Higgins pledges to fight match-fixing allegations
London, May 3: World snooker supremo Barry Hearn vowed on Monday that anyone found guilty of match-fixing would be dealt with severely and swiftly, after world number one John Higgins was suspended over bribery claims.
“There will be nothing, I repeat absolutely nothing, that will stop this matter being dealt with in the fastest possible timetable so we can have this matter resolved and get down to concentrating on what we love to concentrate on, this wonderful game,” Hearn told a news conference.
He said he was “absolutely flabbergasted” by the allegations made against Higgins by the News of the World.
The Sunday tabloid released a video showing Higgins and his manager Pat Mooney agreeing to lose four frames in matches to be played later this year in return for a 300,000-euro ($400,000) bribe.
Higgins has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he will fight to clear his name.
Hearn said he had spoken to Higgins, whom he had known for 20 years, since the allegations were made.
“I spoke to John. The guy is in bits. I can sympathise, empathise with him because the game has been his whole life,” Hearn explained. He said that while everyone was innocent until proven guilty, “I said ‘it doesn’t look good, John’... I stressed to John that this is not something that is going away.”
Hearn said that there was no evidence of any irregular betting patterns in the ongoing world championships in Sheffield, England. Australia’s Neil Roberton is facing Graeme Dott in the final.
But Hearn vowed that “if there is a sickness in snooker, that is the death knoll of snooker”. If any sickness were found, it “will be removed in a brutal manner.”