Barry Hearn vows clampdown on snooker corruption

Barry Hearn has claimed snooker will lead the way in tackling corruption in sport as he promised a "zero tolerance" approach at the launch of a new integrity unit.

The World Snooker chairman has proposed instant lifetime bans for anyone in the game caught breaching his new rule of "no betting on anything".

Hearn has enlisted the help of former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens, now chairman of Quest, industry leaders in tackling corruption in sport. Stevens will co-operate with former force colleague David Douglas, who was brought in to lead the governing body's disciplinary committee in April after allegations were made against world No 1 John Higgins.

Higgins, who is still serving a six-month suspension for breaching betting rules, will also be involved in the new measures after volunteering to educate young players on the dangers he found himself embroiled in.

Hearn believes he now has the perfect mix of experience to improve intelligence surrounding potential betting scams, to lead investigations into any cases and to prevent players from succumbing to temptation.

Hearn will also introduce the same system for darts and feels other sports will follow suit.

"It's time now for all sport to take a grip on itself," Hearn said. "We live in a world of temptation, we live in a world that requires education of the pitfalls of trusting other people, by being gullible or naive. We need to make sure we have systems in place to help these people. We want to guarantee we will never have a problem. "From World Snooker and the Professional Darts Corporation, I promise anyone that watches or is involved that it will be cleaner than clean and that anyone who breaches these rules, the punishment will be Draconian.

"These are problems that are going to affect every sport and we need a system that is beyond any other system.

"I think we are going to be the blueprint for sport. We need to have the independent and inside knowledge and years of experience."

Higgins was cleared of frame-fixing allegations but, at a two-day tribunal earlier this month, admitted intentionally giving the impression to undercover reporters that he would throw frames for financial gain.

"Someone once said that everyone has a price," Hearn added. "What we have to say is that temptation is out there but you've got the world's best known policeman on your back.

"My job is to make sure the players have lots of opportunities. There were six snooker events in the year. There were three months with nothing happening. Things like that are not good for temptation. What we've done is create 15 more events and sponsors are still coming in, TV companies are still coming in. They trust us and I feel obliged to make this clean.So the Draconian measures are coming in, just in case they forget the love of the game they started with."

Stevens, whose work with Quest has seen him investigate the alleged use of bungs in the Barclays Premier League, believes betting is the "biggest threat to worldwide sport". And although he could not share Hearn's certainty that snooker would be totally clean, he believes the sport could not do much more to aim for such a goal.

"Of course you are not going to stop all of it but what you have to do is ensure those people who take the risk of corrupt practices and bribery, the chances are that they will be caught," he said. "There are ways and means of doing it, such as betting patterns.

"In the Metropolitan Police we had integrity tests, you shouldn't have to rely on the News of the World to come up with integrity tests. You are not going to eradicate all of it but what people need to understand is if they are going to take 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000, the chances are they will be caught."

Meanwhile, at one of the new events mentioned by Hearn, the 12bet.com World Open in Glasgow, Ronnie O'Sullivan had to be persuaded to pot the black to complete a 147 yesterday after learning there was no bonus prize for a maximum. O'Sullivan shook hands with opponent Mark King after potting the pink to take his break to 140 in the final frame of his quickfire 3-0 triumph.

But referee Jan Verhaas convinced the former world champion to finish off the 10th maximum of his career, putting him in pole position to claim the highest break prize of "only" 4,000.

O'Sullivan said: "I wasn't going to pot the black because to make 147 and not really get a nice bonus was a bit disappointing because they are magical moments and they deserve magical bonuses."