2019 World Snooker Championship

[MrRottweiler]

Higgins doesnt deserve a 5th world title , he should have banned for life for corruption a few years ago , i still to this day do not understand how he got away with blatant match fixing on camera , but he did , and now they were calling him the best match player in history when a month or so ago they were calling Ronnie the greatest player in history , make your mind up bbc pundits ! Rob Walker calls him into play as Scotlands greatest ever sportsman ???? You are not a sportsman when you accept bribes to lose , thats not a sportsman ! And besides which , surely Hendry must be regarded as better than him , good luck to Trump I hope he kicks his fat arse back to Scotland a loser again , he doesnt even deserve to be playing again !

It was dealt with and he was punished. It's in the past and I don't get the idea that a sportsperson shouldn't do well because of past deeds. We all make mistakes and the fate of the NOTW says a lot about the whole situation. The greatest sporting moments are when someone is on the ropes but fights back to win and Higgins has that quality more than any other player. It will make his retirement all the more sweeter so I will be hoping (praying) he wins and wins in style. Maybe a 147 in the first session and closes out the match with a total clearance.

[Mark187187]

Hi Stony I used to be , but I still to this day cannot get my head around how he got away with it , he claims he was terrified for his life , watch the video and tell me hes terrified , whilst hes toasting his dodgy deal over champagne . He to me is a man just motivated by money , whereas Hendry and Davis were motivated by winning . I lost all respect for him after him agreeing to miss balls for money on camera, other players have been banned for life , but as he was the world no 1 at the time I think, Barry Hearn let him off to save face for snooker and gave him a ban when there were no tournaments going on anyway . The man is probably not corrupt anymore because it scared the life out of him for being caught , but thats not the point he should have been banned 4 life , I dont respect him anymore, he shouldnt be playing in any wsa tournament let alone the WC , would like to see what Stephen Lee and Quinten Han would say ,people have short memories , its like saying that I murdered someone 10 years ago but its ok I got away with it and its in the past now , hope Trump beats him on the final black to really do his head in , but it wont really because he will still have £250000 that he never deserved .

No one's ever been banned for life. Cao got 3 years (6 years with 3 suspended) for actually throwing matches.

It's not like saying you murdered someone 10 years ago but got away with it. It's like saying you talked about murdering someone 10 years ago but never did it. First way, you're still in prison. Second way, you're still at home.

[bonoman1970]

It was dealt with and he was punished. It's in the past and I don't get the idea that a sportsperson shouldn't do well because of past deeds. We all make mistakes and the fate of the NOTW says a lot about the whole situation. The greatest sporting moments are when someone is on the ropes but fights back to win and Higgins has that quality more than any other player. It will make his retirement all the more sweeter so I will be hoping (praying) he wins and wins in style. Maybe a 147 in the first session and closes out the match with a total clearance.

He got a few months ban during the summer when at the time there were no tournaments anyway , his manager got banned for life ??? Sportsmen dont agree to throw matches for money , thats not my idea of a sportsman !

[Stony152]

Hi Stony I used to be , but I still to this day cannot get my head around how he got away with it , he claims he was terrified for his life , watch the video and tell me hes terrified , whilst hes toasting his dodgy deal over champagne . He to me is a man just motivated by money , whereas Hendry and Davis were motivated by winning . I lost all respect for him after him agreeing to miss balls for money on camera, other players have been banned for life , but as he was the world no 1 at the time I think, Barry Hearn let him off to save face for snooker and gave him a ban when there were no tournaments going on anyway . The man is probably not corrupt anymore because it scared the life out of him for being caught , but thats not the point he should have been banned 4 life , I dont respect him anymore, he shouldnt be playing in any wsa tournament let alone the WC , would like to see what Stephen Lee and Quinten Han would say ,people have short memories , its like saying that I murdered someone 10 years ago but its ok I got away with it and its in the past now , hope Trump beats him on the final black to really do his head in , but it wont really because he will still have £250000 that he never deserved .

I mostly feel the way you do. He got caught on camera agreeing to throw frames for money. The fact that he never actually did anything like that (as far as we know) shouldn't completely exonerate him. If you hire somebody to commit a crime, but then they back out you can still be charged with conspiracy.

