Snooker not in the clear yet

John Higgins was cleared of frame-fixing yesterday, but for many in the sport it was the wrong man in the dock. The World No1 may have been cleared, but snooker faces a tough battle to convince the public that the sport is clean, writes Owen Gibson in The Guardian.

All the main protagonists – World Snooker, John Higgins, the News of the World – had reason to claim some form of victory following yesterday's verdict on the case that rocked the World Championship in May and has cast a shadow over it ever since. Even Higgins' former manager Pat Mooney, damned as the villain of the piece and in effect banned from the sport for life by Ian Mill QC, saw the two worst charges against him dropped on a technicality.

But no one felt much like popping champagne. The newspaper's investigatory methods again came under scrutiny, Higgins was exposed as naive if not downright foolish and snooker's governing body still faces a huge challenge to persuade the public the sport is clean. The man in charge of its new anti-corruption unit last night warned that the worst possible outcome from the decision to clear Higgins of the most serious match-fixing charges would be to believe that it was in the clear.

David Douglas, the former Metropolitan Police detective chief superintendent, has vowed to clean up snooker but conceded it would be no easy task. Many within the sport believe the News of the World's sting was largely a case of right investigation, wrong man. "What has happened is that it has allowed us to focus on compliance. We've got to reform, review the rules, our processes, help the players and educate them. It's all about taking this forward and not burying our heads in the sand," said Douglas.

Barry Hearn, the World Snooker chairman who more than anyone is aware of the collateral damage to the sport, said yesterday of the unit: "It will have far-reaching powers to investigate and act as a deterrent to possible corruption. It will be very high-profile because I want snooker to be seen as clean."

For Hearn, determined to give snooker its lustre back following a period when sponsors and the public have deserted it, the timing could not have been worse. Now, he will attempt to turn a crisis into an opportunity. As the trickle of match-fixing allegations in all sports have become a flood in recent months – from the spate of arrests in Turkey and Germany over match-fixing in football to the cricket allegations that have dominated the news – snooker has never been far away.

There have been increasingly loud questions around the probity of snooker over recent years and at least three players – Stephen Maguire, Jamie Burnett and Stephen Lee – remain the subject of police investigations. As in cricket, a number of factors have coalesced to make it a prime target for those seeking to manipulate results and to increase temptation for players.

Some are common to all sports such as the rampant growth and increased sophistication of the illegal betting market in Asia and the Far East, and the increase in the variety of bets on offer and the ease with which they can be placed over the internet and mobile phones.

Others are peculiar to snooker including the decline in the sport's commercial value since its 80s heyday, the increase in the amount of snooker played around the world and the dangers inherent in round-robin formats, where not every frame is vital. Then there is the difficult of proving wrongdoing. It is notoriously difficult, even for expert eyes, to tell whether a player has missed a shot on purpose.

One of the major challenges – and the reason why so much of the rhetoric is around educating young players – is challenging the betting culture that exists within snooker, as within many other sports in the UK including football. Up until recently, it was common practice for players to bet on themselves to lose as "insurance" against going out in a major tournament.

As with the current cricket spot-fixing scandal, some players may even have convinced themselves it was a relatively harmless activity. Some point to a reluctance among those who oversaw the sport before Hearn's takeover to tackle the problem.

While the outraged reaction to the News of the World's initial revelations and apparently damning video evidence indicated that this was a recent problem – Steve Davis referred to a "dark day for snooker" – the sport is rife with bar-room talk of fixed frames and betting stings.

Hearn's vow to clean it up chimes with what is going on elsewhere. The newspaper pages and airwaves have been jammed of late with sports governing bodies vowing to clean up their act. One recommendation of the recent government review of sporting integrity issues, chaired by the former Liverpool FC chief executive Rick Parry, was to set up a new Sports Betting.

The new body, to be chaired by CCPR chairman Tim Lamb, is designed to agree a set of standards that will be applied across sport, on issues such as standardising punishments and disciplinary codes, and educating sports stars about the dangers.

The Gambling Commission, which has come under fire from some in sport for not getting to grips with the problem, has been tasked with setting up a new integrity unit. Nick Tofiluk, who is director of regulation and oversees the unit, said he was pleased with the level of co-operation from sports governing bodies.

But there must be serious questions about whether these moves will be enough to stamp out corruption given the international threat and huge power of the criminals who control the illegal betting markets. Douglas accepts the strategy must partly be one of containment. "It's not about one sport or another. It's about illegal betting – they'll go for anybody. You need constant vigilance and to make sure players are well educated and know the risks when the bad guys come calling," he said.

Last week, the head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit Sir Ronnie Flanagan - another of the former police chiefs doing so well out of battling corruption in sport - vowed to co-operate with other sports to lobby governments around the world to regulate betting markets more effectively. Douglas said he is "100%" behind the move and there is a growing realisation that this is largely a problem that must be dealt with by sport itself, given the length of time and practical difficulties involved in pursuing investigations.

Like the battle against doping, those at the sharp end warn that it will be a long slog and will require serious investment. They retain doubts about the determination and ability of some sports to see it through. Through a combination of harsh penalties, education and intelligence based information gathering, they hope to make headway. But unless they can also convince governments of the seriousness of their mission, the odds on success will lengthen.