The family of athlete Pham Nhu Phuong continued to speak out about the fact that Phuong and other athletes in the national gymnastics team still received their wages even though they did not practice on Saturdays and Sundays. However, they had to return half of the money to the team's coaching staff to put into the general fund.

Because the training volume and intensity of top athletes is very heavy, according to regulations, they are given 2 days off on the weekend to recover their health. The Vietnam Gymnastics Team also gave their athletes a day off, but still did the paperwork for the athletes to receive wages as if they were training normally during the week.

Talking to Thanh Nien on the morning of January 17, athlete Pham Nhu Phuong's sister (who is also her representative) said: "Recently, my sister showed me a group, created in 2020. In it, there were messages about athletes' paid days. According to state regulations, each athlete receives 270,000 VND/day for training during the week. Sunday training is 540,000 VND/day. But athletes who do not train on Sunday still receive this money because the coaches do the paperwork to legalize the state's money. Each athlete gets to keep the Sunday training fee (in fact, not training) of 270,000 VND/day. The remaining 270,000 VND is returned to the coach. I told Phuong, it is illegal for you to receive money like this. My sister just asked, why is it illegal? I explained it very clearly to her. Our family will send an official dispatch to the relevant authorities. relevant authorities to return this money. Because taking money like that is no different from embezzling the state budget".

In an urgent meeting on the morning of January 17, the coaching board of the Gymnastics team admitted that the incident was exactly as reported by Nhu Phuong's family. However, the coaching board also explained that the money that the athletes had withdrawn was used to serve the professional work of the whole team (such as buying more hand rub powder, medical bandages, internal and external affairs, etc.). The Department of Sports and Physical Training requested the two head coaches of the men's and women's Gymnastics teams to write a written explanation, clarifying the incident (which is showing signs of violations).

From there, the Department of Sports and Physical Training has a basis to report to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to come up with a solution. If it is clear that the coaches' actions are against the principles, the sports industry may discipline the coaching staff, and may even suspend them from their duties.