Anyone waking up from a 30-year-long coma would be forgiven for thinking that world sport is fighting against a bitter evil, players attempting to bet and fix matches at every level. World number one snooker player John Higgins was even scared enough by some Russian mobsters to go along with discussions on fixing a snooker match something which he, reportedly, had no intention of following through with. But, with all this corruption dogging certain sports, who should come to the rescue but head of World Snooker and PDC Darts chairman Barry Hearn.
Hearn has launched a new special integrity unit to cover the two sports that he, to all intents and purposes, owns. The new rules brought in by Hearn mean a zero tolerance policy to any corruption within the sport, and life bans for anyone found guilty of these offences. It all comes after years of corruption within the sport of snooker, coming to a head with the Higgins case earlier this year. Although this is probably more a case of Hearn protecting his product, above all else it shows that they’re not taking a soft touch when it comes to corruption.
