Coach admits to collecting money from athlete Pham Nhu Phuong

Mr. Dang Ha Viet - Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training said that he had worked with coach Nguyen Thuy Duong of the Vietnam Gymnastics team regarding the information that student Pham Nhu Phuong accused her of cutting bonuses. Coach Thuy Duong is Pham Nhu Phuong's direct manager at the Hanoi unit (stationed at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center).

Accordingly, the Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training affirmed that the reduction of bonuses did not occur in the national team and the Hanoi National Sports Training Center. This was a private matter between the athlete and coach Thuy Duong at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center.

" Coach Thuy Duong confirmed that money was collected. From our management perspective, if there is money collected to divide between the national team's coaching staff and the center, we have to handle it.

But when discussing the matter, Coach Thuy Duong confirmed that it was a personal matter, not the policy of the coaching board. The coaching board did not collect that money and also did not collect it from athletes from units outside of Hanoi. No one had to pay money to the coaching board.

There was no money given to the national team coaching staff or any department at the national sports training center. Therefore, the coaching staff confirmed 2 violations with coach Thuy Duong.

The first is the coach not reporting the athlete's resignation and the second is the collection of money. The proposal of the coaching board and the High Performance Sports Department 1 is to dismiss the national team duties of coach Ha Thanh and Thuy Duong. The Department will coordinate with the Hanoi unit to handle the next matters. The sharing of money has nothing to do with the Department of Sports and Physical Training ," Mr. Dang Ha Viet emphasized.

Athlete Pham Nhu Phuong of the Vietnam Gymnastics team.

Besides the bonus issue, Pham Nhu Phuong shared with the media that she was not happy about being removed from the national team. She said that she sent a commitment letter and informed her two coaches directly in charge about the trip to the US and they agreed, so she went.

However, upon returning home, she received news that she had been removed from the national team's 2024 squad because two coaches had forgotten to send a commitment. Disappointed with this punishment, she announced her retirement at the age of 20.

The Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training also clarified this issue. Specifically, athletes voluntarily quit without a decision from the National Sports Training Center 1, regardless of whether they reported to the coach or not.

" I directed the High Performance Sports Department 1, the Department of Physical Education and the Vietnam Gymnastics Federation to work with the National Sports Training Center to clarify some contents.

In which, the athlete did not train with the team, not that he was removed from the list. The national team has 2 training periods. The first time is December 2023. At that time, the coaching staff and the center took attendance of the athlete's training, but Nhu Phuong was not present at the National Sports Training Center 1. The coach of the team is also the direct coach at the Hanoi unit, Nguyen Ha Thanh and Nguyen Thuy Duong did not report where this athlete went.

Even if we inform them, we cannot let them go. Athletes cannot take leave when the entire team is focused on the goal of moving from ASIAD to the Olympics. The team’s athletes have to improve their skills a lot, especially the difficulty level, so the training process is continuous, without rest.

The mistake here is that the athlete verbally asked to quit, the athlete's family wrote a commitment but the two coaches did not report it. We are tightening management, so when the incident happened, on December 21, I sent an inspection team to the center and removed this athlete from the team ."

Regarding the campaign to have Pham Nhu Phuong's name not included in the 2024 team's training list, Mr. Dang Ha Viet said that Hanoi did not send athletes, so the team did not remove his name.

" At the 2024 training session, the national team trained to serve the Olympic goals and towards the SEA Games and ASIAD. The coaching staff reported that Phuong was not in Vietnam at that time. Secondly, this player had not practiced for more than 20 days, so his performance was not guaranteed, while other athletes were focusing on making efforts to get an Olympic spot.

Therefore, if we put an athlete who has been off for a long time into training, he will have to follow a separate training regimen. That could affect other athletes, so Hanoi does not recommend the athlete to join the national team ."

Mr. Dang Ha Viet affirmed that the team is always ready to welcome athletes if they have good achievements, good manners and ethics. Athletes spend many years training and achieving such achievements, so it is not easy to replace them. The Department of Sports and Physical Training has not disciplined or suspended athletes in 2024.

The Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training said that High Performance Sports Department 1 is preparing a document to report the incident to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Van Hai

Source