HANOI, Jan. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The head coach and manager of a local soccer club have been detained for giving bribes to their opponents at the 2000-2001 national tournament, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Friday.

    The coach of the Pjico Song Lam Nghe An club based in central Nghe An province, Nguyen Huu Thang, and the club's manager Nguyen Hong Thanh were officially detained on Thursday.

    Thang, who was the club's coach assistant at the tournament and recently relieved from the head coach post by the club, and Thanh, gave some 13,500 U.S. dollars to two local teams so that Pjico Song Lam Nghe An could win the tournament's championship easily.

    Vietnam's National Sports and Physical Training Committee Thursday decided to suspend Nguyen Hoang Thu, former director of the Sports Department of Nghe An province, from the current post of deputy editor-in-chief of Sports Magazine, saying the suspension would help him focus time on working sessions with local investigators over the club's wrongdoing during the tournament.

    Thu alleged directed the club's key figures to seek ways of winning the championship at any cost.

    Local police have recently detected many cases, in which local clubs bribed referees and their opponents so that they got promoted, won championships, or did not have to be relegated in national tournaments.

    Since August 2005, they have uncovered over 50 local corrupt referees, as well as managing directors and coaches of some clubs. Enditem