http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/197 ... llegationsJOHN HIGGINS TO ANSWER MATCH FIXING ALLEGATIONS
Sunday September 5,2010
By Hector Nunns
WORLD snooker No1 John Higgins will this week try to clear his name against match-fixing allegations that have cast a shadow over the sport.
Higgins, 35, was suspended from snooker in May after newspaper claims that he agreed to lose frames for £261,000 in proposed new tournaments.
The three-time world champion, who travelled to Kiev with ex-manager Pat Mooney for a meeting with undercover journalists posing as Russian businessmen, has always insisted he is innocent.
And having vowed to clear his name, Higgins has assembled a crack legal team to fight to save his career this week at an independent hearing.
But the delay in the case being heard – despite a pledge by World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn that the affair would be dealt with in “days or weeks, rather than months” – has been criticised by three-time world champ Ronnie O’Sullivan.
He is disappointed that both the player and the sport have been left in limbo. O’Sullivan, 34, said: “I do think they should have sorted it out by now, and shouldn’t have let it go on this long.
“If they had dealt with it earlier, then if he was guilty he’d be punished and we’d all know where we stood.
“If he was cleared, then he could have played in Shanghai this week and at the World Open in his home city, plus the Premier League.
“You are penalised by missing tournaments even before being proved guilty.
“Sooner rather than later means everyone would know where they stood. I have had things hanging over me before, and it’s not a nice feeling.
“He’s the world No1 and is, therefore, going to be high-profile, and we can’t all move on until it’s sorted.
“Barry Hearn moved quickly initially, announcing the suspension and the investigation. But since then it’s taken a long time to get to this week’s tribunal.”
Hearn initiated an internal investigation shortly after the allegations appeared on the eve of this year’s world championship final.
That report, conducted by former Metropolitan Police chief David Douglas, was then passed to Sports Resolutions. The tribunal will be headed by Ian Mill QC.
What Ronnie expresses there is no different to what many fans feel, and of course he has been there himself and John is a friend so his "criticisms" are understandable. If John is innocent he has paid a very high price for maybe just not reporting that approach immediately as he should have done, and when your career is at stake four months is an eternity of anguish and worry.
However four months is not really that long for such a serious investigation. Barry Hearn hoped that it could be dealt with before the new season began maybe, but as the various articles by "sporting intelligence" have highlighted, the case proved more complex than initially expected.
It is all important that the case would be handled with the uttermost care.
It is for the sport itself: when a member of the gouverning body board and a three times World Champion and current Number 1 are approached to set up match fixing and are under suspicion to have got along with it, it treathens the integrity of the sport to its very core. Especially when that sport relies so much on the betting business for its sponsoring. Trust must be restored and it can't be taken lightly.
It is important for John. He must be allowed enough time to carefully prepare his defence, to be given all the time and resources he needs to present his own version of the story and, hopefully clear his name and restore his honour.
Ronnie had to wait almost 8 months to know his fate over the walk-out, an incident that caused a lot of inconveniences but that by now way was treathening the foundation of snooker as a sport. Four months for such a serious and complex case really isn't that much even if, of course, for those involved and who's carreers are at stake, it is understanbly hard to take.
