Befitting treatment for top sports

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just chaired a conference to collect expert opinions on the draft of a new Decree to replace Decree 152 of 2018 of the Government "Regulating policies and regimes for members of sports teams participating in concentrated training and competitions". A series of proposals on compensation regimes, salary policies and performance bonuses that are groundbreaking and unprecedented have been included in the draft with an increase of 2-10 times compared to Decree 152.

Typically, athletes and coaches will have their wages doubled from 7 million VND/person/month to 14 million VND/person/month, or the athletes' food allowance will be increased to 405,000 VND/person/day. Athletes with excellent achievements will receive monthly allowances at specific levels: Olympic medals are 40,000,000 VND/person/month; Asian Games gold medals are 20,000,000 VND/person/month; qualifying for the Olympics and Paralympic Games medals are 10,000,000 VND/person/month. Athletes will be supported for a cycle (4 years) from the time of achievement until the next Games. The Olympic gold medal bonus will reach an overwhelming number, increasing from 350 million VND to 3.5 billion VND (10 times). Asiad gold medalists are rewarded with 700 million VND (6 times increase), while SEA Games gold medalists are rewarded with 60 million VND...

Coaches and athletes received the news with great anticipation, although the proposals are still only at the draft level for comments before being finalized and submitted to the Ministry and then approved by the Government at an unspecified time. However, if the replacement decree is passed, it can be considered a "revolution" in salary and bonus policies for high-performance sports , an unprecedented momentum that will completely change the perception of coaches and athletes when participating in international arenas.

In the context of Vietnamese Sports being determined to implement a key investment strategy, aiming to bring sports to continental and world level in the era of national development, the proposals of the draft Decree demonstrate a new mindset of sports managers: Using finance as a lever, creating motivation to stimulate athletes right from the training stage, thereby exploiting outstanding mental strengths to compensate for physical shortcomings and inferior material conditions compared to many other sports...

Although the sharp increase in financial regimes for the top is only the tip of a process of reaching new heights, from a strategic perspective, if the replacement decree is passed, it will also demonstrate the policy of taking coaches and athletes as the center of national sports development, caring for and paying attention to their sacrifices and contributions, considering it the key point to move towards activities to attract investment, socialize, and increase financial resources for long-term sports development plans. In other words, we are moving towards operating a sports system to train outstanding individuals with outstanding achievements, without limits, replacing the investment activities that are spread out, leveling, chasing quantity, and lacking in elite selection.

From a social perspective, the impacts will certainly be even greater when the income of top athletes increases, approaching that of world-class professional athletes, which will attract many families to decide to invest in their children to pursue sports as an attractive career. That is the foundation for Vietnamese Sports to develop professional sports in the future.

DANG LINH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/dai-ngo-xung-tam-cho-the-thao-dinh-cao-post807535.html