John Higgins match fixing claims

DubGF

I hope this is the case !!!

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2010/09/08/breaking-news-john-higgins-back-to-snooker-soon-after-clearance-on-match-fix-charges-080901/

zack01

£75K fine and free to resume playing

Ghost Train

Decent fine, but the ban is pretty short, will be interesting to see how he does when he comes back

DubGF

Delighted with the outcome.

mike65

6 months ban 75k fine, Higgins’ business partner banned forever and yet he's still the hero.

giant_midget

mike65 wrote: »

6 months ban 75k fine, Higgins’ business partner banned forever and yet he's still the hero.

because his manager was the one who set up the meeting, They were right to hang him out to dry..

mike65

I haven't seen the details yet but if Higgins was dumb enough to go along with this he should be banned for more than 6 months.

giant_midget

mike65 wrote: »

I haven't seen the details yet but if Higgins was dumb enough to go along with this he should be banned for more than 6 months.

I think it had to be proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Higgins intended to fix the outcome of the frames. He would have launched an appeal if it went against him.

I for one am looking forward to seeing him play again in Oct, I hope he was putting in the hours on the practice table over the summer.

thewander

Good summary here:

http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2010/09/john-higgins-tribunal-findings.html

giant_midget

thewander wrote: »

Good summary here:

http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2010/09/john-higgins-tribunal-findings.html

Excellent write up there, That covers everything..

very fair as well giving him 90 days rather than 30 to pay the fine.

FlawedGenius

Got away with it big time IMO.

katnia

This is not justice, he should be banned for far longer. To think that they just dropped the charges of match fixing & bribery makes me mad, it was plain for all to see he was certainly going along with the idea at the meeting in Kiev. Barry Hearn had his chance to establish a new era for snooker and in my view he has just blown it, how can you follow a sport that does not adequately punish cheats...? I'm very disappointed by this 'justice'

mike65

I guess the NOTW can still say they broke a case of sporting corruption so they'll be happy enough.

Myrddin

So the match fixing charges were dropped, and he was found guilty of "'intentionally giving the impression to others that they were agreeing to act in breach of the Betting Rules'"...what a cop-out by the board.

I like Higgins, but it's funny how the argument about edited voiceovers etc came about months after the incident. Why did he not voice his concerns about this immediately after the video was released? What's wrong with saying "Hey folks, that's a great video & all, but that's NOT what I said!"???

That one point alone convinces me he's not 100% innocent here. His only defence was that he agreed to do it becasue he felt intimidated, that's what his press-release said, & that's what he said. Nothing about edited voices etc.

Sorry, but this just proves to me that the board feel that the game can't take a big hit like this...sad really.

col.in.Cr

thats a joke
I was a fan of his before but he will always be the
Weasel Of Wishaw now

Warper

Absolute joke of a verdict - people will hate him even more now than before the court case.

Myrddin

I wouldn't victimise him too heavily, & I'd hate to see him reviled over this. It's more the board I'm angry with, no player is bigger than the game. I can't help but think if it were Stuart Bingham instead of Higgins, would the enquiry have the same outcome? I pity the fans from now though, as every match Higgins loses from here on out will echo pub comments like "He probably earned more from losin' that match than winnin a bleedin' tournament wa?"

zack01

Guys, I've said this all along that Higgins was innocent, and now that has been proven, the six month ban is the actual time he will have served until he can enter the next event which is a players tour event in Germany in November, he missed this weeks Shanghai Masters and the next tournament The World Open in his native Scotland.
He was accused, he has stood trial and had been cleared.
Let the man resume his career.

Myrddin

zack01 wrote: »

Guys, I've said this all along that Higgins was innocent, and now that has been proven

The charges were dropped were they not? He only faced charges of betting discussions. I'd love to think he was innocent I really would, but the video is a killer to watch, it's hard to feel he's innocent while watching it.

KrazeeEyezKilla

I always liked Higgins but theres something not right about the whole case. Why wasn't he charged with match fixing or bringing the sport into disrepute. I wonder what Quintin Hann makes of it considering he got an eight year ban for a fairly similar offence.

fryup

well as long as you have a shady character like Barry Hearn as head true justice was never going to be handed out

disgrace of a decision, and another nail in the snooker coffin

ArmaniJeanss

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote: »

I wonder what Quintin Hann makes of it considering he got an eight year ban for a fairly similar offence.

Well for starters only one of them was found guilty of the major offence of matchfixing - calling them fairly similar offences and remarking on the disparity of punishment is akin to wondering why a murderer and someone guilty of affray get different sentences for 'fairly similar offences'.

