Sunday's report came hours before the start of the final of the world championship, the sport's showpiece event. The final concludes on Monday.

The News of the World described what it said was a meeting between Higgins, his agent Pat Mooney -- whose resignation as a member of the WPBSA board was accepted on Sunday -- and reporters purporting to be businessmen in Kiev.

Scotland's John Higgins hits the ball in the two-day final match of 2009 World Snooker Championship in Sheffield, England, May 4, 2009.

Higgins said in his statement he had become worried he might be dealing with "the Russian mafia" when it was suggested he throw frames in return for large sums of money.

"At that stage I felt the best course of action was just to play along with these guys and get out of Ukraine," he said.

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