Finnish officials have opened a criminal investigation into a topflight football club suspected of money laundering in a widening match-fixing scandal, investigators said on Friday.
Police raided the offices of Tampere United on Wednesday and were questioning team officials about ?300,000 ($435,000) paid to the club by a Singapore company.
The three-time Finnish champion team was suspended this year after club officials acknowledged accepting the money but gave no reason.
Chief Detective Superintendent Ari Karvonen said the case was linked to a trial of nine former members of another team and a Singaporean man suspected of paying bribes of more than ?470,000 to Finnish league players in 2009-2011 to fix matches.
''We suspect that top officials of Tampere United are involved, including board members,'' Karvonen said. ''We believe there is enough material to find them guilty. I expect the investigation to take several months.''
He declined to give further details.
Tampere United team leader Seppo Lehvila said he did not know about the investigation or the money allegedly paid to the club.
''This is a matter for the club's top officials,'' Lehvila said. ''Because of our suspension there has been no activity at the club for several weeks.''
The managing director and board members of the club did not answer calls on Friday.
Karvonen gave no details about how the alleged money laundering was connected to the trial that opened in the northern Finnish town of Rovaniemi on Thursday - in the match-fixing tangle that has rocked the small Finnish league.
Wilson Raj Perumal, a Singaporean who is also suspected by FIFA of fixing international games involving African and Asian national teams, faces a prison sentence of more than two years if found guilty.
In the same trial, nine former players of the local team Rovaniemen Palloseura - seven Zambians and two Georgians - were charged with accepting bribes of ?11,000 to ?50,000 each to affect the outcome of matches.
In cases where the desired result was not achieved, the money was paid back to Perumal, according to the charges.
Perumal told investigators that the Asian-based organization he was working for made ?500,000-?1.5 million per fixed game, according to chief prosecutor Maija Mononen.
Last month, two Zambian brothers playing for AC Oulu were convicted of taking ?50,000 in bribes from Perumal to play ''below their normal level'' in a 5-0 loss last year, and IFK Mariehamn said its Kenyan former goalkeeper was suspected of taking ?50,000 in bribes in connection with two matches the club lost in 2010.
Police have said that they are also investigating ''several other foreign fixers'' of matches but have declined to give details pending results of the Rovaniemi probe.
The Finnish scandal appears to confirm that betting fraud worth millions of dollars is more widespread than previously feared.
FIFA has stepped up its response in recent weeks after being criticized for lagging behind European authority UEFA in acknowledging the problem.