Speak Now

Foul and a miss :rolleyes:

Lemegeton

this is a disgrace. even though the video is heavily edited Higgins body language and demeanour speak volumes. he knew what was going on and to not be charged with match fixing is a disgrace. I know what Barry Hearn is up to, he is trying to rebuild snooker and does not want to lose a player of higgins ability. and now because of this the media coverage of his first tournament back will send the ratings sky high. A deal was clearly made to drop the match fixing charge as there is no way anyone would accept him facing that charge and being cleared

giant_midget

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote: »

I always liked Higgins but theres something not right about the whole case. Why wasn't he charged with match fixing or bringing the sport into disrepute. I wonder what Quintin Hann makes of it considering he got an eight year ban for a fairly similar offence.

Quintenn Hann never turned up for his hearing to defend himself and got an automatic 8 year ban, maybe would have turned out different if he bothered to show up and explain himself...

zack01

Guys, from what I've been reading, you all had him down as guilty of match fixing. He has been found innocent of that charge, there are two things he is guilty of and they are.
1: He should have reported this meeting to the WSA on his return to the UK, so that when the story broke the WSA could have issued a counter statement that they had full knowledge of this and that would have been the end of it.
2: John Higgins should not have taken a chancer like Pat Mooney as his manager, his father John senior was his manager from the start of his career and guided him sucessfully to his world championships triumphs etc until he had to stand down due to ill health, this I know deeply affected John as he is very close to his father, so along comes Mooney and sweet talks his way into Higgin's career and in addition onto a position on the WSA board.
Mind you if you think back to the days of Rex Williams and Geoff Foulds as board members he would have been in good company with those two chancers!

I know a lot of people here have their opinions of Barry Hearn, but and you have to take this on board, he has in his short time as WSA chairman turned the game inside out, the players were crying out for more tournaments, more prize money, he had delievered, and it's not just for the big boys either it's the lower ranked guys who are finally getting some match play with the higher ranked players and the chance to play nearly every two weeks.
By the end of July Mark Selby had earned £50K by winning the 6 red in Thailand and the first players tour event, even Barry Pinches had captured over £15K by mid august through the players tour!
He is delivering on his word of reinventing snooker, the next event 'The World Open' should make for great viewing, with it's open draw each round and best 5 frame matches, it should be great fun.
On a final note, don't believe for a minute that Hearn had anything to do with the outcome of the Higgins case, it was an independent tribunal that read and heard all evidence, made interviews and scheduled the hearing.
If Higgins was to have been found guilty make no mistake Hearn and the WSA would have handed out a severe punishment.
So don't knock Higgins, he was cleared, he knows he made a mistake not informing the governing body of the meeting, let him get on with his career, and as for Hearn, all you so called snooker fans out there, if at the end of this season you don't think snooker has gone forward then post your comments and critizise him and the game, don't just post a comment when you don't really know what's going on!!

Lemegeton

zack01 wrote: »

Guys, from what I've been reading, you all had him down as guilty of match fixing. He has been found innocent of that charge, there are two things he is guilty of and they are.

what you fail to realise is that being found innocent of match fixing IS NOT the same thing as the charge being dropped. for him to be found innocent of match fixing he would need to face that charge. that has not happened.
the whole thing stinks of some kind of plea bargain.
I think Barry Hearn is great and while i question the ethics of this decision i know he is acting in the best interest of the sport as he sees it.
but John Higgins was not found innocent of match fixing. he never faced that charge

Myrddin

Lemegeton wrote: »

but John Higgins was not found innocent of match fixing. he never faced that charge

Exactly, the charges were dropped were they not. He was caught match fixing on tape, and never faced charges for said offence...that's what people have a problem with here. Whether he felt intimidated, or was genuinely match fixing...they chose not to investigate.

I've nothing against Hearn, as Zack pointed out, it was an independant board. But to drop the charges, that's just shocking. Even if they pre-decided that he was innocent, at least run the damn charges and make John prove a case against the tape. All he did yesterday was state he didn't fix any matches, and his origninal press release stands. That's just not good enough for the world number 1...of any bloody sport. What a farce.

ArmaniJeanss

Zak, who made the decision to drop the matchfixing charge, was it the WSA and if so were they acting under advice?

It seems to be the issue that people have most problem with.

Now personally I can see that an independent tribunal chaired by a QC would have laughed at them if they'd brought a flimsy matchfixing case based on the NOTW story. But in hindsight I think they should have gone ahead with it, and let the tribunal point out how ludicrous a 'conviction' based on the NOTW article would be. Because now it looks like an 'under the carpet' job.

Myrddin

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Zak, who made the decision to drop the matchfixing charge, was it the WSA and if so were they acting under advice?

It seems to be the issue that people have most problem with.

Now personally I can see that an independent tribunal chaired by a QC would have laughed at them if they'd brought a flimsy matchfixing case based on the NOTW story. But in hindsight I think they should have gone ahead with it, and let the tribunal point out how ludicrous a 'conviction' based on the NOTW article would be. Because now it looks like an 'under the carpet' job.

Agreed, that it does. But it was more than just an article. Although edited, he's caught on video agreeing to drop frames. Intentions aside, it doesn't get any more black & white than that.