The Vietnam Football Federation has decided to suspend six out of seven national soccer players, who were sentenced in January for fixing an international match, for either four or three years.

Pham Van Quyen, Vietnam's 2003 Golden Ball winner, and Le Van Truong will be suspended for four years starting April, the federation said Monday, adding that four other players will be suspended for three years.

A local court handed down a six-year imprisonment sentence to Le Quoc Vuong, a member of Vietnam's national U-23 soccer team, on the charges of gambling and organizing gambling. A three-year imprisonment sentence was imposed on Truong Tan Hai, former national soccer player, on the charge of gambling, and six other members of the team were sentenced to suspension sentences of 2 and 2.5 years.

Quyen sentenced on the charge of gambling. Midfielder Le Quoc Vuong wooed his teammates to rig the qualification match against Myanmar at the 23rd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in the Philippines in November 2005.

Their poor performance on purpose resulted in a 1-0 victory in favor of Vietnam as expected by local bookmakers. The eight men fixed the match to receive money from the bookmakers and win bets on the match with total amounts of 490 million Vietnamese dong (30,600 U.S. dollars), the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court said.

The federation said that it has yet to punish Vuong because he is lodging an appeal, and that it has no rights to punish former player Hai.

Like other kinds of gambling, except for casinos designated for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese, soccer betting is illegal in Vietnam. Dozens of local bettors and bookmakers are detained during major national and international soccer tournaments.

Source: Xinhua