Higgins accused of trying to bet on himself to lose (updated)

As promised, the News of the World have released their follow-up to last week’s story concerning John Higgins and the accusation that will feature in tomorrow’s edition of the News of the World is that during the 2009 World Championship final against Shaun Murphy, John attempted to place a bet on a Murphy victory in order to soften the financial blow of a possible defeat…

  • To view the front page of the newspaper, please click here.
  • To view the article in full, please click here.

More will follow in the morning but after last week’s undoubtedly serious allegations, these are relatively tame in comparison, particularly as Higgins did not even place the bet as is suggested by the article’s headline.

While such a bet would surely be in breach of the rules, there is no suggestion that John fixed the match as of course he went on to win it and I suspect that the claim that Higgins could be stripped of his world title is fanciful to say the least.

We shall see tomorrow whether there is an official statement from the WPBSA on the subject…