KUALA LUMPUR – The latest bribery revelation by Indonesian ace player, Taufik Hidayat, in an interview few days ago has shocked the badminton world.
It was understood from a recent report by Go Sports that Taufik Hidayat had claimed that in 2006, a Malaysian badminton official had attempted to bribe him to lose the Doha Asian Games semi-final match against Datuk Lee Chong Wei.
This disclosure also shocked Chong Wei as he was not aware of the incident and the identity of the alleged culprit but after seeking clarification from Taufik Hidayat, he now knows who this person is.
The Indonesian star went on to beat Chong Wei and subsequently defeated China’s Lin Dan to secure the gold medal, which meant that it was a failed attempt by the alleged culprit.
However, this issue raised many eyebrows after Chong Wei confirmed he now knows who the culprit is but declined to reveal the name of the person as the three-time Olympic silver medallist has no intention to name and shame someone for an incident that took place 15 years ago.
Since then, the former national player was on the receiving end as experts in the badminton fraternity believe that it is Chong Wei’s obligation to reveal the name of the culprit and failure to do so would impact the integrity of Malaysian sports.
A source in the sports industry, who wished for anonymity, told The Vibes that Chong Wei should reveal the name of this culprit regardless of when the incident took place. It is not about naming or shaming the person as it is about responsibility towards the game.
“I hope the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) would look into this matter seriously. This is not good at all for Malaysian sports, let alone badminton,” said the source.
Meanwhile, when The Vibes contacted BAM president, Tan Sri Mohd Norza Zakaria, on the association’s stand on the matter, he said that it is up to the BWF to decide if it wants to open investigation on this latest exposé
“We will leave it to the world body now for further action because the incident took place in the Asian Games, under its jurisdiction. It is up to BWF now.
However, Norza said that BAM will give full cooperation if this case is investigated and will leave no stone unturned, adding that match-fixing won’t be tolerated in badminton.
“This incident took place 15 years back and I was not involved in badminton during the time. Now, you will never find such things happening because BWF have placed match-fixing SOPs and mechanism to monitor all the tournaments and matches,” Norza said.
In 2019, former world junior champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli, and compatriot Tan Chun Seang were given 20 and 15-year sentences respectively after BWF found that they had engaged in corruption.
Zulfadli was found to have manipulated the results of four matches, violating the code of conduct between 2013 and 2016, while Chun Seang was found guilty of violating the code on 26 occasions.
“Once again, I will reiterate that BAM will not tolerate such nonsense as we are here to keep the integrity of the sport intact,” said Norza. − The Vibes, August 24, 2021
