http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1310294/John-Higgins-hook--snooker.html#comments
Never forget the fact we have a man who agreed to match fix on video as a professional player in this sport. Thanks to a disgraceful whitewash, he was let off the hook. Quinten Hann on the other hand was banned for 7 years for the same crime. The tribunal was not allowed to consider match fixing because the WSA removed the charge with no reason given other than they believed John's story. This means he was NOT found not guilty. The fact he did not report the approach has been described as "foolish", and that's it.
This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in sport, and I won't ever forget it.
What we need is the police to be able to file charges and not the governing bodies. What happened here was the WSA could set the charge and the setting was not a proper court of law. If you place Higgins in front of a jury and hand them the evidence, I believe he would be found guilty. He would need to explain the following:
1. Why he did not notify the authorities that he had been approached.
2. Why he ended up in that room with his manager
3. Why he was laughing and joking and toasting drinks, if he truly was in fear of his life.
These are things that a jury would deliberate on and come to a consensus on. It wouldn't be as easy as a report saying "we believe him, so it's cool". 1 and 3 of the above have never been explained by Higgins adequately.. his answer for the first is he was just silly, and no one has bothered with the third. In a court of law, he would HAVE to explain himself.
When you allow a governing body to set the charge, you get corruption. It would be like a police chief being able to set the charge against one of its own officers. Clearly, that is open to severe corruption. Sadly, with Higgins, that is what I believe happened.
I won't ever forget this.
posted on 24/2/13
I think that Higgins did get off pretty lightly, and no doubt his standing in the game probably played a part in what was probably a fairly lenient punishment. Whatever happened at that time, since then I can honestly say that I wouldn't suspect Higgins of anything dodgy (and of course he would be a fool to do so anyway). However, there are some who will never be able to forgive Higgins, whether entirely innocent or not, for his role in the whole scandal, and I completely understand that viewpoint.
Personally, I was never a Higgins fan or hater before the whole incident. Since it happened, he's gone down a notch or 2 further in terms of players I'm not that keen on, and it's only a handful of players that I would be supporting Higgins against if having to choose one.
What I have noticed is that a lot of people in the limelight are either extremely stupid, or very clever at looking extremely stupid
posted on 26/2/13
If the tribunal had been allowed to consider the match fixing aspect and Higgins had been found innocent, I would have had a lot more respect left. Especially if the big questions had been answered... but it was all conveniently swept under the rug.
posted on 27/2/13
Higgins' good character has influenced these proceedings, to a very big extent - on one side people will say, why would he need to do this, he has loads of cash, the other side will say, he did this because he thought he could get away with it, and as you say, we have never really found out the answer, which is the most annoying thing. So we go back to his character, and generally speaking he's been given the benefit of the doubt by the powers that be.
From a snooker point of view, it means that Higgins' legacy will always be tarred by this incident, and that is something that he will need to live with.
posted on 5/3/13
he got away with it because he is probably the best snooker player in the world if the authorities crucified him they would damage a growing sport. It would be like Messi getting put in prison for fixing only thing is snooker might not be able to recover from something like that