VietnamPlus and French news agency AFP launched today the first ever interactive sports flash graphics service in Vietnam, adding more heat to the coming World Cup in South Africa.

Local soccer fans now can have real-time updates of every match from the group phase to the final phase as well as information of every player and coach of the 32 teams that steal the hearts of billions of people around the world for the whole month starting from 11 June.

“In this digital age, people require information in a compact and fast manner, even real-time news, and this unique World Cup service is able to meet that challenging demand,” said Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-chief of the popular news website that belongs to the Vietnam News Agency.

Minh revealed that VietnamPlus has been working with AFP since early this year to build the Vietnamese version of the service. “Everything is in Vietnamese language, and that is the best present we can bring to Vietnamese soccer fans during this wonderful sports event,” he said.

The free of charge service, at http://wc2010.vietnamplus,vn , offers state-of-art flash graphics combining archives and the latest news with scores, statistical analysis, team profiles, players and team histories, etc..

VietnamPlus has been pioneering in use of new media technology. It inaugurated in January Vietnam ’s first ever multi-language telecom service enabling mobile users to read news in various languages in their preferred choice. Last month, VietnamPlus launched its mobile web version, becoming the first news website in Vietnam that runs in all platforms – website, mobile web and mobile application.

AFP traces its history back to the 1835 creation of Agence Havas, the world's first international news agency. It now has a team of more than 1,400 staff journalists and 700 freelancers in 165 countries./.