John Higgins tried to bet on himself to lose

If you are going to cheat in sports then snooker has got to be one of the easiest in which to do it, after all we often see players in snooker matches miss what seems to be an easy shot and then end up losing a frame on the back of it but is John Higgins really a match fixer as the News of the World seems to be trying to make out? Higgins has been suspended from snooker for the time being by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) while Chairman Barry Hearn has a former Metropolitan Police officer investigate and we now have allegations that Higgins tried to place a bet on himself to lose during last year’s World Championship match against Shaun Murphy. Allegedly Higgins telephoned Ladbrokes during a break in the match but his bet was refused after Ladbrokes realised who they were dealing with which was just as well for Higgins really as he went on to win the World Championship, but these latest allegations by the newspaper are the result of an elaborate and expensive sting operation. The newspaper apparently flew Higgins and his manager to Kiev, set up fake web sites and held long meetings to persuade him that they were willing to fund a new tournament on the World Series Circuit and managed to talk him into an admission that he would throw a frame in exchange for money. We cannot of course condone any match fixing of any kind but we should also keep things in perspective; we are talking about throwing a frame not a match and it would have been a frame in an exhibition match not a tournament. Higgins and his manager are clearly very naive but we also cannot respect a newspaper that sets out such an elaborate sting operation. We shall wait to see what happens after the investigation.