Taufik Hidayat made a shocking revelation in a TV interview a few days back that he was offered a bribe to throw matches during the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
In his interview with Trans TV, Taufik revealed that an official from the Badminton Association of Malaysia offered him a bribe to lose the semi-final match against Lee Chong Wei in the tournament.
Taufik rejected the bribe.
At the time, the Indonesian government had put up a reward of around 225 million rupiah (roughly 15,630 USD) for Taufik if he won the Gold in Doha.
The Malaysian official offered him double the amount of this reward i.e. 450 million rupiah to lose against Lee Chong Wei.
Recalling back, Taufik said he gave this reply to the official in anger – “What if he (Lee Chong Wei) throws the match? Can I pay you then?”
Taufik went on to win the gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games after defeating Lee Chong Wei ( 21-16, 21-18) in the semi-final and Lin Dan (21-15, 22-20) in the final.
Lee Chong Wei was shocked to hear about this revelation and said that he had no idea about this prior to this day.
Chong Wei told NST, “Honestly, I had no idea about this. I was surprised when people started contacting me today. Taufik is a dear friend, so I quickly got in touch with him. He told me what happened.”
Both Taufik and Chong Wei chose not to reveal the identity of the culprit at this point in time. The culprit, according to Taufik, was also a former national player of Malaysia.
Chong Wei said, “I know who the person is, but it’s been so long since this took place. I believe we should all move on. I don’t want to name or shame anybody.”
Whether the Badminton World Federation (BWF) will open up an investigation regarding the incident is yet to be seen.
Section 2.4 of the BWF Statutes/Regulations also states that any player, coach, administrator, technical official, tournament organiser, volunteer at a tournament must report any suspicious behaviour that could be related to match manipulation.
It is an offence not to report to the BWF at the first available opportunity.
In past cases, BWF has sanctioned up to 20-year bans on persons involved in match-fixing and manipulation of match outcomes.
Watch the full interview of Taufik on the Trans TV Official Youtube channel.