The 2017 Championship League was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from 2 January to 2 March 2017 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England.

John Higgins is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (41) and Stephen Hendry (36). Since turning professional in 1992, he has won four World Championships, three UK Championships and two Masters titles, for a total of nine Triple Crown titles; this puts him behind only O'Sullivan (23), Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15), and level with Mark Selby. A prolific break-builder, Higgins has compiled over 900 century breaks in professional competition, including 13 maximum breaks, second only to O'Sullivan's 15. He is also the oldest player to make a maximum break in professional competition, having set the record at the 2024 Championship League when he was aged 48 years and 268 days. He has reached the world number one ranking position four times. Alongside O'Sullivan and Mark Williams, he is one of the three players known as the "Class of '92", who all turned professional during the 1992–93 snooker season.