Police take players in V.League club scandal
11 April 2014-SBS EXCLUSIVE by Scott McIntyre
Asian football has again been overshadowed by a match-fixing case, this time involving leading Vietnamese club Vissai Ninh Binh. It’s understood that police visited the club this morning and that 10 players have been taken away accused of fixing matches in the country’s top flight competition, the V.League.
The club, last year’s Vietnamese Cup winner, is currently languishing third from bottom in the 11-team league yet intriguingly it is currently undefeated and top of its group in the AFC Cup.
The club’s president cancelled training yesterday and took the foreign-based players at the club aside to explain the developments, The World Game understands.
At that meeting the president expressed his dismay at the revelations, which are understood to have involved only the local, Vietnamese players.
The northern Vietnamese club was only formed in 2007, but it’s believed that the club’s owners, who claim they had no knowledge of the events, are so upset that they have immediately withdrawn the club from the V.League and have informed the foreign-based players that they are to leave the club.
The World Game also understands that 15 players have been implicated, but only 10 have been taken away by police this morning.
The AFC is understood to have no knowledge of the developments and it’s unclear at this stage how the explosive revelations will affect Ninh Binh’s participation in the AFC Cup.
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1186488/Police-take-players-in-V.League-club-scandal
