Higgins fined, banned, but cleared

World No.1 snooker player John Higgins will serve a six-month ban but has been cleared of match-fixing charges on Thursday.

The Scot was found not guilty of frame-fixing at an independent tribunal hearing, but his business partner Pat Moroney was found guilty of planning to throw frames - which the Sport Resolutions UK tribunal ruled was done without Higgins' knowledge.

Higgins, however, was banned for six months and fined 75,000 pounds for bringing the sport into disrepute, in that he deliberately appeared to comply with bookmakers to throw frames in snooker, without following through on the deed. He also failed to report the approach of illegal bookmakers.

"I welcome today's judgement by Sport Resolutions and endorsed by the WPBSA [World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association] following their exhaustive enquiry into the allegations against me by a tabloid newspaper," Higgins - who can resume competition in November - said in a statement.

"I was not guilty of any dishonesty and had no intention to fix a match and no intention to do anything corrupt."

"In my 18 years playing professional snooker I have never deliberately missed a shot, never mind intentionally lost a frame or a match."

"I have never been involved in any form of snooker match fixing."

"If I am guilty of anything it is of naivety and trusting those who, I believed, were working in the best interests of snooker and myself."