Swiss players suspended

Switzerland's football association said yesterday that it has suspended nine players for match-fixing in a scandal that has been described as the biggest to hit European football.

"The penal and control commission of the Swiss FA has sanctioned nine players implicated in match-fixing," it said in a statement.

"The Swiss FA is, according to current information, the first and only federation which has treated in the consequent manner the suspects of match-fixing made public in autumn 2009 by Bochum's state prosecutors," it added.

All nine players played in the lower divisions of Swiss football. Five of them have been suspended for an undetermined period, while the rest were suspended for periods ranging from one and three years.

In November, some 50 raids were carried out in Germany, Britain, Switzerland and Austria in a major match-fixing probe, with 15 people in Germany and two in Switzerland arrested.

More than a million euros in cash and property were seized.