From a suspicious South Africa friendly international with a glut of penalties to a curious 4-1 defeat for Argentina at the hands of Nigeria the football world has become inured in recent years to what appear ever more outlandish attempts to fix matches.
In leagues from Italy to Turkey and from Finland to Germany scores of arrests have been made as hundreds of matches have fallen under suspicion. The scale of the threat to the soul of the game, not to mention the commercial implications, has slowly dawned on sports governing bodies around the world.
Last month the president of La Liga warned that at least eight matches per season were fixed in the top two divisions in Spain. In Turkey two of its most famous clubs – Fenerbahce and Besiktas – are serving European bans due to match-fixing. And yet there was still a frisson of shock at the first arrests on these shores, which linked the illegal and unregulated betting markets in Asia to matches being played on bumpy pitches on freezing Saturday afternoons in the upper echelons of the non-league pyramid considered the lifeblood of the English game.
How big is the problem?
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, spoke on Thursday of fears that the six arrests could be the "tip of an iceberg". But it is not as though the alarm bells have not been clanging. Earlier this year, in a self-aggrandising press conference, Europol announced it was probing 380 suspicious matches, including a Champions League tie at Anfield, as part of a Europe-wide crackdown. Fifa and Uefa have separately warned that match-fixing is the biggest threat facing the game and the former has begun issuing lifetime bans to those involved.
The fixer caught on camera by the Telegraph's investigation reeled off a list of countries in which he said he could influence results: "I do Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Europe, World Cup, World Cup qualifier." Closer to home UK bookmakers earlier this year stopped taking bets on a number of non-league teams amid fears about suspicious betting patterns. And the FA, which like other governing bodies uses a monitoring service to track betting activity in the legal market, issued a warning in March to clubs saying it had become "aware of suspicious betting activity on a number of matches played in the Football Conference South".
How do the fixers operate?
Other recent cases in England, such as that involving Accrington Stanley players in 2009, have been clumsy attempts to place bets on matches in which they were taking part. The arrests made this week are significant because they are the first in which police have gathered enough evidence to link players in England to the huge illegal and unregulated Asian betting markets.
Interpol has estimated the size of those illicit markets at $500bn. Once the fixer has gained the trust of a player or group of players, or even a referee, he will direct them to ensure a specific outcome – such as making sure a minimum number of goals are scored in a particular match. The fixer's main contact on the pitch will deliver a pre-arranged signal, such as getting booked in the opening five minutes, to show the fix is on.
Why do bookmakers accept these bets?
If the fixer is feeding back information to associates in the Far East, it may be that the sheer liquidity of the market will hide any suspicion over bets being placed. Monitoring firms have claimed that millions of pounds can be wagered on nondescript non-league football matches, or indeed county cricket games.
Inside information is more likely to be used by illegal bookmakers rather than against legal ones, giving them the opportunity to make a killing by offering attractive prices on outcomes they know will not happen.
If there was a spike in unusual bets placed with a legitimate bookmaker in this country, he would be obliged to report it to the Gambling Commission under the terms of their licence and it should theoretically be picked up by the monitoring services employed by sports governing bodies.
Why are players tempted?
Hundreds of documented cases across the world have shown that players earning a relatively low wage can be tempted by what is painted as a low-risk opportunity to earn a huge bonus. As the unnamed Singaporean in the Telegraph undercover investigation, who claims to work for the now notorious fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, says: "The players usually earn around £5,000 a month. So for 90 minutes I pay them £7,000. For two hours, definitely they take."
In recent years that has been true for players, referees and football federations around the world. Although Fifa has now promised to invest €20m (£16.6m) in Interpol to crack down on the problem, given that its own record is not unblemished when it comes to allegations of corruption and bribery, world football's governing body is often perceived as conflicted.
Who is Wilson Raj Perumal? Why is Singapore the centre of global football match-fixing?
In the unravelling web of global fixing, still only partially understood, many roads lead to Singapore. The names of Perumal, a Singaporean of Tamil origin who fixed games on an industrial scale across the world for over a decade and ended up living in Wembley before he was jailed in Finland, and Dan Tan loom large. Some say they are kingpins, others that they are no more than mid-ranking criminals in a much wider network.
Singaporean authorities, following criticism over their inaction, finally arrested Tan and 13 others in September. Italian investigators claimed Tan had been involved in fixing 680 local, league and international matches in countless countries between 2008 and 2011.
Perumal has been blowing the whistle on some of his former associates as international investigators attempt to piece together the way in which a sophisticated, if sometimes sloppy, network operated to drive profits for illegal bookmaking syndicates in south-east Asia. But those battling international organised crime say the threat is not confined to that area and exists wherever sophisticated criminal gangs are looking for a means to make or launder money.
Are the top two divisions in England immune?
Some will look at the fact those players arrested this week are non-league footballers and shrug. They may wonder whether players in the upper echelons of the game earning anything up to £300,000 a week could ever be tempted.
But look at other cases around the world. Look, too, at the fact the Sporting Chance clinic has warned that problem gambling is the unseen epidemic facing the game and at the financial difficulties faced by a significant minority of current and former players.
Then consider the lengths that some of those players might be tempted to go to if desperate for money, and the company that they may keep. English football prides itself on its sense of fair play and air of incorruptibility. This week's arrests will have shaken those comfortable assumptions.
The key figures
Chann Sankaran
Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan
Both men were on Thursday night charged with conspiracy to defraud. Sankaran, 33, a Singapore national, and Ganeshan, 43, who has dual UK and Singapore nationality, are alleged to be members of an illegal betting syndicate that has infiltrated English football, and conspiring to defraud bookmakers by influencing the course of matches
Dan Tan
Allegedly the ringleader of a global match-fixing network, Tan was arrested in Singapore in September along with 13 others. His network was allegedly responsible for rigging hundreds of matches worldwide, although he may not face trial. Interpol described him as "mastermind and leader of the world's most notorious fixing syndicate"
Wilson Raj Perumal
A convicted match-fixer, Raj Perumal is understood to have rigged a series of fixtures over the past 30 years. He fled to England from Singapore after skipping bail in 2009 on charges of running over a police officer and spent a year in a Finnish prison after being convicted of bribing 11 players in 2011. The fixer at the centre of the recent allegations described him as "the king, my boss"
Chris Eaton
The former head of security at Fifa, Eaton claims fixing is "endemic" in the game and has spent a number of years trying to highlight the issue. The Australian believes fixing is a worldwide problem due to the amount of money gambled on football and that international co-operation between federations is required to stamp it out
Scandals around the world
Brazil
The Whistle Scandal of 2005 involved millionaire investors bribing two referees to fix results
Italy
Calciopoli scandal preceded more than 40 arrests in separate 2011 case
Singapore
The centre for a vast network of fixers; 14 people were arrested there in September
Finland
Wilson Raj Perumal bribed 11 players in the Finnish league in 2011
Nigeria
Hosted a friendly against Argentina in 2011 that was under question by Fifa due to suspicious betting
China
Shanghai Shenhua stripped of 2003 title and 33 players and officials banned
Australia
Four British players to appear in court after allegedly fixing Southern Stars' matches this year
Turkey
Fenerbahce involved in major scandal in 2011; president Aziz Yildirim implicated