Lifetime ban for Malaysian a lesson for players, says BAM president

 

The decision of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to impose a lifetime suspension on a Malaysian involved in match fixing should be a lesson to the national players, said Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Mohamad Norza Zakaria.

He stressed that the action taken against the individual involved was an appropriate step in curbing the activity from further tarnishing the image of badminton.

He explained that the suspension decision on an unnamed sports equipment executive was also a lesson to the players not to repeat the same mistakes made by two former national players, Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Tan Chung Seang who i n 2018 were sentenced to 20 and 15 years, respectively, by the BWF for being involved in match-fixing issues.

"We hope this BWF action will be a warning to our players so that whatever we do, we should not use shortcuts or prioritise wealth and profit because competition in badminton (should) be held in a healthy way," he said.

He said this to reporters after chairing the 75th BAM Annual General Meeting at the Malaysian Badminton Academy, Bukit Kiara yesterday.

Yesterday, BWF, through a statement, confirmed that the parent body's independent hearing panel decided to impose a lifetime suspension on an executive of a Malaysian sports equipment company for fixing matches.

BWF informed that the BWF Integrity Unit had been investigating the executive representative of the sports equipment company that sponsored international players since the 2014 Japan Open.

According to the BWF, the executive could appeal to the Sports Arbitration Court (CAS) within 21 days from the date of sentencing.

Commenting further, Mohamad Norza stressed that BAM through the legal committee always holds awareness courses, besides advising national players to make a report to the management if any outside individuals try to involve them in such activities.

Asked about the individual's involvement with BAM, he received information from BAM secretary-general Kenny Goh that the individual had tried to deal with BAM affiliates at the state level only, but it was not continued due to certain factors.

- Bernama