Belgian police raid several football clubs in vast fraud and match-fixing probe

SHOTLIST: Various, Belgium - 10th October 2018.

Neerpede, Anderlecht, Belgium:

1. 00:00 Police raid at the Anderlecht training center

Brugge, Belgium:

2. 00:12 Club Brugge squad trains without manager Ivan Leko

Gent, Belgium:

3. 00:24 Entrance to football club AA Gent

Genk, Belgium:

4. 00:27 Police raid at Racing Genk

SOURCE: SNTV

DURATION: 00:32

STORYLINE:

Belgian police raided several football clubs on Wednesday (10th October) including Anderlecht and Club Brugge, in a vast probe into financial fraud and match-fixing.

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

A massive corruption scandal engulfed Belgian soccer on Wednesday when authorities carried out 57 police raids in the country and around Europe in a probe into financial fraud and match-fixing.

The federal prosecutor's office said 44 raids were being held in Belgium and 13 more in France, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia.

The prosecutor's statement said a year-long probe into soccer shows evidence of "suspect financial operations" by sports agents and indications "of possible influencing of games" over the last season.

The unexpected probe comes only three months after Belgium's national soccer team reached the World Cup semi-finals and ended up finishing third at the tournament in Russia.

According to local media, Belgium's best known agent, Brugge coach Ivan Leko and a former Anderlecht club official were among those being questioned.

Agents, referees, a former lawyer, an accounting office, jewelers and journalists are reportedly being all investigated in this probe.

The raids took place in just about every region in Belgium, disrupting clubs far and wide.

It involved 184 police officials in the country and 36 in the other European nations.

It was during the investigation, the prosecutor's office said, that indications appeared that there may have been match-fixing during the 2017-18 season.