Vietnamese police o­n Thursday detained a local soccer coach and a referee who were allegedly to give and take bribes for match fixing, according to sources from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF).
Nguyen Thanh Vinh, head coach of Dong A-PominaSteel Club in southern Ho Chi Minh City, was prosecuted Wednesday for asking his subordinates to give bribes worth of 130 million Vietnamese dong (VND) (8,227 US dollars) to a group of referees. This helped his team get promoted in Vietnam's professional league, V-League 2005.
According to Vinh's deposition, he acted o­n o­ne of the referees' suggestion after the team's promotion. The team tied with their opponent in a game o­n August 6, which allowed its promotion.
On Thursday morning in Hanoi capital city, the police arrested a referee named Truong The Toan, the o­nly Vietnamese referee officiated in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Local investigators said a group of referees, including Toan, had taken a bribe of 25 million VND (1,582 dollars) to fix a first-division match in 2004 in accordance with an order from Dong A-Pomina.
Vinh and Toan are to be detained for four months, the sources said, noting that the police are probing into five other people for match-rigging allegations. They include three referees, a coach assistant of Dong A-Pomina, and the director of the Sports Department of southern Can Tho city.
To date, 17 out of 60 local referees and teams' officials who have allegedly involved in match-fixing over the past two years, have been prosecuted. Of the men, five have been detained.
Each of the corrupt referees took bribes worth from several hundreds of dollars to 2,500 dollars. In return, they ruled in favor of the bribe-giving teams, helping them get promoted or not to be relegated in national tournaments.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/200511/...11_220544.html

Collected by Nguyen Hoai Anh A2 01-04
Submitted by Le Huy Hoang L2 00-03