Singapore: Two Malaysian shuttlers who alleged to be involved in several match-fixing scandals, have arrived at the Jen Tanglin Hotel in Singapore to face a two-day hearing in front of Badminton World Federation (BWF) panels on Monday morning and could be banned for life if found guilty.
Media was not allowed to join the proceedings, but Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has sent its own lawyer, Jadadish Chandra to observe the whole process.
“The hearing will continue tomorrow by showing more evidence related to the two alleged players,” said Jadadish.
“Furthermore, BWF will not provide its final verdict on these two players immediately after the proceedings end,” added Jadadish.
BWF has yet to disclose the identities of both players, but the Badminton community can already guess who these two players are by now.
In 2014, BWF was tipped off by two Danish players, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Kim Astrup, that they were approached by a Malaysian man to throw matches. Acting on the report lodged by those two players from Denmark, BWF has quietly appointed a top sports investigator based in Europe to monitor both the Malaysian suspects.
Jadadish Chandra told reporters that the investigator was also present in Singapore on Monday as one of the witnesses.
Based on the investigator’s findings, it has learned that both the Malaysian suspects have been involved with match-fixing since 2013.
According to the investigator, both the suspects face six different charges of match-throwing in six tournaments between 2013-2016.
“The BWF panels are very independent and very fair. I expect justice will prevail,” said Jadadish.
“Players are very cooperative,” confirmed Jadadish.
“The players did not give any statement at the session today. Tomorrow is the day for the defense. Lawyers representing the players will re-examine the witnesses,” added Jadadish.
If these two players were eventually slapped with life time suspension, they would not able to participate in anything related to badminton, including playing, coaching or holding any positions in any organizations related to the sport.
The Tuesday’s hearing will start at around 10am, is expected to end at around 3pm.