The newspaper that set the whole thing up has been vilified, but they probably had some information to the effect that he would be likely to go along with it if given the chance and he did. And then he didn't report it right away. I don't know exactly if was in fear of his life, but it didn't appear that way in the video. In any event it has left a stain on his reputation that will always be there IMO. It's too bad, because he is a great player and competitor.

[Stony152]

When you google "John Higgins" the top search item is "John Higgins Russia" So no matter what anybody says, this stain on his reputation will always be there and do completely ignore it is disingenuous.

[bonoman1970]

He wasnt punished , he had a ban during the summer when at the time there were no tournaments anyway , because he was the golden boy he got away with it and his manager got banned for life and took the blame , John Higgins is a fraud , dont care how good he is , Im hoping Lance Armstrong comes back and wins the tour da france again soon !

[MrRottweiler]

He got a few months ban during the summer when at the time there were no tournaments anyway , his manager got banned for life ??? Sportsmen dont agree to throw matches for money , thats not my idea of a sportsman !

He wasn't found guilty of match fixing and to compare throwing a few frames to murder makes no sense in the same way calling him a fraud makes no sense. He has won all of his tournaments fair and square. He is a legend in Snooker that got caught up in something I'm sure he regrets every single day. His ability to put it behind him and get through to his third consecutive WC final makes me admire him even more.

[Stony152]

Gary is 100% convinced that kicks and bad bounces all come down to not using the right chalk.

[bonoman1970]

he got caught up in it because he was greedy for money even tho he was a millionaire anyway , he wasnt banned because Barry Hearn had just took over world snooker and they couldnt have the world no 1 at that time banned for corruption even tho to everyone else outside the Wsa he was guilty as sin to agreeing to fix matches for money , he thought it was a legitimate cheat /fraud to earn another £300 thousand , he was banned for a few months in the summer when at the time there were no tournaments anyway , he agreed to throw frames on camera , doesnt matter who filmed him , he agreed to throw money on camera and then came up with the bull**** that he was being threathend by russian maffia , whilst talking about how he would conceal money in his spanish property, he got away with it , should have been banned for life , hope Trump kicks his arse

[AndrewB]

He wasnt punished , he had a ban during the summer when at the time there were no tournaments anyway

He was banned for 6 months and missed the Shanghai Masters, the World Open and most of the Players' Tour events.

[snookerball]

No one's ever been banned for life. Cao got 3 years (6 years with 3 suspended) for actually throwing matches.

It's not like saying you murdered someone 10 years ago but got away with it. It's like saying you talked about murdering someone 10 years ago but never did it. First way, you're still in prison. Second way, you're still at home.

Quintenn Hann was effectively banned for life for agreeing to doing what John Higgins agreed to do to be fair. His eighteen year ban has another 5 years left to run.

[P.Smith]

When you google "John Higgins" the top search item is "John Higgins Russia" So no matter what anybody says, this stain on his reputation will always be there and do completely ignore it is disingenuous.

A player's reputation is based on google search predictions now, awesome insight. Funnily enough I tried this and it didn't come up!

[The Rook]

He wasnt punished , he had a ban during the summer when at the time there were no tournaments anyway , because he was the golden boy he got away with it and his manager got banned for life and took the blame , John Higgins is a fraud , dont care how good he is , Im hoping Lance Armstrong comes back and wins the tour da france again soon !

A weird comparison. Armstrong received a lifetime ban for taking performance enhancing drugs which could artificially inflate his capabilities (and other stuff too!), whereas Higgins was banned for failing to report an approach, and there is no evidence that he has ever fixed a frame – never mind a match. Hypothetically, a player throwing frames whilst simultaneously winning matches (effectively handicapping themselves) would be impressive. What I find amusing about many of the Higgins haters is that each time John plays badly they insinuate there must be a financial motive, thus (perhaps unintentionally) inferring that Higgins is so good that it's impossible for him to lose unless it's a fix.

[gavpowell]

When you google "John Higgins" the top search item is "John Higgins Russia" So no matter what anybody says, this stain on his reputation will always be there and do completely ignore it is disingenuous.

It doesn't appear on the first several pages here, even excluding his semi-final win. But given it took place in Ukraine, I'd be concerned about the quality of the source that used Russia as a keyword...

[P.Smith]

Quintenn Hann was effectively banned for life for agreeing to doing what John Higgins agreed to do to be fair. His eighteen year ban has another 5 years left to run.

He was banned for eight years in 2006...

I doubt anyone wants him back though