Beijing: The China Badminton Super League has a notorious reputation of constant sponsorships conflicts between players’ personal sponsor and the League’s official sponsor since the first season that started in 2010.
In 2014, after playing several preliminary matches for their respective clubs, Malaysian badminton superstar Lee Chong Wei, former men’s doubles world champions Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia and former women’s singles world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand were also banned from the 2014 China Badminton Super League due to sponsorship disputes.
Then, two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan was stopped from playing in the 2015 China Badminton Super League playoff due to the conflict between his personal sponsor – YONEX and the league sponsor – VICTOR.
Lin Dan who was owed over 4 million-yuan unpaid wages from his club, Guangzhou Yueyu, during the 2016-2017 China Badminton Super League edition, has transferred to Qingdao Renzhou this season. He was barred from entering the court for his first men’s singles match of the new season on Wednesday (against Huang Yuxiang of Zhejiang) because Lin was carrying the badminton racket bag that has the YONEX logo printed on it, which was not allowed by the league’s major sponsor, Li Ning.
After some negotiation, he was permitted to play, but the live telecast of the match was disabled.
Although the Qingdao team eventually defeated the Zhejiang team 4-1, but the league’s disciplinary committee has slapped Qingdao with a fine of 12,000-dollar Yuan and has issued a warning to the Qingdao team.
Despite being a powerhouse in the sport of badminton, the China Badminton Super League has been tainted with sponsorship problems, delayed and unpaid wages scandals in recent years. On the other hand, the India Premier Badminton League has begun to flourish and has attracted many players such as Carolina Marin, Viktor Axelsen, Tai Tzu Ying, Lee Yong-Dae, Yoo Yeon-Seong, Son Wan-Ho, Mathias Boe, Carsten Mogensen to participate in the 2017-2018 edition.
