Dramatic new arrest in football fraud probe

London police have made their most dramatic move yet in football's war against corruption with the arrest of a 28-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud on Monday.

And the strong speculation was that the suspect taken into custody by the City of London Police, before being bailed until October, was a well-known Premier League star.

The City of London unit would only confirm the arrest, bail provision and age of the man being questioned, adding that it related to their ongoing investigation into football corruption, which started separately from Lord Stevens 'bung' inquiry.

The age of the man arrested matches the age of the star whom police sources were linking with the swoop.

This follows raids by the same London police unit on three football clubs — Newcastle, Portsmouth and Rangers — in July and the arrest of a 61-year-old Manchester man in May.

The footballer in question has not been part of any international squad over the last week, and his club said last night that they had no knowledge of the matter.

The police have been furnished with all the findings of the Stevens Report that examined 362 transfers over 15 months and still had doubts at the end over 17 moves involving five clubs.

And it may be that this latest arrest was connected with the one transfer that Stevens's Quest team did not name in order that another regulatory authority inquiry — understood to be the City of London Police — into transfer misdemeanours would not be jeopardised.