FOOTBALLERS in England are confident the game at its highest levels is clean of the scourge of match-fixing, a survey conducted by international players’ union FIFPro has revealed.

Over 1,500 players from eight countries — England, Scotland, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovenia — answered a questionnaire that tested their knowledge about the extent of fixing, approaches to fix matches, sharing inside information and betting rules.

In England there were 121 respondents, with 100 of aged 22 or under and with 62 from the Premier League.

Every player questioned said they had not played in a game that has since been identified as fixed, nor had they been approached in the past 12 months to fix a match, nor did they believe one or more games have been fixed in that period.

Of the 84 players who responded to the question of whether they had bet against the rules on matches, 27 replied Yes.