Officers arrested a head coach and two players of a football club belonging to the Hong Kong Premier League; a coach and four players of a club with the Second Division of Hong Kong; and a player of another Hong Kong Second Division club.

Three other men were also arrested on suspicion of acting as betting agents, and Chang said they were a head coach and players belonging to different teams. The dozen suspects were aged 24 to 54.

Two coaches from North District were summoned to the ICAC offices on Monday, according to sources.

The head coach of the Premier League team also played for a Second Division football club, and one of its other players was among the arrested. They both allegedly accepted bribes to play a certain way while with the second division club.

A Post search has found that the current head coach of the North District team in the Premier League played for St Joseph’s, a Second Division club, in the 2022-23 season.

While investigators have not revealed the number of matches involved, Chang said Premier League games during the current season, as well as Second Division matches in two seasons between 2021 and 2023, were believed to have been affected.

More than 20 people, including a number of football players, were also interviewed as part of the investigation. The amount of money involved in the case cannot be determined yet as officers are still gathering information.

According to the ICAC, players would receive amounts ranging from thousands of Hong Kong dollars to tens of thousands of dollars for each match affected.

ICAC Chief Investigator Paul Lau Pak-cheong said two of the coaches recruited players to carry out specific actions during the matches to ensure the bets would be successful.

“The two coaches would perform signals during matches, such as putting on a hood, taking off a jacket or picking up a water bottle to issue orders to players involved,” he said.

Lau said friends and relatives of the suspects, as well as the coaches and players, placed illegal bets on the rigged matches. But none of the friends or relatives had been arrested.

Chang said he believed the gambling was carried out at a low level and he did not point to any involvement of the management of the football clubs.

“We have already arrested backbone members and the mastermind of the [match-fixing] syndicate in this operation,” he said. “They had already known one another before joining football leagues, having illegal gambling habits then as well.”

The investigator said he believed the suspects had bribed others and taken money to fix matches so they could make successful bets. One man allegedly spent as much as HK$1 million (US$128,040) on such bets.

Chang added that the ICAC had been examining the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA), a governing body for the sport, for corruption risks after reviewing its code of ethics.

A spokesman for the HKFA said on Wednesday the organisation would not tolerate match-fixing and it tracked bets on games for any abnormal activity.

“If the allegations are substantiated, HKFA will impose the most severe punishments on the clubs, players and coaches who have taken actions towards match manipulation, including suspension of membership or lifetime bans,” he said.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Hong Kong Premier League, which has 10 member clubs, expressed regret and condemned any actions that undermined the integrity of local football.

Based on the information currently released by the ICAC, the league said it believed that the incidents were isolated.

“However, the league will continue to liaise with the Hong Kong Football Association, participating clubs and all professional football clubs members to work together to create a fair and clean football industry,” it said.

In February, three football players and a betting agent were charged with bribing athletes to rig matches in two seasons between 2021 and last year, as well as with illegal gambling.

The four men were granted bail after appearing at Eastern Court and were expected to make their next appearance in June.

Last year, the city’s anti-corruption agency arrested 23 people, including a coach and 11 football players from one team, for allegedly taking bribes to fix matches and make gains through illegal sports gambling.

The players were allegedly offered up to HK$10,000 as a reward for losing a match, with some believed to be in line to gain from placing illegal bets.