A Hong Kong court has jailed two footballers and a betting agent for up to 17 months in the city’s largest match-fixing scandal in recent years, ruling that they deliberately undermined the integrity of the sport.

Former Hong Kong Under-23 player Brian Fok, Brazilian player Luciano Silva da Silva and betting agent Waheed Mohammad returned to West Kowloon Court on Friday to be sentenced on five charges arising from a high-profile crackdown that saw 23 people arrested on suspicion of illegal gambling and rigging local football matches.

Magistrate Peter Yu Chun-cheung rejected the defence’s request to suspend the trio’s sentences, saying the case involved deliberate attempts to manipulate football matches, the success of which depended on honest competition, public trust and commercial sponsorship.

“The defendants’ conduct eroded public confidence in football, damaged the reputation of local football competitions and adversely affected the development of local football,” he said.

“In order to mark the gravity of the offences and to discourage similar offending, despite what all counsel and the personal circumstances of each defendant said, I am of the view that the only appropriate sentencing option is one of immediate custodial sentences.”

Fok, 32, received 17 months on three counts of offering an advantage to an agent and two counts of conspiracy to cheat at gambling.