The case against 13 footballers investigated over alleged match-fixing has been dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Seven players from Football League clubs were arrested in connected with alleged spot-fixing last April, while another six were re-arrested over the claims.

However, the Crown Prosecution Service came to the decision to drop proceedings following the collapse of the trial of former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos, with both cases being linked to reporter Mazher Mahmood.

During the trial of Contostavlos, who was accused of brokering a drug deal, Judge Alistair McCreath claimed that there were "strong grounds" to believe that then-Sun on Sunday reporter Mahmood had lied in the witness box.

That led to the CPS re-examining criminal convictions in 25 cases where evidence had previously been given by the reporter.

A statement said: "The reliability of the evidence of one alleged witness in particular had to be very carefully considered in light of recent events in the trial of R v Contostavlos and Coombs.

"This was not the only evidence that was considered and when all the evidence submitted by investigators was carefully reviewed in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction."

The CPS confirmed that no further action would be taken against any of the players.