Ever since the news of the third postponement of the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals was announced, players of the host nation (Denmark) have publicly criticized the move from the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Yesterday, BWF announced the Asian leg of the tournaments is moved to January 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand. On their social media, BWF said it was “Good news!” and that the 2020 season would end in January 2021.
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Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, H K Vittinghus and Kim Astrup were all very vocal on their social media about how the new tournament schedule was not “good news” as the BWF claimed and that it was a “disrespect towards many players” by labeling it so.
H K Vittinghus: “The disrespect towards so many players by labeling this ‘good news’ is nothing but insane. Shows complete lack of understanding for the impact it has for many of us!
And I do understand it’s better than it being cancelled. Much better indeed. But it’s not good news. Keep it real please.”
Anders Rasmussen: “Are you f*** kidding me calling this good news”
Kim Astrup: “Maybe I’m not the right person to define if this is good or bad … but WTF??? Good news that we just keep postponing the World Tour??? How is this good for our sport?”
Vittinghus highlighted the negative financial impact the postponements and the cancellations of the tournaments have had on the players. He said, “The financial impact for all of us who are not government/federation funded is one thing.”
He said the situation since the All England has drastically changed. He said, “Why is it we believe things will be better in January?”
Rasmussen said he was staring at unemployment right in the face. Through Sport.tv2.dk, he said, “I just became a substitute teacher to use my teacher education as I need to do something and I need to make some money.”
“It’s really frustrating. The last few days I actually had the impression that we would get positive news about the tournaments in Thailand, so it’s tough. It’s already hard, and we have to wait another couple of month, it’s another blow right in the can. It’s also a little strange, they call it good news.”
BWF, in an open letter to the badminton community said the new tournament schedule was “positive news” that in partnership with the Badminton Association of Thailand and the Government of Thailand, they would be proceeding with the Asian leg of the adjusted HSBC BWF World Tour.
BWF emphasized that they were committed to the safety of the players on priority.