Hong Kong arrests footballers over match-fixing: report

Mainland Chinese footballers playing for Hong Kong teams have been arrested by the city’s graftbuster for alleged match-fixing and bribery offences, a report said Thursday.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested at least three mainland players who were allegedly asked by China’s gambling syndicates to bribe players at first division club Fourway Rangers to fix a game, the South China Morning Post said.

The match, which took place in October last year, was between Fourway and another first division club, Happy Valley, the report said.

Fourway won the match 2 – 0.

The Post, citing un-named sources, said the Fourway players refused to take the bribe and reported the case to the city’s Football Association.

Sources told the daily that both football clubs had been approached as part of the ICAC investigation.

A Happy Valley official confirmed that one present and two former mainland players from the club were involved in the investigation, the paper said.

A spokesman for the ICAC refused to comment on the matter.

The case came to light as reports said Nan Yong, deputy chairman of the China Football Association, and other senior mainland soccer officials, would soon stand trial after being arrested for match-fixing and bribery earlier this year.

Chinese authorities have been battling with the problem of corruption over rampant underground soccer betting, where millions of yuan can be wagered on a single match. The illegal activities include betting on Hong Kong’s first division matches.

The most high-profile match-fixing case in recent years in Hong Kong was when six players from the Hong Kong team were arrested by the ICAC for taking bribes and fixing matches in the qualification stages of the 1998 World Cup.

Betting on football matches is not common in Hong Kong, despite a thriving gambling scene around horse racing in the city.