Barry Hearn has been left red-faced after social media users spotted a pornographic image appearing under his likes feed on Twitter.
The image was swiftly removed from the former World Snooker Tour chairman’s account, but not before eagle-eyed followers were able to spot the picture.
Though it is unclear what time the post was liked, Hearn was in attendance yesterday for the final of the World Snooker Championship which saw Luca Brecel defeat Mark Selby 18-15.
The 74-year-old – whose account has 109,000 followers – has not addressed the graphic image since it has been removed from his Twitter account.
A number of social media users saw the funny side of the liked post, with one person tweeting: ‘Barry Hearn is about to find out that the world can see his liked tweets.’
Social media users have spotted that a pornographic image appeared under Barry Hearn’s likes on Twitter – a picture that has since been deleted by the 74-year-old (left)
The image was swiftly deleted but not before eagle-eyed followers noticed the tweet
One person tweeted: ‘Never move this tournament you f******,’ in relation to Hearn revealing that Qatar had expressed interest in hosting the tournament, with the Crucible’s contract set to expire in 2027.
That tweet received a response from @Trapeli who wrote: ‘Don’t worry, check Barry Hearn’s most recent liked tweet, he’s a bit preoccupied.’
Scott Chegg also tweeted: ‘NOOOOO BARRY HEARN YOUR LIKES ARE PUBLIC BARRY NOOOOOO.’
It is not the first someone from the sporting world has been left red-faced over a pornographic post appearing on their social media account.
A video of graphic pornography appeared on the Twitter feed of South African rugby union coach Rassie Erasmus last year.
Erasmus, put the retweeting of the pornographic material down to ‘hackers’ before he sought advice from his 89,500 followers on how to remove the retweet himself.
‘Sorry guys about that inapropriate [sic] tweets!!’ he first tweeted.
Barry Hearn meanwhile has admitted that Qatar is interested in hosting the World Snooker Championships
‘The handle has been hacked!! Reallly [sic] sorry about that!! I am trying to sort it out !!! Rassie.’
Erasmus, South Africa’s director of rugby, stressed that he himself had not interacted with XNXN Video’s tweet and that his account had been compromised on Saturday morning, leaving him scrambling to delete it.
‘Guys the hackers still seem to have the retweet from earlier appearing in some places although it has been deleted on my side and reported. Hopefully my account will be sorted shortly. Rassie,’ he added.
As previously reported, Hearn admitted that Qatar is interested in hosting the World Snooker Championships.
‘Take the Crucible – the debate goes on,’ he told the Daily Telegraph. ‘980 seats. I am getting closer with Saudis on tournaments.
‘Qatar said to me last week, “What year does that World Snooker contract run out with Sheffield?” They asked me.
‘I said: “It’s 2027-28.” They replied: “Can we be in consideration? Can we have a say in it?”
‘They don’t have a snooker background. But it’s “if you want to do a nice big event, then we will put you in the mix.”
‘Who knows what is going to happen. I mean I have told them [Sheffield] what they got to do. I haven’t seen too much activity in that way.
Mail Sport has approached Hearn for comment.
