The club's administrative offices are based at the training centre in Neerpede. Anderlecht had no prior knowledge of the raids and is co-operating fully says a spokeswoman for the club. It's thought it's mainly paperwork linked to transfers that is being targeted. The transfers under investigation date from the time Roger Vanden Stock led the club and are not connected to new chairman Marc Coucke.

Other sites connected to Anderlecht football club and football in general, the Belgian Football Association in Laken and premises in the City of Brussels and Schaarbeek, have received a visit from the lads in blue, though it’s being stressed that the present investigation isn’t immediately linked to Operation Zero, a major money-laundering and match-fixing investigation that broke last October.

The present investigation is homing on money-laundering and the setting up of a criminal investigation. Prosecutors say it’s especially football agents who are in investigators’ sights.