Ho Chi Minh City taekwondo fighters’ salary found being transferred to coach’s account
Monday, February 02, 2015, 17:14 GMT+7
Following the ‘lending’ of athletes by Ho Chi Minh City to other provincial teams to compete at national sports festivals, many other problems have been discovered, such as the forging of athletes’ contracts and wrong payment of their salary.
At a meeting last weekend, Nguyen Thanh Huy – the coach of the city’s taekwondo team and the head of the taekwondo division of the Department of Culture and Sports – admitted that the lending of athletes to other provinces has taken place for many years.
Despite arguing that the lending creates more chances for competition for the athletes, Huy was allegedly blamed for being involved in several problems, including the forging of athletes’ contracts and wrong payment of their salary.
Huy said Ho Chi Minh City lent its athletes to other provinces to compete at the National Sports Festival in 2006 and 2010.
At the tournament held in 2014, the city loaned 17 taekwondo athletes to three teams: Ca Mau, Binh Phuoc, and the army, and they won two gold medals for the teams. Meanwhile, the Ho Chi Minh City taekwondo team ended the tourney with just one gold medal.
The athletes lent to Ca Mau had contracts valid from February 2013 to December 2014 with a monthly salary of VND4.5 million (US$216).
Other athletes on loan to Binh Phuoc had five-year contracts starting from 2011 with a monthly salary of VND3.3 million ($159) and some allowances.
However, those athletes attending the meeting told Mai Ba Hung, deputy director of the municipal sports department, that they did not receive what was mentioned in their contracts.
Chi Khanh, Phuoc Dai, and Quoc Minh claimed they got around VND1 million ($48) each a month.
And the money was transferred to the bank account of coach Huy, who then delivered it to the athletes.
Despite these statements, coach Huy told the meeting last weekend that the athletes lent to other teams received nothing from the ‘borrowers’ and their salaries were paid by the Ho Chi Minh City team.
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