Higgins: My conscience is clear

John Higgins has insisted he would never fix a snooker match and declared his conscience was "100% clear" following the newspaper allegations that he agreed to throw frames in return for money.

Commenting for the first time since the allegations emerged in the News of the World, 34-year-old Higgins claimed he only said he would participate in the deal so he could get out of a potentially threatening situation.

He said in a statement read out on BBC2 prior to the World Championship final: "Can I say I have never been involved in any form of snooker match-fixing. In my 18 years playing professional snooker I have never deliberately missed a shot never mind intentionally lost a frame or a match."

He explained: "Those who know me are aware of my love for snooker and that I would never do anything to damage the integrity of the sport I love. My conscience is 100% clear."

Higgins, the sport's new world number one, was suspended by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, and his manager Pat Mooney resigned from the WPBSA board.

Both men were secretly videoed by an undercover reporter who was posing as a businessman at a meeting which the News of the World say took place in the days following Higgins' World Championship second-round defeat to Steve Davis.

"In all honesty I became very worried at the way the conversation developed in Kiev," Higgins said in his statement.

"When it was suggested that I throw frames in return for large sums of money, I was really spooked, I just wanted to get out of the hotel and onto the plane home.

"I didn't know if this was the Russian mafia or who we were dealing with. At that stage I felt the best course of action was just to play along with these guys and get out of Russia."