Players of Thanh Hóa Club went on strike on Monday due to not being paid their salaries and bonuses. — Photo Thanh Hóa Club

THANH HÓA — Players of Thanh Hóa Club simultaneously went on strike on Monday and spoke out about not being paid their salaries and bonuses of over VNĐ16 billion (US$640,000) for two seasons.

All players of the Thanh Hóa senior team simultaneously shared a post on their personal pages, speaking out about the unpaid salaries and making a written complaint to the Việt Nam Football Federation (VFF).

Võ Nguyên Hoàng, A Mít, Gustavo Santana, Hoàng Thái Bình, Nguyễn Trọng Hùng and Doãn Ngọc Tân all expressed their indignation, accusing the club of not paying their full salaries and bonuses for the 2023 and 2023/24 seasons.

"Players and coaching staff members always face late salaries, bonuses and contract fees, but we always maintain the spirit of training and competing with the highest professionalism, winning two titles of National Cup and one Super Cup in two consecutive years," the Thanh Hóa team players wrote.

According to the players, the total amount owed over the two seasons is $640,000. Thanh Hóa's leadership repeatedly promised and committed to paying in full, but by the beginning of the 2024/25 season, payment had still not been made. The team has been training since the beginning of August, but by August 5, there was still no response from the leadership, so the players decided to strike, waiting for a solution.

Thanh Hóa's CEO, Cao Hoàng Đức, said that the debts are not as much as the players have accused them of and hoped that the province will give them some help.

"For the past four years, we have invested too much in football, supporting both the senior team and the youth team of more than 200 players, spending more than VNĐ120 billion ($4.8 million) each year. The salary and bonus debt is about VNĐ10 billion ($400,000), not much compared to what we have spent. Vietnamese football needs the government's support, hoping that the province will have a solution to help the team," Đức said. VNS