Danish Badminton Players Approached to Fix Matches
Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and doubles player Kim Astrup have revealed they received offers to their Facebook accounts by a Malaysian man who said he had previously fixed matches in the Singapore Open and the Thomas Cup.
Badminton's governing body has asked police to investigate claims by the world No.9 and another Danish player that they were approached to throw matches.
Badminton World Federation (BWF) president Poul-Erik Hoyer told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation that the case was the biggest he could remember.
Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and doubles player Kim Astrup told the broadcaster they received offers to their Facebook accounts by a Malaysian man who said he had previously fixed matches in the Singapore Open and the Thomas Cup.
"It's against everything I stand for as a badminton player. I was never in doubt that the (Badminton World) Federation should be notified immediately, and today I'm happy that we had him reported," Vittinghus said.
Astrup, who said he was offered up to 3000 euros, in addition to being able to bet on his own game, added he was not surprised match-fixing happened in badminton.
"But I am surprised that it is taking place at the highest level. Occasionally, one sees results that seem unbelievable, but here there's real evidence that match-fixing takes place," he said.
The Malaysia-based BWF has given no details on the match-fixing offer.
But it said in a statement on Monday that it had reported the alleged offer to police and "has been cooperating fully in an ongoing investigation into these matters".
"BWF is very satisfied that the players who were contacted about the match-fixing offer completely rejected it and also reported the case through the BWF 'whistleblower' system that has been set up precisely to handle such incidents," Hoyer said in the statement, adding the BWF took "all reports of match-fixing allegations absolutely seriously".
A BWF official declined further comment on Wednesday. Malaysian police did not return a request for comment.
Hoyer, who took the helm of BWF last year, has pledged to come down hard on match-fixing in the wake of the 2012 Olympic scandal, when eight women's doubles players were disqualified for trying to lose group games to gain an easier quarter-final draw.