Kuala Lumpur: Former World No. 6 men’s singles player, Joachim Persson of Denmark was handed a suspension of 18 months, and ordered to pay costs of USD $4,500 (£3,400/€4,000) as he was found guilty of failing in a timely fashion to disclose approaches to fix two of his matches, and not cooperating fully with an investigation conducted by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Ethics Hearing Panel.
Below was a statement released by BWF on Thursday in regards to Joachim Persson’s violations:
“The Badminton World Federation (BWF) Ethics Hearing Panel has found Danish badminton player Mr. Joachim Persson guilty of four violations of the Code of Conduct in Relation to Betting Wagering and Irregular Match Results.
The four violations relate to failing to disclose details of an approach, not cooperating fully with investigations conducted by the BWF and not fully disclosing information to the BWF following a formal request to do so.
BWF duly notes the reasoned decision of the BWF Ethics Hearing Panel and its findings against Mr. Joachim Persson.
BWF confirms the decision by the BWF Ethics Hearing Panel that Mr. Joachim Persson is suspended from all competitive tournaments for 18 months, and is banned from performing any function in badminton also for a period of 18 months.
He has also been ordered to pay costs of US$4,500.”
In May 2018, Malaysia’s 26-year-old former world junior champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli and 32-year-old Tan Chun Seang were given career-ending bans for match-fixing and were prohibited from participating in anything that related to the sport of badminton for 20 years and 15 years respectively.
In the verdict last May, Zulkiffli was found to have violated total of 31 code of conduct between 2013 and 2016 by manipulating the results of four matches, and was also fined $25,000.
While Tan, who quit the Malaysian national team in 2011 was barred for 15 years and fined $15,000.
In 2014 the BWF had asked police to launch an investigation over claims by two Danish players, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Kim Astrup, that they were approached by a Malaysian man to throw matches.
