Hong Kong anti-corruption agency arrests 23 people including 11 footballers, coach as part of match-fixing probe
- Case involves 22 men and a woman, aged between 25 and 36, ICAC says
- Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau says it is ‘extremely shocked’ that such an incident has occurred in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency has arrested 23 people including a coach and 11 players from one football team in its biggest crackdown on match-fixing in recent years.
The case, which originated from a complaint about alleged bribery, involved 22 men and a woman, aged between 25 and 36, Principal Investigator Kate Cheuk Chi-yan said.
The suspects included half of the team in question and also those who were believed to be the backbone members of a bookmaking syndicate including the mastermind, she added.
“This operation originated from a complaint targeting a specific player, but after a series of investigations, intelligence gathering and fact-finding by the ICAC, we later found half of this team’s members were part of the match-fixing,” Cheuk said, declining to name the football side involved.