Kuala Lumpur: In response to Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM)’s show cause letter for abruptly barring BAM’s observer Jadadish Chandra from attending the second day of the match-fixing hearing in Singapore on February 27, the World Badminton Federation (BWF) said the case should remain confidential until the official decision was announced.
According to BAM’s general manager, Michelle Chai, she said BWF replied to BAM last week saying the reason why they disallowed Chandra from attending the second day of the haring was because they would like to give the two players who were accused in the match-fixing scandal a fair trial.
“BWF informed us that the two players were entitled to the due process of law. Hence, BWF is obligated to keep this confidential to ensure for fair adjudications.”
“However, there were disagreements between BWF and BAM on this issue.”
“Through the letter of protest that BAM sent last month, we have asked BWF to issue a formal response to our request to avoid any unnecessary speculation,” added Chai.
“BWF informed us that the chairman of the appointed match-fixing panel believed Jadadish’s comments to the media after the end of the first day’s hearing have violated the confidentiality of the hearing, and therefore, the chairman has exercised his right to bar Jadadish from the second day of hearing.”
However, Michelle Chai also explained that BWF also promised to improve the procedure in the future.
“BWF said this was the first case that involving match-fixing in badminton, and they promised to revise the procedures in the future.”
When asked whether BWF had informed BAM when they would announce the final decision about the match-fixing case, Choi said they were still waiting and did not have any further information on that.
The two players were charged with six counts of match-fixing in six different tournaments between 2013 and 2016 following a report made by a non-Malaysian player to BWF in 2016. The two shuttlers would be ban for life if found guilty of match-fixing.
