Those of you who follow Snooker Scene’s Dave Hendon on Twitter will already have seen this but there is a very interesting piece over at Sporting Intelligence revealing the details of the lengths that the News of the World went to in order to create the John Higgins story. Click here to read it.
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Joe
May 5, 2010 at 10:00 am (UTC 0)
Allegedly
Mooney: Like money but with an extra o. Greedy.
Oh Higgins
Are these the beginnings of the end
for snooker.
Why John?
I expect such behaviour from Steven Lee
But you?
You were a god to me.
Now you’ve failed to find the baulk cushion.
What must John Higgins Senior think.
also a joke:
John Higgins walks into a bar and the barman says: “Why the long face?”
“I’ve brought shame on myself, dragged my sport into disrepute and my career is in tatters.” Said Higgins
JohnH
May 5, 2010 at 5:38 pm (UTC 0)
This whole thing rests on whether or not John Higgins is being truthful or a liar. The only thing to do is consider his character and make your choice.
Claus Christensen
May 5, 2010 at 7:46 pm (UTC 0)
I sincerely hope that the WPBSA will resolve this in the coming days. Imagine what this would have resulted in under the Walker administration. Of course it is pure speculation but I fear that it would have been months and not weeks. The waters are definitely less murky with Barry Hearn in charge. The whole sport is at stake. I just want this to be over with quickly even if heads have to roll.
Trophymad
May 5, 2010 at 8:27 pm (UTC 0)
Well there’s one thing that has allreaddy happened: Read what’s written in the various snooker message boards (I read three of them) “I wonder what ohter matches have been fixed” “The match of John vs. Steve Davis has to be reviewed again” “Ronnie lost in a very strange way in China”… Whoever this anonymus person was that talked to NotW, he did wound Snooker in a way that I fear for it’s survival. It’s not just any player, it’s John Higgins, Snooker’s Number one player and the poster child for a clean and fair sportsman.If someone like John is capable of match fixing, then anyone is. I still am in shock.
Nerdhan
May 5, 2010 at 11:15 pm (UTC 0)
These lowlifes involved in setting up this sting, really need to get their mouths smacked….. They themslves are no better than common criminals…. Don’t let em get away with this John! .
Tommy
May 6, 2010 at 10:24 am (UTC 0)
I’m really quite angry about this. My anger is not directed at Higgins though, but at almost everyone else involved
Sting operations are particularly morally depraved affairs. They should be outlawed for the press the same as they are outlawed for the police. It hardly seems worth the effort of venting anger at NOTW scum reporters, it’s not like they don’t do it all the time. One of the gripes I have here is that they put a victim in a position that they might never have found themselves in, and force them to make a choice. Where are all the failed sting operations? If Higgins had walked out of the room when it became apparent that match fixing was being discussed, would we be seeing front page headlines of ‘Higgins is clean!’ World number 1 is a great ambassador for the sport…etc etc ???? No we wouldn’t! Horrible f***ing slime balls, ruining peoples lives to sell newspapers, I hope they meet some real Russian gangsters.
Shame on the general public for blindly accepting the context that the NOTW has given you for these heavily edited videos.
There has been much made of how comfortable Higgins looks in the footage; not perturbed at all. Of course he is cool and calm. This wasn’t an episode of Eastenders where every emotion has to be expressed on the face so that the audience know what the characters are thinking. This was real life and putting myself in John’s shoes, if I thought my family were in danger I’d be Laurence Olivier, Tom Hanks and Robert de Niro all rolled in to one.
As for Barry Hearn. The man was practically dripping with schadenfreude. All his Christmases really came at once here. The chance to get his patronising cockney fizzog on the telly just at the time he’s trying to sex up the game. He spoke like Higgins was a deadman walking precluded by statements of how they were “mates” and about how he was “crying down the phone” – all the time shaking his head like he’d been let down. Making references to the two finalist as if they’d also been let down. If you were a f***ing mate, Barry, you would believe the guy you’ve known for 15 years and not some scummy NOTW reporters, at least until an investigation had shown otherwise.
Of course, the WSS was something that Hearn had no involvement in, and could have been seen as a competitor. I wonder if that has any bearing on the swift response from Hearn? I wonder why the edited video leaves in the point about it being WSS games only? I wonder why Barry Hearn would expect to be contacted immediately about a matter that he is not directly involved in? I wonder why Barry Hearn is not being asked more probing questions. When you look for a perpetrator, you look to see stands to gain. Barry Hearn will gain more than most out of this debacle.
Hazel Irvine, John Parrott and Steve Davis should be equally ashamed of themselves, but I’m sure Hearn has instructed all involved in the sport to tow the party line.
These games were some time in the future and there would be time work out the best course of action. The context of the agreements and discussions of how payments would be made, could easily have been distorted.
I feel sorry for Higgins, I really do, I can’t help thinking that even when he is found not guilty, his career in snooker and what he had lined up in the way of media appearances for afterwards is probably dead in the water. He has been badly let down by his so called fans.
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
John
May 7, 2010 at 10:23 am (UTC 0)
Tommy:
Higgins can stand up and leave. He is world champion, I dont think he had reason to be feared of his life or whatever and this excuse it childish. Mooney is a dumbhead, it is Higgins foult to pay manager like he. Sure, things can be complicated, but for the moment either is Higgins naive idiot or a scumbag. We all have to leave with that.
Snooker Cluj
May 7, 2010 at 9:07 pm (UTC 0)
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
that’s the right attitude towards anybody. let’s not make john an exception to that.
John Higgins: The Details Behind the Sting II « Pro Snooker Blog
May 8, 2010 at 10:31 am (UTC 0)
[...] on from the article that I linked to during my previous article on the subject, there have been minor developments concerning the John Higgins saga as again [...]