Ho Truc Giang, a former player for the Tien Giang football club in Tien Giang province, was arrested last week for keeping a man in captivity for ransom and illegal betting.

Ho Truc Giang, 21, a former player for the Hai Nhan Tien Giang football club in the southern province of Tien Giang, was arrested last week for keeping a man in captivity for ransom and illegal betting.

According to police, Giang won over 200 million dong (over US$10,000) from betting on a World Cup match last month with a man named Phuong in My Tho city. However, Phuong refused to pay.

On July 27 Giang hired two gangsters to snatch Phuong and hold him in a hotel in the southern province of Long An while he called the man’s relatives to demand the money.

The police were informed of the kidnapping and burst into the hotel room where Phuong was held. The police arrested the two gangsters and Giang turned himself in the following day.

On August 1, police from Tien Giang province arrested one more man in Truc Giang’s group. Giang confessed that he was the instigator of the kidnapping.

According to police, Giang was not only involved in betting on the 2010 World Cup but also many international football matches.

Giang was suspected of trying to fix the result of a match between his former club and TDC Binh Duong by sending SMS messages to his teammates last February. Some of them reported his messages to club authorities. The club released Giang after the end of the first phase of the First Division tournament in May.

Giang is the son of Ho Thanh Son, the former chairman of the Tien Giang football club.

PV