"The honest suffers the most," a former Chinese soccer club official caught in China's crackdown on soccer corruption explained on Wednesday why clubs would bribe and manipulate matches.

Yang Xu, former Guangzhou Pharmaceutical FC deputy manager, has been detained in a nationwide fight against match-fixing and gambling in Chinese soccer.

Police have detained at least four people by far. Other sources said 16 people have been caught.

"There have been secret rules in Chinese soccer. I thought since everyone was doing that (bribing and manipulating matches), we would suffer for our honesty if we don't follow the practice," said Yang who was also former vice president of Guangzhou Football Association.

"I know it was wrong but I thought we could get away with it," Yang said.

Police said Wang Xin and Wang Po, officials from First Division club Shanxi, once offered to lose to Guangzhou and the latter paid 200,000 yuan (about 29,000 U.S. dollars) for a 5-1 win in 2006.

Guangzhou was promoted to the top flight Chinese Super League the following season.

Wang Xin and Wang Po then placed bets on this game to earn over 100,000 yuan.

The investigation, headed by the Ministry of Public Security, was still going on, police said. It was not known that how many people had been questioned or whether active players or big names were involved.