Top cop dispatched to stop Vietnamese fixing matches

BANGKOK, Jan 11 (Reuters) Vietnam has sent one of its top policemen to the Asean soccer championships to make sure its national team players steer clear of match fixing and bribery.

Lieutenant colonel Doan Cong Huan, a police graft-buster, is accompanying the Vietnamese squad in Singapore to monitor the players' performances and stop them from contacting underground bookmakers, Vietnamese media reported.

Vietnam lost seven of its national team players last year after they were charged with fixing the result of a South East Asian Games match in Manila in 2005.

The communist country's soccer chiefs have since vowed to crack down on match-rigging to prevent a ''corruption storm'' from ruining the nation's favourite sport.

It launched a ''clean hands'' campaign in 2005 which has led to the prosecution of dozens of players and referees.

Vietnam have been drawn in Group B of the biennial Asean soccer championships -- formerly the Tiger Cup -- along with Laos, Indonesia and hosts Singapore.

Group A matches will be played in Bangkok and feature Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The tournament gets underway tomorrow.

REUTERS AY SSC1249