Joe
Jogia has made a series of allegations concerning match fixing in snooker in an
interview with the Sunday Mirror.
Jogia
was banned for two years following an investigation into unusual betting
patterns surrounding his match against Matt Selt in the Shootout last year.
He
has since been contacting journalists seeking payment for a story detailing his
claims about historic corruption in the game. The Sunday Mirror does not state
how much Jogia received for the interview.
Jogia
effectively admits breaching WPBSA rules on failing to report approaches to fix
matches. The governing body confirms he did not pass on any information about
match fixing to them.
But
this is not to say his claims should be dismissed. Snooker, like any other sport
but no more than any other sport, has suffered from low level fixing and
cheating, usually in matches ‘below the radar’ in qualifiers and lesser
tournaments.
Players
who often haven’t earned much money are particularly susceptible to match
fixing.
The
rise of internet betting makes all sports vulnerable to corruption. It is only
relatively recently that snooker has taken the problem seriously enough.
Jogia
said: “You know that the people who
put the bets on and hang around with these players are not nice people.”
He is certainly right about this. On the
periphery of the game there have been many dodgy characters down the years who have
got their claws into players, often under the guise of ‘manager’. Players have
historically been spectacularly bad at seeing through these people.
World
Snooker should introduce proper licensing of managers and stop allowing players
and others to just sign in anyone they like at tournament venues.
Players
know the difference between right and wrong. They know cheating is wrong. But
many of them are extremely naive and easily manipulated, usually by people in
which they have put misplaced trust.
The
bedrock of any sport is its integrity. There isn’t a sport in the world that is
100% clean but that does not mean that each of them should not aspire to be
clean.
Snooker
faces the same challenges as football, cricket and others when it comes to
organised gambling rings, particularly in countries from which it is difficult
to obtain sufficient information to make a case.
In
Nigel Mawer, World Snooker has someone determined to both root out corruption
and punish the offenders.
As
Joe Jogia can testify.
14 comments:
No great surprise but very sad none the less.
There will be several players feeling pretty uneasy today.
It was only a matter of time before Jogia cashed in on his predicament. Wouldn't say he got much, without naming anyone.
Its a pity though, that both Lee and himself are very watchable players. Why couldn't it have been Joyce and Lawlor or some other pair of bores.
As for the 3 players at the meeting, I cant imagine their identity being shielded too long. Pub talk will oust them eventually I'm sure.
Substantiates the theory that lower ranked players have been sacrificed in an attempt to protect the integrity of the game.
JH had a VERY lucky escape !
Kildare - what has being "very watchable" got anything to do with match fixing? So you'd prefer to watch bent snooker would you over clean players like Rod Lawler, who has been a model pro for 20 years? Re-read your post and retract it - you should be ashamed of yourself.
he said a player who has retired i hope it isnt who i think?i just could not imagine that as who has retired recently only 1 player
Higgins should have had a much longer ban. If he wasn't who he was, he would have had at least what Jogia had. Video evidence doesn't lie, he said those things and his only defence can be that 'he was terrified' and didn't mean it. Didn't look terrified to me when talking about a lump sum payment being put into a small mortage in Spain.
Joe Jogia is a idiot.
hes hitting out because of a check book.
He tries to come over as a whiter than white character while accusing others.
i hope names will be named and then the book thrown at them or Jogia will get Sued big time.
2.04, You are the one that misread the post. My point is, its a pity that two watchable players got involved, not that they got caught.
did jimmy michie retire?
A handful retired last season. However, anyone only vaguely familiar with snooker is going to think "Hendry" aren't they? If I were Hendry I'd threaten the Mirror with legal action unless they clarify it wasn't him.
The Mirror are all wretch and no vomit.
They need tell us what Jogia told them.
A very sinister tactic by the Sunday Mirror. Propagating the possibility it could be Hendry by highlighting a player 'who retired last year'.
Time to s**t or get off the pot.
Put some meat on the bones of this story or put it to bed.
@13:13
That might make things worse.
If a player went out and specifically said 'I didn't fix my last match' when he wasn't outright accused, I'd be slightly suspicious.
no, I wouldn't think theyd think that.
if they were only vaguely familiar with snooker and had half a brain theyd think....I wonder who else retired.
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