The Vietnam women had defeated Southeast Asian powerhouses Thailand 1-0 in the final of the women’s football competition of the 3oth Southeast Asian Games hosted by Philippines in December 2019 to claim the gold medal in the multi-sport event.
In doing so, they became the most successful nation in women’s football at the SEA Games and has since then received cash awards worth around VND 23.5 billion (US$ 1.1 million) from various government and private sources.
However, Vietnam Net are reporting that the Golden Girls have refused to accept a cash prize because of the offensive demands of the private company that was offering it.
“We have been promised VND 24 billion in cash but we refused to receive VND 500 million from [a private company] due to their demands,” said Vietnam head coach Mai Duc Chung who added that company required the team to disclose a list of members who would receive the money.
“We’ve received lots of bonuses and there have been no problems about how we shared them among team members so far. Everyone knows how much they and other members get and no one has complained or said it was unfair,” he said.
“So we feel hurt when seeing the company’s requirements as it seems they doubt us,” the coach was quoted as saying.
Vietnam are set to take part in the third and final round of the 2020 AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifiers from February 3 to 9 where they are pooled with Korea Republic and Myanmar in Group A. Group B consists of Australia, Thailand, China PR and Chinese Taipei.
Top two teams from each groups will progress to the play-off rounds which is to be held in March 2020. The play-offs will see Group A runners-up facing Group B winners and Group B runners-up facing Group A winners in a two-legged tie.
The winners of the two ties will book a place in the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo, Japan.
