The arrestees, aged 25 to 36, included a coach and 11 football club players that competed in the First Division League, as well as several suspected bookmakers. The alleged offences include bribery manipulating match results and illegal gambling.

The club involved is alleged by sources to be the Happy Valley Athletic Association which had been competing in the Hong Kong Premier League in recent years but was voluntarily relegated to First Division League last year.

The anti-graft watchdog made the arrests on Monday after a yearlong investigation of the complaint alleging match-fixing in the club's games during the 2022/23 football season.

The suspected footballers would either play passively so the team would lose to a weaker rival, or they sought to achieve a certain score that was unpopular and at high odds, it added.

The investigation found that the arrested players might have conspired to accept bribes from other persons, including the suspected bookmaker, as rewards for their participation in rigging the football matches. The alleged bribes were said to amount to HK$9000 at most.

The arrested suspected bookmakers were also alleged to have taken illegal bets from bettors on those fixed football games.

The group and some of the players then bet on these results in an illegally organised scheme for profits.

Happy Valley Athletic Association won only eight matches during their 26 games of the 2022/23 football season.

ICAC said it has yet to come up with the total amount of money involved as the probe is still ongoing.