker and permanent clearly meant forever in the meat of these plans.

“You cannot possibly give control of the association away under any circumstances.” said Ebdon at the World Championships.

The rival bid would see Davison take a larger stake at 63%, but this would only be for a fixed 15-year period, after which the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association would be able to make the rights available for tender once again.

Davison has stated that prize-money will rise from the current £3.5million to £5million for next season – Hearn has outlined £4.5million for next season and stated there will be 10 ranking events on the calendar, rising to 11 in 2011/12.

The Snooker Players’ Association called for a financial probe to be undertaken before any decision is made at next Wednesday’s EGM.

An SPA statement read: “In light of the new proposal made by John Davison, the Snooker Players’ Association insists that WPBSA pays for an independent review from a reputable firm of auditors such as Deloitte or PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and report its findings and recommendations back to its members before any votes are taken at the EGM.”

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