Thanh Hoa Club: 'Do not prevent Tien Dung from getting rich, but must follow the law'

After winning the silver medal at the U23 Asian Cup, Tien Dung was involved in a scandal related to signing a contract to earn money.

- Many people think that Thanh Hoa Club reminded Tien Dung about working with media companies and signing advertising contracts, which is preventing players from getting rich legitimately. What is your opinion on this?

- We always create conditions for players to develop both professionally and economically. However, everything must be in accordance with the law. Tien Dung cannot unilaterally sign an advertising contract with any unit. That must be approved by the club.We spent a lot of effort training Tien Dung, we can say that his image was “raised from the mud”. It is impossible that when he has just achieved some success, some unit will jump in to make money from him. If Tien Dung’s image has any problems in the future, we will also have to take responsibility.

- What does Tien Dung's contract stipulate about player image copyright?

- The club has the right to use Tien Dung's image. Any brand that wants to use it must have our permission. If Tien Dung and the other company had asked for permission and sat down to talk with us first, things might have been different.This is also very common abroad. Player agents cannot sign contracts with brands without the permission of the team. All must have the consent of three parties.

- Why hasn't Thanh Hoa filed a lawsuit in this case?

- Tien Dung is a young player, we don't want things to go too far, affecting his future. This goalkeeper's contract with us is still valid for four years.

- How will this incident affect Tien Dung's performance in the 2018 season?

- The club does not make it difficult for him. Whether Tien Dung can play or not depends on his skills and is entirely the decision of coach Marian Mihail. However, kIt's not true that Tien Dung's good performance in U23 Vietnam means he will automatically have an official position in Thanh Hoa's first team. He has to compete with two seniors, Thanh Thang and Buu Ngoc.

Coach Marian Mihail is very professional. He does not care about the name or nationality of the players, whoever practices well and shows his expertise will be given priority. The national team players in our club are still on the bench as usual if they do not make an effort on the training ground. I would like to reaffirm that the decision of who will start is up to the coach, the club leadership has no right to interfere.