Charges have been laid over an alleged international match-fixing scandal that's broken out over football in a secondary professional league in Melbourne.
Six people have now been charged in the case, which broke over the weekend.
The six include both players and others.
Ron Sutton has the story.
Last year, the president of the Southern Stars Football Club, based in the south-east suburbs of Melbourne, got an email from Britain that made his day.
It was an offer to provide the Victorian Premier League team with five mid-tier professional players from England for free in their off-season back home and to organise sponsorship.
Now, the club is wondering what it got itself into.
Two of the English players are among six people charged in relation to what, if true, would be Australia's biggest match-fixing scandal ever.
A Malaysian national has been charged over allegedly serving as the contact point for the players, accused of passing along information on how games were to unfold.
The former chief executive of Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council, Malcolm Speed, says it is a case that could change the playing field in Australia.
But whatever the outcome, he says it offers hope, too.
"This is the first time that an international match-fixing ring has been detected operating in Australia, so, from that perspective, it's a very big issue for Australian sport. I think the other thing that comes out of it is that the processes that the sports have put in place seem to have worked quite well, in that Football Federation Australia has become aware of the issue, and they've reported it to the Victoria Police, the Victoria Police have acted very quickly, and we see a number of people arrested."
Despite the unexpected gift of players from overseas, the Southern Stars have spent the season at the bottom of the Victorian Premier League ladder.
The competition, while part of the second tier of state leagues behind the national A League, is comprised of players largely earning part-time money.
There has been the occasional star rise out of the league, most notably Mark Viduka, possibly the best to ever play for Australia.
But most are players who have fallen, or will fall, short of the A-League, and, yet, the Southern Stars, despite their influx of players, were losing by an average of two goals a game.
For the gambling world, the Victorian Premier League offers games played out of the spotlight, with crowds as small as a couple of hundred at times and sparse media attention.
And, Malcolm Speed says, betting scandals have plagued the sport in many countries overseas.
"There've been a lot of issues in Asia and in Europe. And they're very damaging. Once the match-fixers get a grip on sport and sportsmen, yes, there are serious problems. But in Australia so far, we've, uh ... we've done pretty well."
Ironically, it was after the Southern Stars managed their only victory in 21 matches last month that Football Federation Australia informed police it was concerned.
A company that analyses global betting patterns for several sporting codes, Sportradar, had notified the Federation of what it considered suspicious wagers in Asia on the game.
The deputy Commissioner of Victoria Police, Graham Ashton, says, while Australia had never had such a case before this, it is not a surprise to have one now.
"We've been saying for the last 12 months there's been an inevitability about this. Now, we've got a case where we've actually seen it happening. We're hoping that this sends a good message overseas that we're not a soft touch."
Football Federation Australia chief executive officer David Gallop says the case, indeed, sends a message, particularly about Australia's willingness to move quickly on the issue.
"It's certainly alarming, but it's good to see the police -- and the Victorian Government, with specific legislation -- coming in and addressing this issue quickly. And we trust that this will send a message to others who might be considering this type of activity that we will move quickly, as I expect every other code in the country will do."
Malcolm Speed, now a consultant, company director and university lecturer in sports law and sports administration, says the case will change practices in Australian sport.
Regardless how it comes out, he says the addition of foreign players in a setting like the Southern Stars now comes with new questions not previously asked.
"I don't think it will happen again. All sports will be very wary of foreign players, import players, coming in and, uh ... It's a different risk, it's a new risk, but, again, sports learns lessons from these things, and I don't think this one will happen again."
Feature by Ron Sutton
