The beautiful game has been marred by a shocking incident coming all the way from Nepal. The national football team captain Sagar Thapa has been arrested by the police, along with four other players, for alleged match-fixing.

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SSP Sarbendra Khanal of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division confirmed to Reuters that along with Thapa, Sandip Rai, Ritesh Thapa, Bikash Singh Chhetri and Anjan KC have been taken to custody on charges of match-fixing, dating from 2008.

Also, according to the Associated Press, the footballers have been accused of taking money from bookmakers in Malaysia and Singapore to lose matches -- which included games against Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"From preliminary examinations of the players' accounts, we found connections to known match-fixers in Malaysia and Singapore," Khanal told Reuters.

"It seems that these players were involved in a deep network of brokers and fixers in other countries."

Khanal also confirmed that the investigations were at a preliminary stage and the charges against the footballers were being finalised.

The governing body of Nepal football, All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), has meanwhile not responded to the issue.

A judgement from the FIFA Ethics Committee on the case is also pending.