Udon FC players take club to court over firing, no pay
Six former Udon Thani Football Club (Udon FC) players filed a lawsuit yesterday in Labour Court Region 4 accusing the club of not paying them. Five also claimed they were terminated without advance notification.
Udon FC shareholders claimed the group had problematic behaviour, skipping training and drinking alcohol, and the termination decision was to give them a chance to turn over a new leaf.
The court set October 5 as the date for the case to be deliberated.
Ekkachai Sinnok, Dechsakda Tawasuk, Supanit Suparatanakul, Wirapong Wannasiri, Mangkorn Noichompoo, and Udomporn Somkong said in January they signed contracts paying each a Bt7,000-Bt10,000 salary plus training and match day allowances of Bt200 per day.
However the club didn't pay them and the group said their inquiries were avoided. Consequently one player quit and the remaining five on August 22 faced job termination without advance notification. Fee payments totalling Bt400,000 were not paid.
The plaintiffs claimed they previously sent representatives to consult with the Labour Court, which notified the club to solve the problem. However they were fired without payment or the opportunity to play this season. The six said they hesitated to take action earlier because they loved football and feared it would ruin Udon Thani's reputation - but then decided to sue for justice and better future conditions.
President of the Northeastern Region Football Development Centre's match organisers and a shareholder in Udon FC, Sathaporn Khotbutra, said the coaching team brought the complaints before the club executives.
They said the group was ill-disciplined, drank alcohol, posted inaccurate information about the club on their Facebook pages, picked fights with opposition players during matches, came to training late or skipped it altogether - and so they were terminated.
Sathaporn said executives wanted to give the group a second chance so they could resume training and drop their other activities. He said they expected the group to tell the club in November they were ready to obey the coach and apply for a try-out, in which they would get preference as they'd played for the club before. He said he would attend the court mediation and be ready to give the group a chance, provided it did the right thing.
