Six badminton players, including Vietnam’s top player Nguyen Tien Minh, don’t want to play for HCM City anymore because they disagree with the behaviour of the city’s badminton division chief.

Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh.

Six players sent their petition to HCM City sports authorities on July 9, before Tien Minh goes to Australia for the Australian Open Grand Prix (he became the champion on July 18). Five other players are Van Tuan Kiet, Duong Bao Duc, Pham Cao Hieu, Huynh Nguyen Khang and Thai Thi Hong Gam.

The six players criticized HCM City badminton division chief Tran Nguyen Chi Dung as intervening deeply in technical issues without attending to training facilities.

“In recent years, the badminton division chief Tran Nguyen Chi Dung misused his power. He deeply intervened in training activities, but why didn’t he pay attention to the training situation and conditions so that we can practice the best and improve our records,” the petition stated.

They also complained that Dung raised difficulties for athletes when they sought sponsors themselves or didn’t assist them in visas for overseas tournaments.

Early this year, HCM City’s table-tennis players also accused the table-tennis division chief of bad behavior toward players. The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism had to replace him.

HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Deputy Director Nguyen Hung told VNE newspaper this morning, July 19, that he had just returned home from a business trip, so he couldn’t resolve this issue immediately.

PV