Vietnamese sports and the pain of the story of "cutting" food and bonus money

The story of the "800,000 VND meal" of the national youth table tennis team has just calmed down, and now it is the turn of the women's gymnastics team, specifically the case of athlete Pham Nhu Phuong, to report to Dan Tri newspaper.

If in the table tennis case no athlete dared to speak out directly, this time, an athlete with more than 10 years of experience did not hesitate to expose everything.

The story that Pham Nhu Phuong informed Dan Tri over the past few days clearly shows the surface to the dark corners of the sport of Gymnastics in particular, and is also a "sounding warning" for other athletes and other sports in Vietnam.

Athlete Pham Nhu Phuong speaks out about the "dark corners" of the National Women's Gymnastics team (Photo: Manh Quan).

If Pham Nhu Phuong did not speak up, would anyone know that her coaches had collected "commission money", "hot bonuses", and "strange fund money" from her for many years? Not only Phuong, many other athletes also suffered the same fate.

More terrifyingly, the story of teachers exaggerating their overtime training regime has shocked the public. Because this is no longer a story within the framework of the sports industry, but has signs of violating the law.

"They applied for overtime training and asked to enjoy the government's regime, but in reality, we athletes and coaches hardly had any training as requested. The money will be transferred directly to the athletes' and coaches' accounts by the Hanoi National Sports Training Center. But we athletes will not receive the entire amount, but will have to share 50% with Ms. T," said athlete Nhu Phuong.

Of course, the accusations and evidence that athlete Nhu Phuong presented need the parties involved to verify, investigate and reach a final conclusion. However, when the incident has reached this level, it is clear that the sports industry will have a headache to resolve, when the whole society is paying attention, waiting to see how the sports managers will "handle the crisis".

Athlete Pham Nhu Phuong herself also decided to retire despite 15 years of dedication. She was also accused of "betraying" her coach. But the 2003-born athlete's conscience would be troubled if she did not speak out about all the negative things behind the scenes in the women's gymnastics team.

"I, like many other athletes, do not want to receive illegal money, money that I did not earn, money that those in charge asked for and borrowed from us, putting young athletes like us who do not have much knowledge into a series of sophisticated, secretive actions to pick the state budget," Nhu Phuong shared.

Pham Nhu Phuong is an accomplished athlete of the Vietnamese women's gymnastics team and a talent who was trained systematically since childhood, participating in and winning many medals in domestic and international tournaments.

Issues such as cutting food money and bonuses for athletes need to be dealt with decisively by the sports industry (Photo: Manh Quan).

The 20-year-old athlete’s willingness to give up everything to sue her coach shows her courage. Nhu Phuong’s reaction is a pain for the sports industry, but on the positive side, it is commendable. She needs to be protected, so that athletes dare to speak out about wrongdoings and irregularities, helping Vietnamese sports become cleaner.

The problem of the sports industry right now is not just meetings, blaming and handling things in a "lift high hit soft" or "sacrificial pawn" manner, but needing to get involved strongly and decisively.

Not only table tennis and gymnastics, but all sports today need to be reviewed and inspected. When the incident is widely reported in public opinion, with the media's fierce involvement, the latest stories in the women's gymnastics team need to be handled thoroughly, even as a "model case".

And if it is more serious, when the incident has been going on for many years systematically, organized and related to the state budget, the involvement of the police is necessary to clarify.

A long-time coach said that over the years, the sports industry has had many problems, but because it is a "reward-based" field, people in the industry often know about it but ignore it, or handle it carelessly.

It is time for the sports industry to deal with the cases of skimming off athlete meals and bonuses in a decisive manner, with the right people and the right crimes punished. Because if cases like this are not dealt with thoroughly, no one can be sure that there will be similar scandals in other sports, other teams, other athletes...

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/the-thao-viet-nam-va-noi-dau-cau-chuyen-cat-phe-tien-an-tien-thuong-20240117110953373.htm