Need a hand with a conditional statement please

[Codeman05]

Hi guys,

I need some help, I'm sure this is a simple solution, but I have no idea.

Basically, I need the VB equivenlant of this code to put in my header (and will have the tag close in the footer of course)

PHP Code:

if($usergroupid==8 || $usergroupid==9)
{
echo "<span id='idname'>"
} 


I was able to do it in vb3.0, but I'm now running 3.5 and what I used before dosen't seem to working and I have no idea what to do.

Basically, I have "sponsored links" on my site, and I would like to disable them for paying members.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!