HANOI, Oct 21: Vietnamese police have pressed criminal charges against seven referees and a coach for match fixing, as part of a crackdown aimed at ridding the country’s most popular sport of corruption, state media reported on Friday.

The referees, including one FIFA-certified official, were accused of “taking bribes” to fix domestic league matches, in some cases as much as $8,200, the Tien Phong newspaper reported.

Tran Manh Cuong, assistant coach of league side East Asia Bank-Pomina Steel, was charged with “giving bribes” to referees to influence matches involving his team during the 2004-2005 season, the police-run An Ninh Thu Do newspaper said.

The gang is the first to be prosecuted since police launched a “clean hands” campaign last month to cleanse corruption in soccer.—Reuters