CANNOCK, England (AP) Two men charged with conspiring to fix non-league football matches in England will remain in police custody until they appear at a criminal court on Dec. 13.
Chann Sankaran and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan attended a five-minute hearing at a magistrates' court in Cannock, central England, on Friday but were not required to enter a plea. Their case will be heard at Birmingham Crown Court in two weeks.
Sankaran, who is from Singapore, and Ganeshan, who is British, were charged on Thursday with conspiring with others to defraud bookmakers "by influencing the course of football matches and placing bets thereon" from Nov. 1-26. The maximum prison sentence for the offense is 10 years.
They are among seven people arrested as part of an investigation into a suspected Singapore-based international betting syndicate. The other five people were released on bail on Thursday and must report on dates in December and January, the National Crime Agency said in a statement.
The arrests followed an undercover operation by Britain's Daily Telegraph, which reports that three of the accused are footballers and another is a former Premier League player who is an agent.
