Well, the inevitable has occured... England now has a soccer match-fixing scandal.

To the shock of almost nobody paying attention (read: everyone except Declan Hill, probably Brian Tuohy and myself), the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit the Football Association (the main soccer governing body in England) was reported today by The Guardian.

Six men, including at least three players and a former player-turned-agent who played in the EPL, have been arrested by a brand-new body in England, the National Crime Agency (basically, England's FBI).

Some notes:

• Secretly recorded conversations put a good price at fixing a lower-league match at about 50,000 pounds.  (To me, that sounds high for lower-level leagues.  That sounds to me about the price of compromising a low-level EPL player.)
• It is not believed (or, at the least, not admitted) that any EPL matches or sides are involved.  (*cough* If there's a match-fixing scandal, I want a look at Joey Barton when he was with Queens Park Rangers...  Just sayin'.)
• From the article:  "In recent years fears have been growing that gangs were targeting matches in the UK. This newspaper was approached by an undercover investigator with links to Fifa, who had been gathering evidence against suspected Asian match fixers offering to operate in Britain."  Declan Hill, is that you?  I mean, this whole thing reeks of Dan Tan the Man, as it were.
• "During a series of undercover meetings in Manchester this month, which were covertly recorded, one of the fixers claimed he could rig games and that potential gamblers would make hundreds of thousands of pounds by using the inside information on Asian-based betting websites.  The fixer, from Singapore, also alleged that he controlled teams in other European countries and could buy foreign referees to secure results." Yep, appears to be tied to Dan Tan. 
• You could even grease the skids for an extra 5,000 pounds for a player (compromised) to get an early yellow card as a "tell" that the match was rigged.
• Often, the fixer would have action on the match's total -- the number of goals scored in a match.  This is why, in Las Vegas, you will basically never see a soccer match total as an over-under proposition.  Any action at all is one side, the other, or a draw.
• Apparently, the man involved as the head of this operation was rumored to be a "Wilson Raj Perumal".  Long invested in the seedy riggings of Asian matches, but living in London, he's been tied to match fixings in Finland (for which he did time), Hungary (for which he is effectively being held), and matches in Asia involving Zimbabwean teams, among others.

It will be interesting to see where this leads.  Keep an eye on Declan Hill on this one.