Snooker fans baffled as 'never seen before' foul causes stir in 'nightmare' Northern Ireland Open clash

Snooker fans have been left baffled after Hossein Vafaei was penalised for a 'never seen before' foul against Jimmy White in the Northern Ireland Open.

The two met in the last 64 in Belfast, with White winning 4-2 in the best of 7 frames clash.

But the encounter included one of the most controversial moments in recent snooker history when White was one frame from a win.

Vafaei had a foul given against him as despite having the white ball in hand, the referee felt that it had been placed ever so slightly outside the D.

The Iranian appeared extremely confused and protested that it was on the yellow spot, leading to the referee, Kevin Dabrowski, telling Vafaei: "I'm 100% certain. "Hossein, would you like to take a look? It's very obvious. You can see on the video it's outside of the D. I'm 100% sure."

On commentary, Neal Foulds was unsure and admitted he had "never seen that before" in the sport.

Foulds commented: "Well we're seeing it. I can't tell. It's got to be over the line I suppose, rather than on the line. It looked like it might have been in. But I'm not going to say either way.

"I don't think it's very obvious, one way or another."

The referee and both players went over to a nearby camera to check the incident and 62-year-old White, who then headed back to the table for his shott, did agree that it was "slightly out".

There was still plenty of confusion over an extremely rare foul being awarded and former Masters champion Alan McManus did a piece of analysis afterwards to clear things up.

"It's on the player, that's the first thing to say. The player is responsible for putting the cue ball in the D properly," McManus stated.

"He is using both lines, the baulk line and the D-line; it must be inside both. This isn't football we're playing here; it's totally different. The cue ball can't be touching the line. So although it's touching it, it's more out than in and that's basically what the referee has to look at.

"But one more thing that I didn't know, the player in question can ask the referee when he places the cue ball, is the cue ball now in the D, or is it not? The referee is duty-bound. The referee must answer yes or no, as simple as that.

"So it clears that one up, I think. It means that Kevin Dabrowski, in my opinion, made the correct call. I think that's conclusive proof that it was a good decision."

White described his victory as "bizarre" and the six-time world champion will now take on Martin O’Donnell in the last 32 on Wednesday.