Malaysian football officials have suspended 18 football players for allegedly fixing matches in the national Under-20 tournament last year, news reports say.

The suspensions of the unnamed players range between two and five years, according to the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

The names will be released later in the week.

“We have said that we would come down hard on match-fixing and this proves that FAM is serious in tackling the scourge,” the Sunday Star quoted association deputy president Abdullah Ahmad Shah as saying.

The scandal emerged in early May last year when several state teams admitted terminating player contracts amid allegations of match-fixing in the President’s Cup.

In 1994, Malaysia also banned 150 players for alleged involvement in game-fixing.