DP World Tour: LIV Golf players told to pay £100,000 over 'serious breaches'

Lee Westwood taking part in a LIV golf event — England's Lee Westwood was one of 12 players appealing against the DP World Tour's sanctions

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LIV Golf rebels committed "serious breaches" by leaving the DP World Tour to play in the Saudi Arabia-funded events, a panel has ruled.

The 12 players have now been told to pay the £100,000 fines originally imposed within 30 days.

Arbitration body Sporting Resolutions said DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley "acted entirely reasonably in refusing releases".

Pelley said he welcomed the decision by the independent three-person panel.

LIV players may now face bans from the Europe-based DP World Tour and the Ryder Cup.

England's Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were among 12 players appealing against punishments the tour wanted to impose for playing in the inaugural LIV event at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire in June.

They were suspended from the Scottish Open and two events in the United States and fined for failing to abide by the tour's refusal of waivers to play at the LIV tournament, which coincided with the DP World Tour's Scandinavian Mixed event.

The players argued that they were independent contractors and had not been prevented from playing on rival circuits such as the PGA Tour in the past.

The DP World Tour objected, saying that players competing in simultaneous events on the LIV tour was damaging to its long established calendar.

During the hearing that took place behind closed doors in February, the panel found that the DP World Tour "has legitimate and justifiable interest in protecting the rights of its membership".

"We are delighted that the panel recognised we have a responsibility to our full membership to do this and also determined that the process we followed was fair and proportionate," said Pelley in a statement.

"In deciding the level of these sanctions last June, we were simply administering the regulations which were created by our members and which each of them signed up to."

The US-based PGA Tour is involved in a separate anti-trust lawsuit with LIV Golf and a handful of its players who were suspended for playing on the LIV circuit.