Six Eredivisie players are among a group of 25 footballers who breached match-fixing rules by betting on games in their own league, NOS reported.

The Dutch public broadcaster based its claim on a document obtained from the Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU), set up by the gambling regulator to investigate allegations of match-rigging,

The football association KNVB said it was aware that players had broken its ethical rules, but it was unable to take action against them because it had not been given their names.

NOS said the SBIU had followed up 40 reports of possible matchfixing, including 12 cases of suspicious betting patterns on matches in other countries’ professional leagues, between October 2021 and December 2022.

Altogether six Eredivisie players, 19 professionals in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie and two amateurs are accused of laying bets on matches in their own competition. In some cases players bet on games in which they were playing.

Police are investigating some of the cases, but the betting authority did not disclose how many.

The KNVB called on the SBIU to pass on the names of the suspected players so it could carry out its own investigation.

‘In the absence of this information the KNVB is unable to investigate further and/or begin disciplinary proceedings,’ the organisation said in a statement. ‘The KNVB has raised these concerns recently with the ministry of justice and security.

‘We hope to arrive at a viable solution with the government in the short term, because the world of sport is keen to receive this personal information so that we can carry out more detailed enquiries.’