Viktor Axelsen spoke out against the fact that players have no say when it comes to decision making in badminton. On his social media, he highlighted that players have no voting right in deciding whether to bring the 11 x 5 scoring system or not.
Axelsen started his post by saying, “We are way too weak as players in this sport. Our Players Association should be way stronger and we should stand together and demand that we have a saying when it comes to decisions like this one…”
“Right now everything has to go through the associations. This big decision about the scoring system, it is also not possible for us as players to vote,” he continued.
Badminton World Federation (BWF) has an Athletes’ Commission that strives to facilitate proper communication between the players and the BWF.
But, only the chairman of the Athletes’ Commission has a voting right.
This effectively means that players directly represent only 1 out of some 250 votes in making a decision that will affect the game which they play.
The proposal to change the scoring system after the Olympics came from the national associations, namely, Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) and Badminton Maldives. The vote on the 11×5 scoring system will take place at BWF’s Annual General Meeting next month.
Axelsen also underlined the fact that national associations have control over the prize money which they win from tournaments.
He said, “Even our prize money is also first transferred to the association and finally then given to the athletes. That’s not right.
“The associations have way too much power over the athletes and it’s wrong in my opinion!”
Most national associations cut a percentage of the prize money before releasing it to the players.
Axelsen’s post on social media has gathered support from some players including Gronya Somerville and Stefani Stoeva.
