Oliphant asked the police to investigate

The investigation, which covers matches played in the just concluded season, commenced in April.

Sally De Beer, a spokeswoman for the South African Police Service, said they carried out the assignment at the request of Safa president Molefi Oliphant.

The findings of this report will shock many people South African police official Afrika Khumalo

"The initial investigation is completed and we are now at a stage when we can arrest individuals and take them to court to face these charges," De Beer said.

De Beer declined to give further details into the probe or the impending arrests, which will deal another blow to the country's most popular sport.

The country's Sunday Times newspaper said 20 high-profile referees, as well as club officials and players across the First Division and the Premier League, had been implicated in the police report.

It quoted Afrika Khumalo, the crime intelligence chief commissioner in the country's Gauteng province, as saying that surveillance cameras, visual and tape recordings and undercover policemen were used to track down the suspects.

"I thought some football clubs were poor but the substantial amounts being paid to these referees made me think twice," he was quoted as saying.

"The findings of this report will shock many people."

The South African league is one of the strongest in the continent.