Snooker’s Higgins cleared of match-fixing

The former world champion has been suspended since May, after a News of the World sting accused him of being involved in bribery and a betting scam.

At an independent tribunal hearing today, however, he was cleared of the most serious charges, with the blame levelled instead at his agent.

But Mr Higgins did admit bringing the game into disrepute by not reporting the illegal approach made to him to discuss throwing frames.

As a result he was today suspended for six months, backdated to his initial suspension in May, and fined £75,000.

Mr Higgins said: “I welcome today’s judgement by Sport Resolutions and endorsed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) following their exhaustive enquiry into the allegations against me by a tabloid newspaper.

He added that he was pleased that the tribunal had concluded that “I was not guilty of any dishonesty and had no intention to fix a match and no intention to do anything corrupt”.

He also repeated his statement from May, saying: “I have never been involved in any form of snooker match fixing. In my 18 years playing professional snooker I have never deliberately missed a shot, never mind intentionally lost a frame or a match. If I am guilty of anything it is of naivety and trusting those who, I believed, were working in the best interests of snooker and myself.”

Higgins looked 'tense'
If John Higgins looked a trifle tense when he emerged from the hearing, he had good reason, writes Channel 4 News reporter Keme Nzerem from the hearing.
His life has been on hold for the last four months and, it turns out, will continue to be for another two.
Suspended for six months and fined nearly £100,000 for failing to lift the lid on a betting scam.
Now, of course, that betting scam was a fake, and the News of the World, the paper that was behind it, has much to answer for.
But the QC who led the hearing saved his ire for John Higgin's agent, Pat Mooney, who he said was an "unimpressive witness" and said much of his account was implausible.
The judge laid the blame squarely at the now-banned snooker agent's door.
"I very strongly suspect that he intended to put the corrupt agreement...into effect without having decided precisely how he would do this...his motivation throughout was, I find, financial self interest.
"He committed the most egregrious betrayals of trust - both in relation to the [snooker] association...and to Mr Higgins, whose entire career and professional future he inexplicably put at serious and wholly unjustifiable risk." 

Mr Higgins’ suspension ends in November. He was given the suspension and fine after admitting “intentionally giving the impression to others that they were agreeing to act in breach of the betting rules” and failing to report the matter to World Snooker – but the charges of “agreeing or offering” to accept bribes and “agreeing to engage in corrupt or fraudulent conduct” were dropped.

The allegations stem from a News of the World film, when Mr Higgins and his manager Pat Mooney appear to accept £261,000 to fix matches.

The paper published the story in May and Mr Higgins was suspended. However, the judge accepted Mr Higgins’ defence at the hearing that he had only been informed just before the match-fixing meeting of what it may involve, and then did not make a fuss in the meeting as it was not in his nature. He never agreed to the bribe, and never fixed any matches.

The judge said, however, that his agent Mr Mooney, did seem as though “he intended to put the corrupt agreement…into effect without having decided precisely how he would do this”, and has been permanently suspended from the WPBSA.

In a statement, the WPBSA said: “Having studied all of the evidence in its entirety, the WPBSA and Sports Resolutions accept that there has been no dishonesty on the part of John Higgins and accordingly the WPBSA has withdrawn the allegations of match fixing against him…

“John Higgins has agreed to play a leading role in a new educational programme for snooker players, which will form part of the Integrity Unit to be set up by WPBSA Disciplinary Committee Chairman David Douglas.”

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said: “John made a mistake in failing to report the meeting in Kiev. He has admitted this mistake and expressed great regret at what happened.

“The evidence, which has been exhaustively studied by David Douglas and Sport Resolutions, suggests that he was led into this situation and did not instigate any discussions of corrupt activity. It seems certain, in view of his previous record and the ambassadorial work he has done for snooker, that this was a mistake he will never repeat. I’m sure Sport Resolutions took these factors into account in coming to their verdict.”