Three players from Australia’s top soccer league have been arrested over an alleged betting scam, accused of deliberately getting yellow cards and giving away penalties at the behest of a South American criminal.

Australian professional soccer has been rocked by accusations that the captain of A-League club Macarthur FC paid two younger teammates up to 10,000 Australian dollars ($6,600) to deliberately receive yellow cards in a scheme set up by a South American gambling connection.

A senior player allegedly took instructions from an offshore organized crime figure to arrange yellow cards to occur during specific games in exchange for illicit gambling profits.

We would like to state that there is no evidence of other players involved from other clubs. We took action today because we were concerned that the principles involved in this matter would have left our shores in the coming days and weeks,

Three Macarthur players have been arrested for alleged betting corruption after police claimed they manipulated the number of yellow cards they received in matches.