Vietnam footballers who bet on own Asia game to get life ban

Chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation Le Hung Dung -Tuoi Tre

“All the players involved will be permanently eliminated from football activities in Vietnam,” Le Hung Dung, chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), told Tuoi Tre ahead of his trip to Malaysia for an Asian Football Confederation scheduled for April 12.

Dung also hailed Vissai Ninh Binh club owner Hoang Manh Tuong’s decision to voluntarily withdraw from the ongoing 2014 V-League, the country’s top-flight tournament, where they are in third place from the bottom, to battle this dishonesty.

“Correcting the professional ethics of Vietnamese footballers and purifying local football life are our top priorities,” Dung emphasized.

“Hence, we support the club owner’s decision and are willing to share all difficulties with them,” he added.

The top football official said there is a thin line between betting and match-fixing, adding that in line with VFF’s current regulations, all people involved in V-League are banned from taking part in all forms of betting, which is illegal in Vietnam now.

The nine footballers deserve serious punishment since they have deliberately ignored the rules, Dung said, affirming a life ban will be the penalty.

Other local football officials have strongly backed the penalty Dung proposed in the most shocking football scandal in Vietnam since the match-fixing during the 2005 Southeast Asian Games hosted by the Philippines nearly a decade ago.

After the 2005 event, six national team players, including ex-star striker Pham Van Quyen, received suspended sentences for being involved in a match-fixing ring while former national team midfielder Le Quoc Vuong and former V-League club striker Truong Tan Hai were sentenced to six years and three years in prison, respectively, for 'organizing gambling.’

Vuong’s jail term was commuted to four years at an appeal court later.

“We will ask FIFA for its opinions but surely we will not let these footballers touch the ball anymore,” Vo Quoc Thang, chairman of the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF), talked about the latest scandal.

The Vietnam Professional Football operates both the top-flight V-League and the First Division.

Le Duc Trung, interim president of the Association of Vietnamese Football Fans, also hailed the VFF chairman’s proposal.

“I think they [the nine Ninh Binh footballers] should be given serious penalties as a warning to others,” Trung said. “We must do that despite all the pain and suffering or Vietnamese football will be killed.”

$37,700 winning money

The nine footballers admitted to police that they had bet on their match against Malaysia’s Kelantan FA at the 2014 AFC Cup, an international football competition for clubs organized annually by the Asian confederation, on March 18.

The players pocketed VND800 million ($37,700) from winning the wager, according to investigators from the PC45 police unit in the northern province of Ninh Binh, where the club is headquartered.

The investigators said in a report that three days prior to the game, midfielder Tran Manh Dung met with goalie Nguyen Manh Dung and defenders Le Quang Hung and Le Van Duyet at The Vissai Ninh Binh Hotel to discuss the betting plan. The meeting then ended without an agreement.

On March 17, when the Vissai Ninh Binh squad arrived in Malaysia, Tran Manh Dung continued to entice the three players plus five more teammates to join his wagering plan, including defenders Pham Xuan Phu, Chu Ngoc Anh and Nguyen Gia Tu, striker Phan Anh Tuan, and goalie Nguyen Van Hung.

Midfielder Tran Manh Dung intended to bet on Total Goals Over 3 with a stake of VND2 billion ($94,340). The players involved agreed that if they won the bet, the winning money would be equally divided. Otherwise, they would incur the loss together.

Total Goals refers to a type of betting which depends on the number of goals scored in total for a match during 90 minutes.

In the Total Goals Over 3, bettors will win if more than three goals are scored regardless of which team wins the match. They will lose only if fewer than three goals are scored.

In the event that exactly three goals are scored, their stake will be refunded.

After an agreement was reached among the nine players, Tran Manh Dung and Nguyen Manh Dung used a mobile phone inserted with a Malaysian SIM card to call Dao Duc Loi, 36, residing in the northern Vietnamese province of Hai Phong, to place the bet, which Loi accepted.

On March 18 afternoon, before the Vissai Ninh Binh-Kelantan match started, the players met again to confirm their wager.

Tran Manh Dung then phoned to reaffirm the bet with Dao Duc Loi but the bookmaker this time only accepted a stake of VND1.02 billion ($48,100).

The match ended with the Vietnamese side winning 3-2, enabling the nine players to win VND800 million.

The nine then shared the amount and gave VND15 million ($700) to Loi as a commission and VND70 million ($3,300) to two other teammates, who knew about their betting, to silence them.

Further investigation is underway to determine who else might be involved in the ring.