R

ecent reports about match-fixing attempts have prompted a call from the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) for the sport'€™s world body to be more serious in tackling the issue.

'€œWe have easy access to follow matches online or via live streaming, unlike in my era. Therefore, the World Badminton Federation [BWF] should take this matter more seriously,'€ Rexy Mainaky, PBSI'€™s head of athlete development and achievement, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He was responding to a confession by Danish players Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Kim Astrup who were approached via Facebook prior to the Japan Open late last year by a Malaysian man they had met at previous tournaments. The man claimed to have fixed matches at last year'€™s Singapore Open and Thomas Cup, AFP reported.

No details have been released about which matches may have been targeted at last year'€™s Singapore Open and Thomas Cup, which rank among badminton'€™s biggest tournaments.

While badminton is rarely implicated in match-fixing issues, it is an inevitable issue in any sport in an era where the Internet can help people communicate and spread news more easily, according to Rexy.

'€œMatch-fixing exists in every sport. Fortunately in badminton it is rarely found except when Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Kim Astrup openly reported a match-fixing attempt last year. It shows that that badminton is not '€˜safe'€™ from match-fixing practices,'€ he said.

Vittinghus and Astrup revealed to the public that the man offered between 2,500 euros (US$2,648) and 3,000 euros to fix matches, as well as the chance to bet on the outcomes.

Both players were reported to have declined and reported the incident to the BWF, which handed it over to the police for investigation.

'€œMoney is growing in badminton, which is a positive thing in many ways,'€ Vittinghus said as quoted by AFP on Monday.

'€œBut of course money also attracts other interests like match-fixing, for example [...] I am sure [match-fixing] is still going on; I think it would be naive to say that it'€™s not. I think no tournament is safe because of the world we live in with the Internet and the implications it has, so it can happen anywhere and not only in Asia,'€ Vittinghus said.

Rexy also pointed out the importance of the BWF remaining alert against another kind of match-fixing in which a player or a pair might throw a match to allow their opponents '€” who happen to be from the same country '€” to run up the rankings.

The Chinese team is alleged to have been practicing such a script, with the most recent incident believed to have occurred at the just-concluded Singapore Open.

In a mixed doubles final, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei had their opponents Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong abandon the match, reportedly due to injuries. But the reports apparently failed to convince.

'€œWho would believe they suddenly injured themselves in the finals?'€ Rexy said.

In previous reports, China'€™s head coach Li Yongbo even admitted publically that the 2004 Athens Olympics women'€™s singles semifinal between Zhou Mi and Zhang Ning was arranged.