John Higgins tells how he got caught on TV telling snooker referee Leo Scullion to “f*** off”

John Higgins has explained why TV cameras caught him ranting and telling an official to f*** off.

Clips of the four-times world champion venting his anger went viral last month. His frustration was over a decision to pull off his International Championship last 16 match versus Chris Wakelin.

Higgins swore after being told he would have to start a final frame decider much later in the day. This was because his afternoon session had run too close to the start of the day’s evening session.

But the four-times world champion told the “Let Me Be Frank” podcast he meant no malice. Higgins said his “f off” rant was meant in a joking way to snooker referee Leo Scullion, as the pair have a close bond.

He said: “I won the day previous but got pulled off at 5-5. But I knew then it was roughly 7.15pm – 15 minutes before the night session was going on. That’s all fair and well.

“I saw Leo Scullion, a Scottish referee, behind the cameras. And he said ‘John we need to come off’ so I said ‘fair do’s’.

“The following day I think there was 50 minutes before Ding’s match was coming on and we’ve got pulled off at 5-5. But I’ve not seen Leo behind the cameras. So I’m thinking to myself, ‘we are going to get the match finished’.

“Then the cameras caught me”

“But two seconds later Leo walks around and starts doing that (gesturing time is over). So I don’t know how it happened. I wouldn’t have done it to anyone else but because it was Leo I just said (jokingly) ‘oh f*** off’.

“And then the cameras caught me doing it.  It wasn’t meant with any malice.

“It was just the way I was feeling. You were wanting the game to go on because you were having to come back three or four hours later.”

Higgins believes officials should ask the players competing in the next session if their start-time can be delayed to allow another match to finish.

He added: “What do you do in two or three hours? If the organisers went in and said the players ‘look, would you mind we are going to let the boys on for the final frame’ all the players would be fine because no one wants to come back in three hours.”