Wow, I don’t even know where to start with this one. Shortly after the conclusion of tonight’s play I was made aware that the News of the World (a British newspaper for those of you not familiar), will be running with a story tomorrow alleging that John Higgins has agreed to lose frames in return for a monetary reward. Click below for more information and links to the relevant articles…
For the allegations in full and a link to the relevant video footage, please click:
Due to the sensitive nature of the articles I am not going to comment on the allegations themselves but when I heard the news I was both shocked and in all honesty gutted because this is the absolute last thing that snooker needed at the moment.
As someone who writes this blog not as a reporter or a paid journalist but as a fan of the sport, I am keen to see snooker thrive and to have the world number one embroiled in such a story on the morning of the World Championship final is a significant blow to the credibility of the sport, not to mention very unfortunate for both Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott whose brilliant runs to the final will no doubt be overshadowed by this.
Hopefully more information will come out, indeed judging from the quotes of both Higgins and Mooney within the second of those two articles it would appear that as ever there is more than meets the eye to this story and I would not like to speculate further.
I just hope that the matter is dealt with appropriately by the relevant people and that the damage to the image of the sport can be kept to a minimum while the truth can come out…
As I commented earlier on Janie Watkins page, this is schoking,and very sad….Please keep us update
I ment shocking
the way things are going imagine what happens when two players try to loose the same match
way to go higg’e'ns and good bye
I didn’t believe it at first, then I watched the video. There is no denying. What a sad, sad day for snooker. Unbelievable!!!! We won’t see him ever again. John Higgins of all people! Wow…..just wow……
The key thing for me here is the News of the World journalist involved in this case.
Read this article http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/why-i-am-out-to-nail-mazher-mahmood-474264.html or do a web search for Mazher Mahmood and you will see that his methods to expose people are underhand at best.
I suspect what he has done to John Higgins is another example of such a trap. A man of integrity has been put into a trap from which he can do very little to escape, all to futher the career of a journalist who takes pleasure in being as nasty as he can to tear good reputations into little peices.
you might disagree but i think it would be right to suspend higgins for a long long time. just like they did with quinten hann
I might have to go watch that video again to remind me that this is real. But could anyone imagine him returning to the world of snooker ever again? John didn’t deny the authenticity of the video in his statement so the consequences are dire: no more matches, no exhibitions, no future commentator gigs, no organisational involvement etc. On top of that his reputation is forever tarnished. Imagine being the best of the best and never again being able to compete. This really is a life sentence.
I think we need to be careful in jumping to conclusions here people!
Remember…. ‘innocent till proven guilty’.
Firstly, ask yourself how did a ‘News of the world’ reporter get in the situation whereby he or she is sitting ‘with’ a ‘group of business men’ in Kiev offering 300,000 euro to John Higgins to ‘throw’ frames. He/She was obviously part of the set-up and that is the appropriate phrase – a ‘set-up’.
Secondly, put yourself in a situation whereby you feel threatned. You also suspect that the people you’re with are part of a ‘mafia’ style gang and they have you and your manager ‘outnumbered’ in a private room while ‘offering’ you a deal?! – The question then is, do you tell them what you think they want to hear and get out of there asap, or do you stand on your moral grounds and risk that they ARE mafia members and risk whatever that outcome would be?
I’m not taking sides here at all, but I think we need to wait and hope that Barry can get this process working quickly… very quickly!
I believe snooker WILL win at the end of this debacle and WILL be stronger for it, but the process has to happen quickly and we need the outcome to get as much media coverage as this revelation did…
Not worth the risk then. I am disappointed for John, and if true, I’m disappointed in him.
if he had been so scared he wouldn’t have talked about how he would legalize the money. he would have just said yes yes and got the hell out of there
So talking about how you might do a crime is as bad as actually doing it? There is a reason the police are not allowed to use entrapment to prosecute people, they have to catch people in the act.
Is this not entrapment. I would seriously question the motives of NOTW also. All they care about is SELLING NEWS good or bad (the badder the better). This was a well planned and orchestrated set up. Don’t believe all you read. I would trust John over any news Paper. I live In Rochdale and have first hand experience of how the media works. Shame on you NOTW.
Of course NOTW is all about selling their rag, and taking part in creating the news you sell is ethically borderline at best. Still their video leaves Higgins with some explaining to do, and presently he does not seem to be doing the explaining very well.
Even if we assume that he first became aware of the shady side of the negotiations in Kiev, it is hard to see how he felt that going along to the degree depicted in the video would be the best way to get out. I can understand that a face-to-face “no” to what may be a russian mafia branch may not be the best of ideas, but surely agreeing to the deal first and backing out later must be even worse. Also, according to Mooney (*) it seems he had talked with the guys first, and discussed it with John in the hotel *the next morning*, advising to take caution and play along in the meeting. Would not that have been the appropriate time to get out of “Russia” fast, or at least make a few calls back home to insure that people knew about what was happening?
(*) http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/snooker/2010/05/03/you-can-accuse-us-of-being-idiots-but-not-match-fixers-says-john-higgins-manager-pat-mooney-86908-22230082/
for me playing snooker is a major part of my life and to here this news is unbelievable…cast your mind back though to alex,s statement about the game being corrupt…he wasn,t the only one who knew about this…to suspend john for life would be tragic for the game as he has always been a great role model…this is were he needs support from people who care about him and also the sport which we all love…if he did do wrong surely he can learn from his mistake so lets get together and support one of the most talented players to grace this beautiful game…