By Nick Harris 10 September 2010 Irony: snooker’s world No1 player cleared of match fixing but banned for six months and fined £75,000 for talking about betting, two days before the game’s governing body announces its latest tie-up with the bookmaking industry. In a statement on World Snooker’s website today, it is announced that the […]

JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) […]

By Brian Sears 9 September 2010 After all the talk last season that Chelsea had an old team in need of freshening up, they won the title, scoring record numbers of goals in the process. So just as “you’ll win nothing with kids” turned out to be off the mark, a mature side shouldn’t be […]

8 September 2010 The former Liverpool manager, Gérard Houllier, who last worked in English football at Liverpool – with whom he parted company in May 2004 – has this evening been confirmed as the successor to Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa. Houllier famously led Liverpool to a cup treble in 2000-01, and after leaving Anfield […]

By Pete Wilson 8 September 2010 A parliamentary debate on football ownership today in Westminster Hall heard praise for the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST), which had lobbied so effectively that 632 MPs (97 per cent of the total of 650 MPs) had received letters from their United-supporting constituents in recent days. (Which must say something […]

The following statement has been released by the News of the World after the verdict in his ‘match fix’ tribunal. . Further to this, Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker told the News of the World: “It has been a difficult couple of months for snooker and an episode from which we need to learn lessons. […]

The following statements have been released by the WPBSA and Pat Mooney after the verdict in his ‘match fix’ tribunal. . WPBSA Statement A hearing under the auspices of Sport Resolutions UK on September 7 and 8, 2010, heard of charges which John Higgins admitted through his lawyers before the hearing. The charges were 1. Intentionally […]

The following statement has been released by John Higgins after the verdict in his ‘match fix’ tribunal. . STATEMENT BY JOHN HIGGINS 8th Sept 2010 I welcome today’s judgement by Sport Resolutions and endorsed by the WPBSA following their exhaustive enquiry into the allegations against me by a tabloid newspaper. I am pleased that Sport […]

8 September 2010 There follows, in full, the ruling made today by Ian Mill QC in relation to the John Higgins ‘match fix’ case. We are also running a news story. But in short, Higgins has been cleared of the most serious charges of fixing or intent to fix matches (charges dropped), but has been […]

By Nick Harris 8 September 2010 The world No1 snooker player John Higgins will be free to resume his playing career in November after being cleared today of the most serious charges laid against him relating to allegations of match-fixing. Two charges were dropped: 1) agreeing or offering to accept a bribe, bribes or other […]