Soccer-Singapore police not involved in UK fixing case

* Singapore not involved in UK case * Police say not contacted by Britain's NCA (Adds more Singapore police quotes) By Patrick Johnston SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Singapore police say they are not involved in a case involving two of their country's nationals charged in England with conspiracy to defraud as part of a match-fixing investigation into lower league soccer matches. The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) named the men charged on Thursday as Chann Sankaran, a 33-year-old Singapore national, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, a 43-year-old with dual UK and Singapore nationality. The Singapore Police Force (SPF) declined to say whether they were willing to help the NCA or knew of the two men when contacted by Reuters on Friday. "The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has not been contacted by the National Crime Agency (NCA)," a short emailed reply from a spokesman read. "The arrests were made by the National Crime Agency (NCA). "The Singapore authorities were not involved in the operation." Pushed for further details, the SPF sent the statement again. The issue of match-fixing is a touchy subject in the wealthy city-state, who have long battled an issue which refuses to go away. Detention orders were issued to four people in Singapore last month for their alleged involvement in a global syndicate after 14 people were arrested in September which had been lauded as a huge breakthrough. Nobody was named in the operation but one detainee was believed to be Singaporean Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, widely considered as the mastermind behind a global match-fixing organisation who is wanted by Italian police. Law enforcement agency Interpol lauded the work of Singapore authorities for the capture after earlier criticising them for not moving fast enough in making arrests, with Southeast Asia being the long identified as the heartbeat of the problem. European police said in February a Singapore-based syndicate had directed match-fixing for at least 380 soccer games in Europe alone, making at least eight million euros ($10.88 million). ($1 = 0.7353 euros) (Reporting by Patrick Johnston; Editing by John O'Brien/Alan Baldwin)