What began with the arrest of a football legend is now threatening to cast a shadow over some of Italy's biggest clubs. When the diminutive former Italy striker Beppe Signori was arrested by police looking into an alleged betting scam, it looked as if the teams most directly affected were Atalanta and Siena - big enough names in Italy, both recently promoted to Serie A - but hardly household names abroad.

It's now emerged, though, that police are investigating four or five matches involving some of the biggest clubs in the land. The clubs themselves have not been accused of any wrongdoing. What investigators say they've uncovered is systematic match-fixing by a corrupt betting syndicate based in Bologna, which is even alleged to have spiked players' drinks in order to affect their performance.

Coming just five years after Italy's biggest club, Juventus, was relegated for its part in the country's worst-ever match-fixing scandal the news is unlikely to restore Italians' battered faith in their footballing heroes.

Mark Duff, BBC News, Milan

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Vocabulary

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to cast a shadow over

to make something look bad or less impressive

diminutive

very small

looking into

investigating

betting scam

illegal or dishonest scheme for making money, based around betting on sports (here, football games)

household names

people who are very famous, and well known by people

wrongdoing

acting in a bad or illegal way

match-fixing

illegal scheme which involves criminals paying footballers to make sure a game ends in a particular way (e.g. one team loses)

betting syndicate

group of people who work together to gain money by betting on sports

spiked

drugged

relegated

here, moved down from one football league to the one below it