Former Vietnamese Soccer Players Convicted of Match-Fixing

A court in Ho Chi Minh City delivered the guilty verdicts Friday against the seven men and an eighth former soccer player from the domestic V-League.

The ringleader of the match-fixing scheme, international midfielder Le Quoc Vuong, was sentenced to six years in prison.

V-League striker Truong Tan Hai, who served as a liaison to gambling kingpins, received a two-year sentence.

Vietnam's star striker, Pham Van Quyen, and the five other players were handed two-year suspended sentences, during which they will be banned from playing soccer.

The court ruled that the Vietnamese players took bribes to keep their margin of victory to one goal in a match against Burma at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Manila.

Vietnam won the match 1-0.

A lawyer for Quyen, Pham Liem Chinh said he was relatively satisfied with the verdict.

About 20 Vietnamese referees, coaches and sports officials are facing criminal charges for various match-fixing incidents.

Information for this report is provided by AP, AFP and Reuters