The key players of Than Quảng Ninh did not train on Wednesday in protest. Photo laodong.vn

HÀ NỘI — After going eight months without paying players' wages, the board of Than Quảng Ninh has promised to pay up, said the club's midfielder Nguyễn Hải Huy.

On Wednesday, a number of the side's top players including Huy, Trịnh Hoa Hùng, Mạc Hồng Quân, Dương Văn Khoa, Eydison Teofilo Soares and Diogo Pereira refused to train in protest at not being paid.

In the past eight months, the Quảng Ninh players have not yet received their basic salaries or bonuses.

“We are very miserable,” Huy told Lao Động (Labour) newspaper.

“Before the V.League 2021 kick-off, the board promised that they would do their best to pay us, so we accepted without any resistance. But up to now, it has been eight months without any positive signals.

"The board said next week there will be money to pay us. That's all we know and hope so because if this situation lasts longer, we don’t know what to do," Huy said.

“We tried our best to play for the team and didn't receive anything in return, everyone decided to take a break from training to make things clear.”

The team's top players didn't attempt to force all members of the squad to strike so that the junior players wouldn't face recrimination from club management.

“We also thought about the younger players, so we didn't want them to be in any trouble. But as this salary thing is a really big problem the senior players like us stopped training," said the 29-year-old who has played for the club his entire career.

This is not the first time that financial issues have been a problem at Than Quảng Ninh and many key club members left the team before the V.League 2021, including former coach Phan Thanh Hùng who’s now the coach of Becamex Bình Dương.

Quảng Ninh reportedly needs VNĐ70-80 billion to maintain operations each year, mostly from main sponsors the Việt Nam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) at about VNĐ30 billion, Chairman Phạm Thanh Hùng and a few smaller sponsors. But gradually many companies withdrew from funding the club.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the firm's business, Vinacomin has reportedly not paid any sponsorship money since the start of the 2020 season. VNS