BEIJING - POLICE in northeast China have questioned more than 100 people and detained at least three football officials in a crackdown on organised gambling on professional matches, state press said on Thursday.

Besides setting up Internet gambling operations, organisers fixed games by paying off players and coaches during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, the Liaoning Daily reported, citing unnamed 'informed sources'.

Up to three million yuan (S$615,722) was wagered per game, with the gambling syndicate paying off up to four players to fix each match, it said.

China's public security ministry is heading up the probe - which some reports have called the biggest ever to hit the sport here - with the Liaoning provincial police tapped as the lead investigating agency, several reports said.

So far the vice head of the football association in the southern city of Guangzhou, Yang Xu, and two managers of the city's club have been taken into custody for questioning, media reports said.

More than 100 officials, coaches and players have already been questioned as part of the investigation, said the Peninsula Morning News, also in Liaoning. Liaoning police refused to comment on the investigation when contacted by AFP. -- AFP