Kuala Lumpur: The Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Viktor Axelsen took to his social media accounts on Thursday to call out the Badminton World Federation (BWF) over prize money owed to the players from competing at the 2022 German Open, 2022 All England, and 2022 Swiss Open.
“Players still haven’t received any prize money from the European tour last month. 4.5+ weeks and counting. 🙃,” posted Axelsen.
Players still haven’t received any prize money from the European tour last month. 4.5+ weeks and counting. 🙃 pic.twitter.com/h2ZgSQjRpy
— Viktor Axelsen (@ViktorAxelsen) April 20, 2022
In addition to Axelsen, one of the most respected umpires for the sport of badminton, Jacob Syndberg, also replied to Axelsen’s Tweet by saying “Umpires haven’t been paid for their work at All England yet…..”.
This was not the first time Axelsen openly requested prize money payment from BWF. In Dec of 2021, three months after he won the 2021 Denmark Open, Axelsen also expressed his dissatisfaction about the delayed prize money payment from BWF on Twitter.
“Still haven’t got prize money from Denmark Open. In tennis, they received after two weeks max from GS/WTA/ATP. Maybe something needs to be fixed,” Axelsen tweeted on Thursday 16 December.
still haven’t received prize money from Denmark Open yet. In tennis they receive after two weeks max in GS/WTA/ATP. Maybe something we could improve also 😊
— Viktor Axelsen (@ViktorAxelsen) December 15, 2021
Compared to other sports, badminton players are already not getting paid enough. If BWF continues to delay payment to badminton players who deserved and needed the prize money, that could have a long-lasting negative impact on badminton, which has started to lose popularity (especially in Europe and America) to other sports such as pickleball – a sport that is being played on a badminton size court.
