The arrests of two officials — Akash Das and Rahul Saha — of the city-based Kidderpore Sporting Club on allegations of match-fixing have given credence to murmurs that were being heard on the Indian football circuit for the last few years.

Seven football centres — Calcutta, Goa, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Imphal and Shillong — are active in fixing matches. Whether it’s the local league matches or I-League (the tier-2 league run by the All India Football Federation) games, the buzz of fixing was always there.

Two years back, an I-League club from NorthEast — during the licensing process — had given the name of a sponsor from Calcutta, which raised a few eyebrows in the AIFF office. Once a top official voiced his concern, the club removed the sponsor’s name from the document.

“It was dubious. They only mentioned the players they would be recruiting. A sponsor’s role is not just that,” a former official of AIFF told The Telegraph on Monday. “We smelt a rat,” he added.

The modus operandi of these fixers, who come in the disguise of sponsors, is simple. They approach a club with a promise of financing their football operations. Then they rope in a goalkeeper, a defender and a midfielder and fix matches to suit their needs.

“They would bet that a particular defender would be booked at a particular time. Or their team would lose by a pre-decided margin. If you follow the match, it will definitely sow seeds of doubt, “ the official added.

“The problem is that the margin is very thin. It’s difficult to prove a match is fixed because you cannot say whether it is a genuine mistake or a deliberate action,” Indian Football Association (IFA) secretary Anirban Dutta said on Monday.

“Yes, it has always been a challenge. Arrests being made in Calcutta are good news. It will help other centres for a more resolute fight against fixing,” AIFF deputy secretary general M Satyanarayan said from New Delhi.

"Local league matches in cities like Calcutta, Imphal, Shillong and New Delhi are streamed live, and that makes fixing much easier,” someone in the know of things said. “These football officials are making millions by sharing inside information with alleged betting rackets,” he added.

For example, Kidderpore SC were under the scanner for quite some time. “There were complaints against them in the recently-concluded CFL Premier Division and the IFA had asked them to set their house in order.

“Kidderpore SC’s matches that had a whiff of foul play are the ones where they lost,” Dutta said. Twenty-five teams, divided into two groups, played in this season’s Premier Division. “Measurers Club also are in the spotlight,” Dutta informed.

The IFA had requested the Kolkata Police to probe match-fixing in the local league two years back, and from then on, there was synergy between the two to curb this ill.

The malaise, however, is so deep-rooted that most of the officials this paper spoke to expressed their helplessness in eradicating fixing from Indian club football.

“Matches of lesser-known teams are easier to rig. They cannot do this with teams like East Bengal, Mohun Bagan or Bengaluru FC. Players from a poor background are easy prey to the betting syndicates. The time lag between live action and streaming works in their favour,” an official who did not wish to be named said.

In February last year, after similar allegations emerged in the Delhi Premier League, the AIFF launched an investigation across various cities to get to the root of the problem with the help of government agencies. Last year, four players from Meghalaya were suspended by the Meghalaya Football Association for alleged links with fixers. Those four were also plying their trade in the Goan local league, and the Goa Football Association also meted out a similar treatment.

In 1983, two third division matches in the Calcutta league had jaw-dropping margins of victory. Indian Boys Athletic Club defeated Victoria Sporting 114-0, and International Club had beaten Juga Shanti 80-0! Later, the clubs, which faced the IFA ire, had claimed it was a novel way to protest against rigged matches.