English club involvement a shocker as match-fixing is now an epidemic

Europe’s police authority Europol have been promising to shock the football world for some time with their match-fixing investigations.

At their two-day conference in Rome last month they were already announcing impending revelations. So yesterday’s interim report will be no shock to Uefa and Fifa, who have been helping the police with their inquiries for the past 18 months.

It is more the scale and scope of the conspiracy that is a surprise, particularly its impact on top-flight football and the juicy revelation that an English match is one of two Champions League games involved.