Viet Nam Court Reduces Sentences of Football Match-Fixing Referees

Vietnamese appeals court has reduced or suspended the prison terms of six football referees and officials jailed in July for corruption and match-fixing, a court clerk said Friday.

All six of the nine defendants who appealed their sentences were handed lighter punishments in the hearing Thursday, said a clerk at the Hanoi-based People’s Supreme Court.

“Their new terms range from 15 months suspended to five years in jail, compared to the previous range of two years suspended to seven years in jail,” said the clerk, who asked not to be named.

Two FIFA-ranked referees – Truong The Toan, who had been sentenced to four years’ jail, and Le Van Tu, who had received a suspended two year term – on Thursday received suspended terms of 24 and 14 months respectively.

The defendants had been convicted of taking hundreds of millions of dong (tens of thousands of dollars) in bribes in the 2004-2005 V-League season in return for being more lenient on some clubs.

Their terms were reduced after the defendants showed that the bribes they received were lower than the amounts mentioned in the original trial in July, Vietnam Television (VTV) reported.

“Another reason was that the defendants expressed their wish to be given the chance to continue their contribution to Vietnamese football,” VTV said.

Allegations of corruption and match-fixing among players and referees have marred Vietnam’s domestic V-League since its debut in 2000-2001.

Among the other referees, Luong Trung Viet had his jail term cut from seven to five years, Hoang The Dung from four-and-a-half years to 33 months, and Pham Huu Loc from four years to 27 months suspended.

Assistant coach assistant Vu Tien Thanh’s already suspended jail term was cut from three years to 18 months.

AFP